Should WrestleMania be made into a major event on Free TV (like the Superbowl)

[Fuel The Fire]

Well i was thinking, what if, just what if wrestlemania was on fox just like the super bowl? Would the get more money or less? Now I don't know if they would or not but lets think about this.

By going to fox and not ppv they would lose the ppv buys. BUT, If I understand right , the superbowl commercials cost millions per second. Can't the wwe get more money buy doing this?

I personally think it would be a risky chance to take for if fox would even do this? Would the fans stay during the commericials?

Just some thought would this be a good idea or bad idea?

 

[Davi323]

The Super Bowl draws close to 100 million viewers in the USA alone, not even including international viewership. Last year's matchup between the Steelers and Cardinals drew a 42.0 rating. FORTY TWO. Raw averages what, 3.5ish? Moving Wrestlemania to a network like the Super Bowl wouldn't work, they simply don't have the same market that the NFL does. The NFL can get 3 million per commercial, because they know they are going to get a bajillion viewers, and their advertisers know they are going to get a bajillion viewers. The overall fan base for wrestling is much smaller than football.

 

[RobL15]

Hi. This is my first post on these forums.

In one sense, I think this would be a great oppotunity for the WWE, showing their biggest event of the year free to everybody. They could make loads of money through advertising and everyone can enjoy the greatest show of the year.

However, it brings the point to me of, if they make Wrestlemania free viewing then why not make all of them the same? It seems like an idea they could try, like TNA used to do in England.
Im not sure though.

 

[shafe_41]

Definitely wouldn't work. As the #2 poster said, the WWE doesn't have nearly enough viewers to draw numbers big enough where being on a network station would work out for them. It's not a terrible idea though honestly. I like where your head is OP.

WCW used to do a PPV caliber event on TBS every year. They would air Clash of the Champions for free on your regular cable stations if I remember correctly. I would always look forward to this when I was younger because I always got to see PPV quality matches on television without having to get PPV. Now I think that if the WWE did one event like this also, it would help out their PPV numbers a little bit (not that they NEED it, but their numbers are definitely not where Vince wants them) because people that may have never seen a PPV event or are just getting into buying the PPV events might not really know what to expect and they're unsure about throwing 40-50 bucks down on a 3 hr. program. I think if the WWE gave away a PPV-type event each year, it might help them in the long run. There may be other reasons it would help and other reasons it wouldn't help them to argue, but I have to use the potty right now and go boom boom.

 

[GetsHeat]

Yeah the WWE wouldn't get near the level of pay from a major network because it wouldn't fish near the ad payments.

However on the plus side, they would be getting a lot of exposure on a huge network.

WM brought in 22 million in revenue (I think from buys only, not too sure) and it wouldn't surprise me to see a network get in that ballpark for the rights.. tackle that with exposure from being on a major network with your best product and it might be a smart move.

The downside is of course the network will want to sell commercials and tons of them, meaning ad breaks during wrestlemania.. which will likely shorten and hurt the overall product.

 

[shergar]

i dont know weather you lot over in the usa know that us in the uk england only pay £14.95 ($25.00) were i belive you lot pay around $50-$60 for wm which i cant understand.vince aint going to put it on for free

 

[mister_b1LL]

First of all, if WM was on free TV it wouldn't be on FOX. RAW is shown on USA, an NBC owned company, so I'd expect it to be on NBC. Also, it would definitely not be as successful as the Superbowl. Like other people said, pro Wrestling is just not as popular as Football. Although it would make a lot of money, I don't think it could possibly generate the same revenue as the Superbowl just from the fact that it's a lot more mainstream than WM.

In fact I think the thing that adds to WWE's spectacle is the fact that you have to pay to see it. Granted, it is 50 measly bucks, but many people choose not to pay for it or still don't have the money. Thus only a few people watch it while us poor people have to wait a month when WWE doesn't care about WM clips on YouTube.

I just thought of this. When SD! moved to MyNetwork TV, the day before it aired they showed WMXXIV in it's entirety. Did that generate good ratings? Though it was shown about 7 months after its original taping, maybe it could show whether or not WM on free TV could be a good thing.

But a kid can dream. I think it would be funny to see Randy Orton sell Campbell's Chunky soup or hearing Santino advertise "Bud-A-Light". Then we start having WrestleMania commercials.

 

[mythofdob]

In a sense, yes. It's Wrestlemania. The only small, indoor arena that should ever host the event is Madison Square Garden every ten years. (It's tradition now, what with WM 10 and 20 having been held there...I think we'll be seeing 30, 40, and so on held there until either WWE fails as a business or The Garden is destroyed...neither of which I see happening anytime soon).

thats not exactly correct.... when Wrestlemania has been in the Chicagoland area, they used the Horizen aka Allstate Arena that only seats max about 15-18 k.


As far as the topic, i don't see them ever going to free tv. A lot of people only get the WM PPV every year as the only ppv. I know I do that, we some friends, we get drunk and remember when we were young. Putting it on free tv just doesn't seem like something Vince would do

 

[XgringolocoX]

I understand where you're coming from on this, but it just would be a very bad idea. Davi pretty much hit it on the head.

The Super Bowl draws close to 100 million viewers in the USA alone, not even including international viewership. Last year's matchup between the Steelers and Cardinals drew a 42.0 rating. FORTY TWO. Raw averages what, 3.5ish? Moving Wrestlemania to a network like the Super Bowl wouldn't work, they simply don't have the same market that the NFL does. The NFL can get 3 million per commercial, because they know they are going to get a bajillion viewers, and their advertisers know they are going to get a bajillion viewers. The overall fan base for wrestling is much smaller than football.

WM is WWE's highest PPV buyrate for the whole year as well. Plus the fact thatwe have a 2 hour RAW, 2 hour SMackdown, 1 hour ECW, and 1 hour Superstars each week. 7 hours of wrestling for free each week negates the need for free PPV.

 

[Shakin' Abe]

No, I don't think it would work due to the numbers. As many have stated, the WWE just doesn't have the same fan base as the NFL.
What I would like to see, is LESS PPV's during the year. One a month is too much when the quality is not up to par. Some of the other PPV's could be free-bee's on a saturday night. That would make me look forward to WM or the Rumble more.

 

[dmacizdman]

yeah i hate to tell some of you on the forum that think wrestling is just as big as the nfl, it's not. if the wwe did something like this, not only would it not garner the ratings the super bowl would, but they would lose a ton of money because businesses would not pay the prices they do for the super bowl because they know it wouldn't get the viewers. i'm sure a lot of big corporations wouldn't want to associate themselves with wrestling even if they were offered a discount.

heck i don't even think wrestlemania would be able to get half the viewers the super bowl does.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

No way. As others have already said, WWE just doesn't have a large enough auidence to do this. I also do think FOX,CBS,NBC,or any other major network would be willing to give WWE three hours of TV time to do something like this. The Superbowl is a phenonomn that is watched by everyone. Wrestlemania wouldn't be able to draw what the Superbowl did even if WWE did promote the hell out of this(which I'm sure they would). The biggest show of the year is better off on ppv, where WWE can get the money from the buys. I'm sure Vince would rather take the money than take a chance on trying to draw monster ratings on free TV.

 

[Encyclopedia of Wrestling]

haha while Id love to see that one day It would never Happen WWE would crumble if they did that they make more money on PPV Buyrates for that event alone in the yr. than they do in all of their ppvs combined. Plus Who and How they gonna put on a 4hr event on what channel? no one will give up that much programing for Wrestling. It would be stupid.

 

[rubxcubedude]

WCW used to do a PPV caliber event on TBS every year. They would air Clash of the Champions for free on your regular cable stations if I remember correctly. I would always look forward to this when I was younger because I always got to see PPV quality matches on television without having to get PPV. Now I think that if the WWE did one event like this also, it would help out their PPV numbers a little bit

I thought that was what Saturday Night Main Events was all about? And NBC hasn't done one of those in a while bc they didn't produce ratings. I don't see a PPV changing that experience.

 

[m1k3b14z3]

ok i agree with everyone that vince would be out his mind to put WM on free tv but idk if anyone remembers but WM use to be on free tv when it first started before there was even a ppv but back then it worked not now tho but maybe they should just do less ppvs and maybe every few mothes do a free tv show like WcW did with clash of the champions

 

[dmacizdman]

i do agree with the person before saying that they should do away with so many PPVs. wrestlemania used to be huge back in the day because that was it. there wasn't anything else expect the survivor series. and that didn't have matches that would make championships change hands. now every single show is basically the same as wrestlemania is now. it's not as big as it once was.

 

[Moonlight Drive]

Ok, I'm gonna go deep in this. It all comes down to what VINCE wants. Option #1: If he wants a great rating draw, go for free. Option #2: If he wants money (duh): go for PPV.
NOW!...OPTION #3: If he wants money and a great draw, then you put on ppv but for about 5-10$ less..that way- You get more viewers with 3/4 the money you wanted..and you get more money..plain and simple..

 

[hebisreal]

I wouldn't want WM on for free Cause People would be recording it on DVR's and Local pubs would be showing it everywhere!

 

[Dagger Dias]

Absolutely not. This would be a terrible idea because WWE make more money off of Wrestlemania than anything else. It is one of the reasons they have become the #1 federation and remained #1 for so long. Making Wrestlemania a free tv event would kill WWE financially. Assume that around 900,000 people pay $54.95 dollars each to buy this year's Wrestlemania on PPV. That's a total of $49,455,000! That's nearly 50 million dollars from PPV buys alone. WWE cannot afford to lose that. Also, wouldn't it affect fan attendance also if it was going to be for free on tv instead of a PPV? People would just watch it on tv instead of pay to attend it. I paid $255 dollars for VIP seating at Wrestlemania 25. There were 70,000+ people in attendance that night and I guarantee you that many of them would not have been there if they could have watched it for free on tv. WWE would lose millions of dollars if they made it a free tv event, no matter how high the ratings for it might be. They know how much money they would lose and that's why it won't happen.

 

[Tastycles]

Put simply, no. The WWE makes somewhere in the vicinity of $50million per Mania in PPV buys. The most watched show on a typical Sunday night in the USA is Desperate Housewives. It gets 20 million viewers, which is definitely a speculative figure for WrestleMania.

But lets say it did draw that, in which case it could command $394,000 per 30 second commercial. That means that they'd need to air 67 minutes of commercials, which would seriously detract from the show itself, so I really must disagree that this is a good idea.

 

[MizMark]

Well i was thinking, what if, just what if wrestlemania was on fox just like the super bowl? Would the get more money or less? Now I don't know if they would or not but lets think about this.

By going to fox and not ppv they would lose the ppv buys. BUT, If I understand right , the superbowl commercials cost millions per second. Can't the wwe get more money buy doing this?

I personally think it would be a risky chance to take for if fox would even do this? Would the fans stay during the commericials?

Just some thought would this be a good idea or bad idea?

I haven't read the rest of this thread, but here's a few pointers.

1, Why would Fox want to take it on? RAW isn't even on that Network so I don't get that logic.

2, The Superbowl is watched by a worldwide audience of over 100 million. Something like 300 million watched the last one if I remember rightly, that's why the commercials are so expensive, because they go out to so many peole. Mania wouldn't draw anything CLOSE to that, and then you are putting Commericals into Mania, which it obviously doesn't have at the minute.

3, Bad bad idea. Mania grosses ALOT as it is. Why fix something if it aint broke?

 

[The Deadly Viper]

This would be a horrible idea. This is because Wrestlemania brings in a lot of money, so why change it? Lots of people buy it (correct me if I'm wrong ) and brings in a heck of a lot of money. If they made it free , they would charge a lot for the hot dogs , in all seriousness though the ads would be too much for my eyes too take so I probably wouldn't watch it. So lets just leave it for now

 

[Piss Bucket]

I personally don't mind paying £15 a year for Wrestlemania, having it on a free channel wouldn't work, unless it was on BBC in the UK, a channel that doesn't have advert breaks.