by Lane Smith
An Ohio-based lawn company, ScottsMiracle-Gro, is donating $1 million to fix the White House South Lawn after the UFC Freedom 250 event this past weekend.
Longtime Trump supporter James Hagedorn runs the private lawn company that is committed to restoring the lawn, on which a temporary, 4,300-seat arena was built, according to the Washington Post.
Grass on the White House Ellipse was also damaged during the fight, but it is unclear if the company’s donation includes restoring this portion.
ScottsMiracle-Gro said it is donating “a combination of monetary and product support” to the National Park Service with plans to re-sod the South Lawn using a special blend of turfgrass chosen by Trump, according to The Hill.
Trump chose a blend of tall fescues and Kentucky bluegrass for the lawn, according to the Washington Post.
The White House grounds are managed by the National Park Service, so ScottsMiracle-Gro is structuring its contribution as a philanthropic donation to the agency.
Prior to the UFC fight, organizers expected that the grass would be destroyed, and they allocated $700,000 to replace the grass, according to what UFC CEO Dana White told the Sports Business Journal.
It is unclear whether the UFC will still be paying for any portion of the repairs to the South Lawn or the Ellipse given the donation from ScottsMiracle-Gro.
The restoration will occur in phases over the next year, and the company expects the process to be finished by the spring of 2027, according to Fox Business.
According to ESPN, UFC 250 drew 15.26 million Americans and 1.2 million people in Latin America.
UFC CEO Dana White told The Associated Press that such an event will “never happen again.”
“It was an amazing experience, this was a one-of-one,” he added.
White also said he hoped the event would create “some unity” among Americans.
“Even for the people that thought this was going to be some big political statement or something, this wasn’t. This was Americans, all Americans celebrating the birthday. For people who tuned in for the first time, because it was at the White House, hopefully they liked the sport. They liked some of the guys’ stories,” he said, according to the outlet.
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Lane Smith is a reporter for Just the News. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
