I Got Access To The White House UFC Arena. Here's What I Saw.

A massive Freedom 250 sign greeted us on the South Lawn.

When you’re on White House pool duty, you don’t leave until the president’s staff dismisses you. On a quiet evening, usually around 6 p.m., someone gets on the overhead speaker, calls a “lid” (that’s White House-speak for the president is done for the day, you’re free), and we scatter.

Last Monday was one of those rare, achingly quiet days. Nothing on the schedule. No movement. So, when 6 p.m. came and went, I expected the lid call any second.

But 6 p.m. became 6:30. Then 7 p.m.

One by one, we started filing into the press office to gently request a lid. This is standard practice, because sometimes the aides just need a little encouragement to pester their supervisors into letting us leave. But nothing came.

We all started pacing the White House driveway, feeling a bit stir crazy and hangry. One reporter spotted Dana White walking into the White House.

Every head turned toward the West Wing, where the giant UFC “claw” peeked over the roofline. We had watched it go up over the past few weeks but never got close enough for a real look. Only on walks through the Rose Garden, at the president’s invitation, had any of us seen it up close. Even then, we were still a good distance away.

Now the press started to whisper.

“I bet they’re holding us here because they’re going to give us a sneak peek.”

“That’s totally it. They’re probably waiting till the sun goes down so we can see the lights better.”

I told a few aides I was excited to see the arena and that I hoped the president might bring us out there that night. They shuffled uncomfortably.

I took that as confirmation.

We were drafting questions, charging phones, speculating out loud. And then my inbox lit up with an email from a White House aide.

“Lid.”

I stopped. It was 8:30 p.m. The sun had just dipped below the horizon.

“Guys…. We have a lid.”

The air went out of the driveway. A long day of nothing, capped off with a near-miss that wasn’t even a near-miss. We packed our bags and left.

A week later, we received another email — press credentials for a media walkthrough of the UFC Arena. Thursday, 7:30 a.m.

By 7 a.m., the press was already in line.

A White House official gave me a preview of what to expect inside. “It’s so big,” she said, “it makes your phone look small.”

She wasn’t wrong.