TKO President Mark Shapiro has confirmed a recent report that the upcoming UFC: White House event on June 14th will indeed cost at least $60 million to put on.

And adding to that, Shapiro revealed that are spending that astronomical amount of money knowing ahead of time that there’s no way that they’ll be able to earn that back from the event.

In fact, Shaprio stated that they only expect to make half that money back, and will have to work on deals behind the scenes to make that happen.

“At the moment, the UFC event at the White House is slated to cost upwards of $60 million,” Shapiro revealed. “I think by the time all is said and done with the event, and what we pay the fighters and the fan fest that we’re going to have, that could move north. It’s definitely not moving south. It could move north. Bottom line, it’s still a moving target.”

“We are working to determine, on a parallel track, a package of inventory in and around the weekend of events we can monetize, primarily with corporate partners. [Business is business]. Players that will offset half of the spend. Even if that $60 [million] goes up or rides up on us, we believe we can offset half of the spend. Today, we see as $60 [million], offsetting $30 [million]. Now, I would mention we have several current and prospective partners that are pursuing multi-year partnerships with TKO assets that likely will be inclusive of the White House event. We have a lot of current and prospective partners that would like to be involved and inquiring about inventory as part of their greater partnership deals they either already have or are negotiating with us for the future.”

So why do it then?

Shapiro says it’s a long-term play that can help grow the reach of the business beyond just this one-off event.

“I want to be clear about something — we will not profit from the White House event independently,” Shapiro said. “We will not be making money on America’s 250th anniversary.

“This is an investment for the long term. This is about earned media. This is about sampling, new fans, casual viewers, a spectacle on a stage that will ultimately expand our audience, our viewership, and our success on Paramount+.”