Bound For Glory's Crowd Discussion

[Magic Mark]

Last night, everyone (well, not everyone. Maybe some) witnessed TNA Bound For Glory. The PPV itself was rather unremarkable, but I wanna talk about the elephant in the room.

The Crowd.

The arena wasn't even half-full. Now if this was a house show, it wouldn't bother me. BUT THIS WAS BOUND FOR GLORY!!!!!! BFG is TNA's equivalent to WWE's Wrestlemania (too many acronyms?). If you haven't seen the pictures, click the link below:

http://www.sescoops.com/photos-empt...lery/image/tna-bound-for-glory-empty-arena-1/

So tell, what do you think of this predicament?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

When compared to WWE, TNA's attendance here in the states has always been extremely low, so that's nothing new. However, generally speaking, TNA's crowds are huge compared to what the VAST majority of other American wrestling companies can draw. TNA shows have never drawn big crowds here in the United States. Most tapings of Impact Wrestling on the road, reportedly, draw less than 2,000 fans. If I'm not mistaken, the most attended show in TNA history, here in the states, was Lockdown in San Antonio, Texas earlier this year, drawing about 6,000 fans I believe. It was held in the Alamodome, which can hold anywhere from 50,000 to 77,000 fans, depending on what sort of venue it is and how seating is arranged. The Veijas Arena in San Diego, California, where BFG was held last night, holds between 12,000 & 13,000. So if TNA was able to get the arena 40% full, then last night's BFG would still rank among the biggest crowds in company history.

 

[Maverick T Kenderson]

It looks as if they should of picked a smaller venue. I know they are running a couple of house shows here in Ireland and they picked a 2000 seater. Of course a house show is incomparable to BFG, but the still should have picked somewhere smaller, they were never gonna sell out a 13,000 seater. That's not putting down the product, its just that they don't have that kind of exposure. Maybe its symptomatic of the "lets compete with wwe" mentality. At the moment they are closer to ecw than wcw in terms of support. Its a shame, because TNA have some of the best talent in wrestling.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

When compared to WWE, TNA's attendance here in the states has always been extremely low, so that's nothing new. However, generally speaking, TNA's crowds are huge compared to what the VAST majority of other American wrestling companies can draw. TNA shows have never drawn big crowds here in the United States. Most tapings of Impact Wrestling on the road, reportedly, draw less than 2,000 fans. If I'm not mistaken, the most attended show in TNA history, here in the states, was Lockdown in San Antonio, Texas earlier this year, drawing about 6,000 fans I believe. It was held in the Alamodome, which can hold anywhere from 50,000 to 77,000 fans, depending on what sort of venue it is and how seating is arranged. The Veijas Arena in San Diego, California, where BFG was held last night, holds between 12,000 & 13,000. So if TNA was able to get the arena 40% full, then last night's BFG would still rank among the biggest crowds in company history.

The largest drawn show for TNA was the MCU Park show in Brooklyn, NY if I'm not mistaken. I believe that drew north of 8,000 for a live event, and that wasn't even taped or televised.

Just goes to show that TNA has quite a number of fans in the North East. It's a shame they don't seem to recognize it.

 

[Wrestlefan73]

I'm not saying the place was filled to the max, but look at those pictures carefully.....The first picture with Bully Ray walking out and the second photo was taken from the side of the arena that was opposite of the hard camera side. When television is involved ALL promotions move the crowd to the side opposite of the hard camera. This has been done many numerous times, in EVERY wrestling promotion. It's nothing new. The other pictures look like they were taken well before the show began.

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

This is not something to laugh at. Frankly a real wrestling fan should be disappointed by it.

As pointed out, from a numbers standpoint, it's really not all that out of the ordinary for TNA. However, being that BFG is supposed to be WWE's WM, this bothers me a little. I would love to see a promotion that could provide some real competition with WWE simply because it would mean better programming from both.

 

[DarksideEric]

I'm not saying the place was filled to the max, but look at those pictures carefully.....The first picture with Bully Ray walking out and the second photo was taken from the side of the arena that was opposite of the hard camera side. When television is involved ALL promotions move the crowd to the side opposite of the hard camera. This has been done many numerous times, in EVERY wrestling promotion. It's nothing new. The other pictures look like they were taken well before the show began.

Look at the pictures "carefully?"

The numbers for attendance were 3,500 - 4,000 out of 12,000+ total seats.

The place wasn't even filled to half, this is no trick of the camera or specialty placement to make the arena look empty.

 

[IconMCI]

I have seen TNA at the convention center in Joplin MO. I believe the seating capacity for that is less than 2000. That was the best wrestling show I have ever seen, and I have been to a Wrestlemania, WCW PPVs and other TV tapings. The sad part is that once they get in a large arena, or a large crowd, their show gets progressively worse and harder to follow. TNA is best seen in the first 10 rows after that, nothing matters, it gets lost and interest wanes. TNA was very fan friendly in the smaller venue. Wrestlemania Axxess was incredible and that vibe continued over into Wrestlemania even though I was surrounded by over 70,000 other fans. TNA would get swallowed up in that room. During WCW/nWo heyday, they packed arenas and created excitement for the crowd. Now I wasnt at BFG but the only thing I could hope is that after the PPV, every wrestler came back out and signed autographs in the arena and that AJ Styles, Sting, or Kurt Angle got in the middle of the ring and took pictures for $20 a piece with fans just like they did in Joplin, or had Knockouts, and other wrestlers signing autographs at the concession stands. I saw the pics of the arena attendance was disappointed in the turnout, but then again, I wouldnt have paid to see them if they came to Houston. The best thing that can happen with that company is that Spike TV buys them. And I dont think that would save them. My wish for all of this is that Hogan, Sting, Angle, Hardy and Bully Ray all go back to WWE and salvage what they can out of a career or close it on a respectable note. This is why I say Friends shouldnt let Friends watch TNA

 

[Maverick T Kenderson]

On a broader note, does TNA really need to be the "competition"? Why cant it be comfortable in its own skin? They have a great roster, a solid albeit moderately sized fanbase, and has shown its ability to book a great product. It also has international tv deals with networks that promote it really well. Why not build on that. Had ecw been in the same position, they would still be around today, still relatively small but solid. I'm not anti-Hogan per se, I'm not marking out for the "old" TNA. I like the current product I just want to see it become more focused on retaining the fans they have.

 

[Slapnutjoey]

I was there live. TNA only used about half of the arena which would make about 6000 seats for the event. I would say almost 3000 people were there, so I think it was "half full"

 

[ABMorales787]

Given that last years show kicked and screamed up to 3000 fans, 4200 is good. That's no excuse however for them facing a totally empty side.

TNA loves experimenting with it's locations. They do it every year with their 3 big PPV's. But half the time, if it's not a wrestling friendly area, or Texas, well look what happens. TNA's highest events have been in Texas (Lockdown '13 & Slammiversary X) and New York. If the idea is to fill an arena, that should be where Bound For Glory is held. Not San Diego. Or Phoenix.

 

[Stormlor]

I was there last night (Posted as Michael J. Lynch on the comments) and that place was empty!

The entrance to the place was up top south of the entrance ramp. The left side (hard camera side - West) was entirely blocked off. There was no admittance here, and they even had somethings taped off (I almost tripped on a wire as it was really dark)

The right side (East) is where they put just about everything. Being physically disabled, we were able to sit up top in the hard camera section as that area not blocked off.

South side the majority had nobody there. The only side that was used the most was the east side. Floor side (tickets were $1000 according to VIP) was completely sold out.

I know some reports are saying 3000 people, but to be honest that didn't look like it. From our vantage point we were in the best area to see the crowd, you can tell that a good 60-70% was not even being used or nobody bought tickets.

Also all tickets were $20 except the VIP ones. In general TNA maybe made about $80,000 last night off tickets alone. Nobody really was at the merchandise stand except for maybe the last 10 minutes before the pre-show started. At the end of the night, the merchandise stand was packing up and most of the shirts and stuff they had before was already sold out.

Given that last years show kicked and screamed up to 3000 fans, 4200 is good. That's no excuse however for them facing a totally empty side.

TNA loves experimenting with it's locations. They do it every year with their 3 big PPV's. But half the time, if it's not a wrestling friendly area, or Texas, well look what happens. TNA's highest events have been in Texas (Lockdown '13 & Slammiversary X) and New York. If the idea is to fill an arena, that should be where Bound For Glory is held. Not San Diego. Or Phoenix.

I regret to inform you that San Diego has always been a huge wrestling area. We still have at least 3-4 indy companies out here. If you were at the show you had a bunch of people passing around SoCal Wrestling held up in Oceanside, and others for XPW and something in Orange County. San Diego still has a big wrestling community so it's that reason why they did come out here.

TNA did a good job promoting the product. Out here every other commercial on local TV had a Bound for Glory ad. This was also on the main stations (CBS, NBC etc) as well as USA network during re-runs of Law and Order, and some other shows. TNA did heavily promote Bound for Glory.

Where TNA made a huge mistake is not making the $$ from it. $20 for tickets for about 1000 people isn't all that good.

It looks as if they should of picked a smaller venue. I know they are running a couple of house shows here in Ireland and they picked a 2000 seater. Of course a house show is incomparable to BFG, but the still should have picked somewhere smaller, they were never gonna sell out a 13,000 seater. That's not putting down the product, its just that they don't have that kind of exposure. Maybe its symptomatic of the "lets compete with wwe" mentality. At the moment they are closer to ecw than wcw in terms of support. Its a shame, because TNA have some of the best talent in wrestling.

There really isn't any other venue in San Diego. We have two arena's. San Diego Sports Arena (Valley View Center) and the Cox Arena (Viejas Arena). We have 4 universities here (UCSD, SDSU, CSUSM, USD) and none of them have arenas except SDSU. SDSU has a stellar basketball team so they have a good size arena for that.

If they go outside San Diego like they did go to Irvine a few years ago, they run into the same problem. The Honda Center holds about the same amount of people, and then there really isn't any place else.

I'm not saying the place was filled to the max, but look at those pictures carefully.....The first picture with Bully Ray walking out and the second photo was taken from the side of the arena that was opposite of the hard camera side. When television is involved ALL promotions move the crowd to the side opposite of the hard camera. This has been done many numerous times, in EVERY wrestling promotion. It's nothing new. The other pictures look like they were taken well before the show began.

While correct, they did not need to block off over 1000 seats. Not even WWE does that. That's more money they could of made, and even sold more tickets.

But also if you were up we were there were plenty of bleacher seats available. Give or take a good 500 could of fit where we were. Those had admittance and nobody bought those.

 

[eazup]

im a TNA guy, or im trying to be, but lately i cant help but hear a death-rattle. seeing the pictures of the crowd was just not funny, just really damn sad.

I will argue to the death that TNA has (pound for pound) the better roster (excluding part-timers and developmental talent, of which TNA basically has none)

i love to death guys like Daniels, Styles, Roode, Aries and Bully. if i was drafting a fantasy roster, i would have half TNA guys. but its really depressing seeing where the company is going. ive lost all hope and the only reason im still watching is to see how spectacularly horrible the booking and the storylines get. Dixie Carter is very difficult to watch. VERY difficult.

i feel really bad for their talent. these guys bust their asses and flex their skills so well so often and the booking not only fails them, but undermines them so hard.
hearing that TNA has had to cancel Impacts coming up because of no attendance just turns my stomach, but i cant blame people for not wanting to attend, even for free. i wouldnt. except maybe for the chance to scream grievances at Dixie Carter

the only silver lining here is maybe this all will motivate the Carters to sell off the company as has been the rumor. Please please PLEASE do, Dixie. its the right thing to do. admit that you are really bad at this and give those guys a chance to not be a laughing stock. its not fair to them