Ellipse layout revealed for 85,000 person UFC White House watch party

We’re just over a month away from the big UFC White House card featuring Ilia Topuria vs. Justin Gaethje and Alex Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane. 4300 lucky people will get to witness these fights from the White House lawn. Another 85,000 will watch from the Ellipse a.k.a President’s Park South, and now we have gotten our first glimpse of what that will look like come June 14th.

“The Ellipse is a massive park, you’ll be able to see the fight from the Ellipse,” UFC CEO Dana White told FOX News. “But we have screens, we got stages, we have music, we have activations over there. If you are a fan of the UFC, and especially if you have never been to Washington, D.C., we’re going to give away about 85,000 tickets. And there’s a process. You have to register for tickets, and they’re free.”

“But you should come to Washington, D.C. that week, the week of the fight. We’re going to be doing all kinds of things, you know, in D.C. for fans. And it’s really a cool city for probably most people have never been. And if you’re a UFC fan, this is absolutely positively the time to come to D.C.”

Pictures of the Ellipse look insane, with a stadium worth of people in the center of the park with 10 massive screens at the front and smaller screens in various sections of the park. Another image render from inside the park shows how there’s a big opening at the back of the stage so you can still see the White House from the park.

According to White, construction is about to start already. The event will be rain or shine, but could shift a few hours if lightning appears on the forecast.

“We’re working with the military,” he said. “So the military knows the weather 10 days out, and they’ll notify us every two hours, 10 days out. Seven days out, they’ll notify us every hour. We also, there’s another company that does it for concerts and things like that. They’re very good too. So what could happen is the only thing that kills us is lightning. So we could move the event two hours earlier, two hours after, you know.”

“So these are all things that we’ll be playing with the week of the event, on top of all the other things that we’ll have going on, which we never had to deal with. The only time I’d ever agreed to do an outdoor event was in Abu Dhabi, which I could be the weatherman in Abu Dhabi, and I would be right every time.”

That was UFC 112 in April 2010 and the forecast was ‘hot as hell.’ It hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the arena Abu Dhabi built specifically for the event and then tore down a week later.

We won’t have to worry about that level of sweltering heat, but last year’s big military parade on June 14th did indeed have thunderstorms in the forecast that forced organizers to shift the show a few hours earlier. So keep the weather in mind when you’re planning your Freedom Fights 250 watch parties at home, lest you miss any of the action.