Dana White: Nothing Will Change My Mind On UFC Stadium Fight Cards
UFC CEO Dana White attended WrestleMania 41 earlier this month. White was part of a crowd of over 124,000 fans who witnessed the two-night WWE event at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The experience left the UFC boss unmoved regarding his opinion on UFC stadium events.
"No, nothing will change my mind about a stadium show," White said during the UFC Kansas City post-fight press conference. "I mean, you guys were here tonight. Kansas City is an awesome city. The people here are great, I really like this town and the energy in that place was awesome all night. That's the energy you get – not that there wasn't any (energy at WrestleMania). What'd they have, 63,000 people there? You're going to get some energy like they did. I am not a fan of stadiums. I like arenas."
White's stance echoed what he said in September 2024 when the subject of a fight card at Allegiant Stadium came up.
"I don't want to take the experience away from people,' White said. 'We've done stadiums before. It's just it's not my favorite thing. I like arenas. Yeah, I really like arenas.
'I think that fans get a much — what I care about every Saturday, whether you stayed home and watched it on TV or you came to the venue and watched it — is that everybody walks away on a Saturday night going, 'God, I'm glad I came to the fights,' or 'This was worth coming to,'' White continued. 'Or, they don't walk out going, 'Well, that sucked. That wasn't a good experience.' That's what I focus on literally every week.'
No, that's not what I look for,' White added. 'I look for incredible experiences, unique experiences, and things that have never been done before. That's what I'm into. I'm not like, 'Oh, I have to do Allegiant Stadium.' I don't have to do Allegiant Stadium. I want to give fans a great experience every time.'
The UFC has held five stadium events in the promotion's history:
UFC 129: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jake Shields at Rogers Centre in Toronto on April 30, 2011
UFC on FOX 14: Alexander Gustafsson Vs. Anthony Johnson at Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden on January 24, 2015
UFC 193: Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm at Etihad Stadium (now Marvel Stadium) in Melbourne, Australia on November 14, 2015
UFC 198: Fabricio Werdum vs. Stipe Miocic at Arena da Baixada in Curitiba, Brazil on May 14, 2016
UFC 243: Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, Australia on October 6, 2019
UFC Kansas City took place at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri on April 26. Ian Machado Garry beat Carlos Prates by decision in the welterweight main event.
The next UFC fight card, UFC Des Moines takes place on Saturday, May 3 at Wells Fargo Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The event has a bantamweight main event between Cory Sandhagen and Deiveson Figueiredo.
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