McGregor skips White House card as gate revenue concerns push UFC 329 return

Conor McGregor will not feature on the UFC’s White House card on June 14, with his manager Audie Attar confirming that the economics of the event made it the wrong venue for the sport’s biggest draw. McGregor (22-6) is instead booked to face Max Holloway (27-9) at UFC 329 on July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas during International Fight Week.

The White House event, held on the South Lawn, will seat approximately 4,300 guests — drawn largely from the military — with no general public tickets on sale. A further 85,000 fans will be able to watch from the nearby Ellipse Park free of charge. That structure effectively eliminates the gate revenue that a McGregor appearance would ordinarily generate.

“The UFC is actually donating so much in terms of giving up gate revenue,” Attar told MMAjunkie.com. “They are making it up in different ways with the fan zone. Based on the new deal we were able to negotiate… it just makes more sense economically for them to utilize him during International Fight Week. T-Mobile Arena, it’s familiar ground for us. We want to be good business partners, so for us it didn’t matter.”

Although no public tickets are available for the White House event, a small number of premium packages are reportedly on offer. The UFC has not confirmed pricing, but journalist Ariel Helwani has reported that the packages, described internally as “partner investments,” cost in the region of $1.5 million each.

McGregor had initially pushed for inclusion on the White House card, but the shift to UFC 329 positions him at a sold-ticket arena during one of the promotion’s marquee annual weekends. The bout with Holloway marks McGregor’s return to competition after an extended absence.