The effects of the stadium mentality of Wrestlemania on certain markets

[wbuqed]

Ok so, I was just thinking bout things in general while watching Royal Rumble marathon on JTV, and with the news from WZ that next years wrestlemania is gonna be in the Georgia Dome it made me think about how Wrestlemania is looking more like the super bowl. What I mean by that is that WWE is taking this event and placing it in the largest venues possible which could squeeze out certain markets from hosting the event again. Looking over the last 10 wrestlemanias only 4 of them were hosted in a venue that seated less than 23,000 or so people (two of those WMs were in california, just saying).

I'm not saying this is a bad thing cause obviously the WWE can guarantee a sell out for wrestlemania but my question to you guys is do you think cities that have the potential population of fans to host a wrestlemania are being squeezed out because the indoor arenas have too small capacity? Thanks for reading guys

 

[And I'm Awesome]

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).

Wrestlemania generates huge revenue for the WWE...and for the cities which host the event. How many WWE fans will be converging on U of Phoenix Stadium for XXIV this year? They've all got to stay somewhere, eat somewhere, and do things before the event itself (many of which WWE helps provide with Axxess and the Hall of Fame)? Huge revenue for the host city. I don't know how WWE goes about deciding where to host Wrestlemania, but if they're not, they should have host cities submitting proposals to get the 'E' to bring the cash cow to town.

Of course, only the biggest and best are going to land 'Mania in a non-MSG year. Does this mean some of the smaller market cities (even those with an appropriately large fan base) will be cut out from hosting the event? Yep. People prove year in, year out that they will travel across this country and the world to see WM live. Hell, if we all had the money to burn and the time to do it, we'd be having a WrestleZone Forums meeting live and in person in Arizona at the end of March. The stadiums are just going to get bigger, too. Personally, I can't wait to see how long it take McMahon to get into Jerryland (The Cowboys' new stadium) for an absolutely huge Wrestlemania. Hell, if it weren't quite so early in the year, I think Penn State's Beaver Stadium (seating for 108,000 plus, not including what you could squeeze on the field after setting up the ring) would be an insane venue for Wrestlemania. Sadly, it is a little cool (sometimes downright cold and snowing) up here in the evenings in late March and early April...

Anywho, back on point. Does the spectacle of Wrestlemania preclude smaller markets with small indoor arenas? At this point, it's getting damn close. As I said, The Garden will always be an exception, but I don't forsee many smaller venues (less than 40,000 spectators) hosting 'Mania in the near future.

 

[Jpeart]

I think what you're saying is right, but its just one of those things unfortunately.

WWE often markets Mania as the Superbowl of wrestling so I don't think its posssible for it to be 'too much' like it in their eyes.

If they can sell 70-80,000 tickets for Mania then they aren't going to host it somewhere that holds 15-20,000.

Personally and perhaps selfishly I like Mania taking place in big stadiums, it gives it that special, one-off feel that the show piece event should have.

 

[pessimism101]

Wrestlemania is looking no more like the SuperBowl than it did back in the 80's and 90's. Examples: Wrestlemanias III, VI, VII (the original location could have easily held over 100,000), and VIII, to name a few. It's like the NHL Winter Classic. A special event that takes place once a year should take place in a special venue. Hence why an 18,000 seat arena won't cut it.

 

[Lee]

Wait, you're complaining because the biggest show in professional wrestling in the western world is held in big arenas? Surely there's a flawed logic, I'm sure you'll know someone going to Mania this year. I now of five (none linked) friends going and I live in the UK!

Of course it's like the SuperBowl for attendances, and rightly so. Why on earth would the go to an arena under 20K? Better atmosphere with a bigger crowd and of course it makes more money which (in theory) improves the overall product.

 

[mister_b1LL]

I'm not arguing. The fact that Wrestlemania is done in a huge football stadium is awesome. It really makes it the Spectacle that WWE is trying to make it. I think it should be done in lesser cities more often. For example, WrestleMania XIX was held in Seattle. Seattle is no LA or NY; no immigrants from a far off nation is gonna look at a US map and is gonna make Seattle their first choice. Nonetheless, it's already a big and famous city and when you add WrestleMania to the city it adds a lot more to the list of what makes Seattle cool. I would love to see it come to smaller cities like Kansas City, Indianapolis, Green Bay, cities that aren't as big as LA or NY, but already have a huge stadium.

I also can't wait for WrestleMania to be done at the Cowboys new stadium. That's gonna be packed to the brim. But as far as putting it on a equal scale as the Superbowl? Granted, it makes huge revenue for the WWE and the host city, but other than that, it can't compare to how many viewers watch the Superbowl. Hell every Monday RAW still gets less buys than MNF, and it's on ESPN now.

If WM was on free TV, I wouldn't be surprised is they made WrestleMania commercials.

 

[wbuqed]

well mister_bill, i wasnt comparing it to the superbowl in the way that it's watched at home by such a large audience. I was just saying that the locations for wrestlemanias have been limited due to asthetic environments just like the superbowl. And charleebrown, im not complaining bout it, im just bringing up a trend and guaging whether or not people see the trend continuing or not

 

[Travaje]

I think if it was on free TV, more people would watch it, but I don't know how they'd make that money back. Not enough people would watch it like the Super Bowl to charge enough in ad revenue to make the kind of money they'd make in PPV buys...even if only a half a million people bought Wrestlemania. So, in that sense, I think it would be a bad idea for WWE.

Now if nobody bought the PPV's anymore and just watched it for free on the internet, they'd have to come up with something else. But a half a million buys at $60 a pop is still $30 million in revenue. And that's a lot.

 

[InterestingDrug]

Wrestlemania is the Super Bowl of wrestling. It has been for several years (outside of the down years of the early/mid 90s). They are placed in football stadiums for many reasons, but the main one is to give it an aura of the big time event. The Super Bowl of wrestling so to say. Having WM in a basketball arena makes it look like just another episode of RAW or SD!

Giving it away as a free event on a major network is an interesting idea. Since WWE depends on buys for the PPV, they could test to see how much they could sell a commercial slot during WM. At the Super Bowl the first two quarters have relatively high prices for commercials with the forth quarter being cheap in comparison, but with WWE I could see this being opposite. As the main even nears, commercial time would be more expensive since people would want to see the big time WM title match. Very interesting idea.

One drawback could be.. why would someone pay for any other PPV if the biggest show of the year is on free TV?

 

[rjdonuts]

It should be coming to Indy in the next 3 or 4 years. They have Lucas Oil Stadium and WM8 was in the Hoosier Dome. It, the Metrodome, and Ford Field are closest huge indoor stadiums close to Chicago, so Indy is a good bet in the near future.

I like the big stadiums, for the reasons others have said, and the way these new stadiums are built these days, there is never a bad seat in the house. I would like to see WWE do the occasional big stadium with Summerslam as well, maybe every 5 years or so.

Anyway, yes the small markets get lost in the shuffle, but until the big stadiums stop selling out, we are looking at this trend continuing.

 

[Tastycles]

To be honest, most states have a large stadium somewhere within them, so there is few markets that are completely sized out of the market. The WWE has to do it because otherwise WrestleMania will just look like any old PPV. The stadium is part of what makes it so good, and it is such a huge event that people will travel to watch it. I almost bought a ticket last year when I was drunk. Kid Rock made me glad I didn't, but I'd still go, and I live a hell of a lot futher away than any American does from the stadium. Unless it's in Boston and you're from Hawaii.