WASHINGTON — The “People’s House” has been temporarily relegated to the role of set background for the biggest stage in mixed martial arts history.
Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship unveiled the venue for Sunday night’s Freedom 250 card at the White House in a walkthrough for more than 200 national and international media members in town to cover the event.
The setup is as spectacular as the event, which polled at 16 percent favorability this week, is controversial.
While President Donald Trump and UFC president and CEO Dana White have been criticized for the merging of sports and politics — the event is dubbed a celebration of America’s 250th anniversary but falls on Trump’s 80th birthday — and it is still the subject of a lawsuit seeking to stop it.
The official unveiling revealed a sports environment relatively unmatched in terms of prestige or significance.
“It’s incredible,” White said of the stage for a seven-fight card that includes two championship bouts. “(Trump) is a construction geek and he loves it. He said he thinks he’s going to keep it.”
Crews began work on “The Claw,” as White has dubbed it, on May 20. There are more than 1,000 lighting fixtures and 115,000 tons of rigging and production equipment on a 222 feet by 278 feet footprint. An enormous canopy adorned in the colors and design of the United States flag spans nearly 100 feet in the air.
More than 100,000 fans are also expected to attend an outdoor viewing location nearby at The Ellipse.
UFC Chief Content Officer Craig Borsari said the finished product is the result of multiple daily interactions with governmental officials from Trump’s team, including a heavy involvement from Ivanka Trump, over the past year.
One of the biggest challenges was the limited space of the South Lawn for a structure that not only could accommodate a crowd of about 4,300 invited guests and military members, but one that could handle the UFC’s sophisticated production apparatus. They were also under orders to not dig on the ground.
Borsari said the first several times he visited the location, they performed laser measurements and felt as if the space may be too small for what they had planned.
“But those trips paid off,” he said. “Because the structure fits perfectly, within a quarter inch of what we had planned. And it allows us to maximize capacity and do a lot of the production, elements and enhancements that we’re looking for.”
The structure sits just steps from the back door of the Executive Residence and in the shadow of the famed Truman Balcony in the area where Americans are accustomed to seeing Marine One take off and land.
“We’re building something in front of the White House that’s quite attractive to a lot of people,” Trump said last week. “And I’m looking at it and maybe we’ll never, ever take it down.”
It’s the end result of more than $60 million in development and production costs for the UFC, though the government has provided emergency equipment and services, including first aid/medical services, law enforcement and security.
More than 20 trucks of equipment and nearly 1,000 workers per day had to be screened and cleared for the project.
The UFC has said it will replace the grass in the area to restore it to its original state once the tear down begins on Monday.
That doesn’t mean the job is done for the UFC crew. Because even though the structure is just about complete, there are still other potential variables
“Anything you can possibly think of that could go wrong, we’re ready for it,” White said.
They made three of the special ring canvasses in case there is an issue and the main one needs to be replaced. There are contingency plans for lighting. The UFC is even working around the clock with meteorologists and have the ability to change the start time if necessary to avoid any serious weather in the area, though that call would probably have to be made by Friday night before fighters ramp up the weight-cutting process.
There is also an alternative broadcast area so the event can stay on the air should there be a transmission issue or in a worst case scenario, the South Lawn has to be temporarily evacuated for some sort of weather event.
“It’s been a heavy, heavy lift,” Borsari said of all the logistics and contingency planning.
The one element they weren’t able to pull off was getting drones approved to fly around the venue for an alternative camera view.
Otherwise, all parties on the inside are pleased with how the plan came together.
“We’re really excited about Sunday,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday. “We’re never going to see anything like that again guys, ever. I was (at the venue) late last night. What they have built out there is phenomenal. We’ll never see it again.
“Sunday is an unbelievable, historic, I think never-to-be-repeated-until-next-year experience — for the American people.”
Rubio was kidding about the last part.
Probably.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.
