I was visiting with a friend the other day about TNA hosting Lockdown at the Alamodome. We had wondered if they were planning to sell the full 70,000 seats and later found out that they are only going to set it up for about 4,000 people.
My question is, what's the point?
It makes no sense to me that they would travel halfway across the U.S. to have a crowd that is only about 2,000 people larger than the Impact Zone.
I know that a lot of people were commenting on the news pieces on wrestlezone that they are out of their mind to host the event at the Alamodome... that Shawn Michaels couldn't even sell it out back in 97... and so on. But how many of you that made those comments know how much that city has changed since 1997? UTSA alone has doubled in student population in that time. Texas State (about 40-50 miles up the road has gotten bigger as well. Those two teams put 40,000 people in the Alamodome this year when they squared off.
The tickets for Lockdown range from $15-$150. Even if every ticket in the arena sold for $100, they would only make $400,000. I don't see how they stand to make a profit off of those ticket sales with all of the travel, the expense of renting the dome, etc. Why not try to sell 70,000 seats at an avg. price of $10 a ticket. That is $700,000 and a heck of a lot more merchandise sales.
How would you do this? Make a college student special of $5 per seat and sell out the balcony. Sell the lower level seats for $10 and then the rest of the tickets at the more expensive price. The idea here should be to get people to sample the product. They have the talent on their roster to attract people that are not wrestling fans. I know... two guys are going in my group that don't know a thing about wrestling but had a great time at Slammiversary.
Even if it means putting a bump in a current storyline, figure out a way to put Sting and Kurt Angle in a steel cage in the main event with Hulk Hogan as the guest referee and watch people flock to the dome. Those names will bring people in. They are three of the biggest stars in professional wrestling history. Then you have the traditional lockdown match, a great mid-card with the likes of RVD, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, James Storm, Bobby Roode, knockouts, x-division, etc.
TNA draws about 1/3 of the audience as WWE but sells their tickets for nearly the same price... how is that smart? The problem is not the wrestling. The wrestling ability of the TNA roster is incredible and the roster itself is far better than the Smackdown Roster and I believe that it closely rivals the roster of Raw. The problem is the suits in the TNA office that haven't figured out how to market this product.
Send Hulk Hogan, Sting, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Velvet Sky, Brooke Tessmacher, etc., to the college campuses and visit with students and sell $5 tickets. They could easily put 70,000 people in that place. Another thing that likely hasn't been thought of is that the day after Lockdown is the first day of Spring Break, so parents don't have to worry about having their kids home early that night.
It all starts though with bringing those ticket prices down to dirt cheap. Many people criticized WCW for giving away tickets... but it worked. They got people to sample the product and when they did they realized it was good wrestling. That company went from nothing to the biggest wrestling company in the U.S. in a few short years. If it hadn't been for mismanagement and a corporate merger it would likely still be a huge factor today.
Just a note, I am a fan of both TNA and WWE. I watch WWE every Monday and TNA every Thursday and find WWE to be very unsatisfying right now. TNA also needs to speed up the Aces and Eights storyline and reveal a major player as the leader or they need to stop putting so much attention on that storyline... because right now between that, Brooke Hogan, and Garett Bischoff... It can be hard to watch also.
My question is, what's the point?
It makes no sense to me that they would travel halfway across the U.S. to have a crowd that is only about 2,000 people larger than the Impact Zone.
I know that a lot of people were commenting on the news pieces on wrestlezone that they are out of their mind to host the event at the Alamodome... that Shawn Michaels couldn't even sell it out back in 97... and so on. But how many of you that made those comments know how much that city has changed since 1997? UTSA alone has doubled in student population in that time. Texas State (about 40-50 miles up the road has gotten bigger as well. Those two teams put 40,000 people in the Alamodome this year when they squared off.
The tickets for Lockdown range from $15-$150. Even if every ticket in the arena sold for $100, they would only make $400,000. I don't see how they stand to make a profit off of those ticket sales with all of the travel, the expense of renting the dome, etc. Why not try to sell 70,000 seats at an avg. price of $10 a ticket. That is $700,000 and a heck of a lot more merchandise sales.
How would you do this? Make a college student special of $5 per seat and sell out the balcony. Sell the lower level seats for $10 and then the rest of the tickets at the more expensive price. The idea here should be to get people to sample the product. They have the talent on their roster to attract people that are not wrestling fans. I know... two guys are going in my group that don't know a thing about wrestling but had a great time at Slammiversary.
Even if it means putting a bump in a current storyline, figure out a way to put Sting and Kurt Angle in a steel cage in the main event with Hulk Hogan as the guest referee and watch people flock to the dome. Those names will bring people in. They are three of the biggest stars in professional wrestling history. Then you have the traditional lockdown match, a great mid-card with the likes of RVD, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, James Storm, Bobby Roode, knockouts, x-division, etc.
TNA draws about 1/3 of the audience as WWE but sells their tickets for nearly the same price... how is that smart? The problem is not the wrestling. The wrestling ability of the TNA roster is incredible and the roster itself is far better than the Smackdown Roster and I believe that it closely rivals the roster of Raw. The problem is the suits in the TNA office that haven't figured out how to market this product.
Send Hulk Hogan, Sting, Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Velvet Sky, Brooke Tessmacher, etc., to the college campuses and visit with students and sell $5 tickets. They could easily put 70,000 people in that place. Another thing that likely hasn't been thought of is that the day after Lockdown is the first day of Spring Break, so parents don't have to worry about having their kids home early that night.
It all starts though with bringing those ticket prices down to dirt cheap. Many people criticized WCW for giving away tickets... but it worked. They got people to sample the product and when they did they realized it was good wrestling. That company went from nothing to the biggest wrestling company in the U.S. in a few short years. If it hadn't been for mismanagement and a corporate merger it would likely still be a huge factor today.
Just a note, I am a fan of both TNA and WWE. I watch WWE every Monday and TNA every Thursday and find WWE to be very unsatisfying right now. TNA also needs to speed up the Aces and Eights storyline and reveal a major player as the leader or they need to stop putting so much attention on that storyline... because right now between that, Brooke Hogan, and Garett Bischoff... It can be hard to watch also.