One of the leading combat sports journalists, Luke Thomas, has said that UFC Freedom 250 will cost American tax-payers millions of dollars.Freedom 250 is set to be held on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14, coinciding with President Trump's birthday, and has been designated by Homeland Security as a SEAR 1 event. That puts the event at the same federal security requirement as the Super Bowl, although it has yet to be determined which agencies will be in control of said security.Speaking on the event, Thomas said that any talk of the event not coming at the cost of tax-payers is illusive, simply given the level of public security that will be required."I'm not saying TKO is not footing the majority of the bill," he said. "But the amount of [local police] you're gonna need for traffic, for security, for crowd control. It's gonna be significant."He said that's without even taking into account the park police required for the Ellipse watch party, and the other forms of lawn enforcement that will be present."You're paying for all that overtime. That's gonna be in the millions and millions of dollars to do something like that. To say nothing of the apparatus that has to be at the White House itself," he continued, noting that's without even considering if there were any issues to arise from the event itself."That's extremely expensive, even if you get it right... I'm a little concerned, yeah I'm a little concerned."Freedom 250 will feature two title fights, first the Interim Heavyweight clash between Ciryl Gane and Alex Pereira, and then the headline Undisputed Lightweight Championship fight between Lineal champion Ilia Topuria and Interim champion Justin Gaethje.The event itself will stream via Paramount+ with tickets to the actual event on the South Lawn being privately distributed. The Ellipse will play host to a watch party for fans, with Trump himself making the claim that 100,000 would be attending.
