UFC president Dana White isn’t expecting fans to be in attendance at UFC events for a long time.
The UFC will return on May 9 in a stacked event and will then have events on May 13 and 16. The plan is to have them in Jacksonville, Florida for the foreseeable future. But, no fans will be in attendance, and White believes that may be the case for a long time.
“Obviously, the world is going to be different and I’ve been thinking far ahead into the future,” White said to Yahoo! Sports. “I don’t expect to have a gate for a very long time. I’ve already thrown that out the window. You have to look at all the different things. People think that I don’t take this seriously because I want to come back so fast and all this other stuff.
“It’s not that I don’t take it seriously. I take it very seriously. I don’t plan on having a gate for a very long time. I’m already thinking way ahead of these types of things. All I need to worry about is making sure everybody is safe and I can put on these events. I don’t need a crowd.”
Although no live gate hurts the bottom line for the UFC they still have their broadcast deal. The plan is to still put on the contracted amount of events this year despite the pandemic shutting down the world.
