Wrestlemania venues

[dd23beatlesfan1]

One thing that hardly anyone has mentioned in regards to the time issue with having a Wrestlemania in the UK, is the WWE Network.

In the old days (meaning two years ago and before), you had to watch the Wrestlemania live as it happened, or get the replay two days later on ppv in order to see it. Unless you wanted to wait a few months for the DVD to come out. That isn't the case anymore.

Wrestlemania will be on the Network permanently immediately after it's over, so fans can watch it whenever they want. If Wrestlemania stars at 7 in the UK, and thus airs live at noon on the West Coast, well some guy in San Francisco, for example, doesn't have to get up by noon in order to watch it. If he wants to get up at 5 or 6 (perhaps he works late) and watch it right as soon as he gets up, he can do that.

Even if a fan wants to get up at 1 or 2 and has missed the first hour or two, they can turn on the Network, and start watching WM from the beginning, right then and there.

Plus, not to mention, in the US we have all kinds of sporting events on at noon. Every Sunday the NFL has a game on at noon/1 pm and later in the afternoon. Plus, sometimes the NBA will have games on between noon-3 pm (usually on holidays or the NBA Finals). So it's not unprecedented for US sporting to fans to watch sports events in the early afternoon. So really, I'm sure most US fans won't mind getting up a little earlier to watch Wrestlemania.

Especially now with the Network, timing is even less important than ever. So on that front, that's no longer a good enough reason for the WWE to hold Wrestlemania outside of North America.

 

[RKO920]

Few thoughts...WWE will always look to stadiums for WrestleMania til the end of time unless there is some brand new arena that opens in a big market that warrants it. The only example I could think of for that, and it won't happen, would be if a new Madison Square Garden was built in NYC. Like I said it won't happen with all of the upgrades being made to MSG. Stadiums will be the status quo for WrestleMania, it will be the way for big money to come in with PPV basically being phased out for the Network. It's a shame for the guys and girls that work the event because the company is losing a ton of money, if WM did 1 million buys on PPV at $60 a pop there's $60 million, we're at what a little over a million subscribers at $9.99 each, so theres roughly a $50 million loss. The stadium money helps close the gap on that.

A few posters have mentioned baseball stadiums, while I get WWE picks out their venues a year or so in advance, there would be coordinating between WWE, the city, and Major League Baseball to make sure scheduling would be clear for the 2 weeks or so WWE would need the venue for. I know it's been done before in Seattle and Toronto, but those sets built didn't seem as elaborate as anything WWE has been doing the past few years. Football stadiums will always be the way to go for WrestleMania.

I always thought WWE should stick to certain venues for Mania like the Super Bowl does and then do another stadium show for SummerSlam and have that hit the colder weather areas in the North East and Mid West for that show (Philly, NYC, Chicago, Boston).

 

[Burritocover]

If they sell a million PPVs at $60 each they don't make $60 million. They split it with the PPV provider and last i heard it was a 50 50 split. I don't think they need stadiums to subsidize the PPV money. But I think they obviously want to sell as many tickets as possible regardless of PPV or network money. I read a report that they got Levi stadium for free which makes total sense considering the amount of cash they bring into the local economy. So if they don't even have to rent stadiums anymore even if they only sell 40K tickets it's all profit after set up costs so basically they'll always make more money than they would in an arena. Of course a half empty stadium isn't good but they can shoot around that, especially on the East Coast when it's almost dark at the beginning of the show. As far as baseball stadiums I don't think that's a great option. I think I read somewhere that it takes like 3 weeks to build the set so that's not feasible doing baseball season but even if they could get past that I hope anyway they don't go back to baseball stadiums. I was on the lower level at safeco field for 19 and the way the seats were laid out it kinda sucked. It was like you were looking straight at the ring and if the stage is across from you the ring is totally backlit so it made it really hard to see the ring. Baseball stadiums seem to have less of a grade to the incline and it just didn't seem to be great. Skydome I was upper level so it was fine but looking at the stadium a few years ago at a Blue Jays game it seemed like the lower level would have the same issue. Maybe if anyone on here was there on the lower level they'd know. Nothing could be as bad as those fucking palm trees in Miami though.

 

[RKO920]

I was saying in general if you do a million PPV buys it would be $60 million, but even if there is a 50-50 split with the PPV provider that's still $30 million. Still more money than the network generates, and I'm sure they have to pay MLB Advanced Media for their part in the streaming so the WWE wouldn't see all of the possible $10-11 million the network brings in, but thats a different argument.

Baseball stadiums are and should be completely out. Have WreslteMania like I said be like the Super Bowl and rotate between different locations. I quickly wrote down 12 different ones, one could argue that 9 of the 12 would be travel destinations. The main thing is people fly in from all over the world for Wrestlemania so why not have the area be really nice and have the fans enjoy everything about their time.

My List: Florida- Miami, Orlando, Tampa
Texas- Houston, Dallas
California- San Francisco (San Jose), Los Angeles (once they get a stadium)
Arizona- Phoenix
Louisiana- New Orleans
Georgia- Altanta
Indiana- Indianapolis
Minnesota- Minneapolis
Toronto

The main thing is these are either domes or outdoor stadiums in nice weather areas. The only exception again would be New York if it were an anniversary show or something huge happened at MSG and it warranted going there. I'm sure I missed a few cities that could be used too.

 

[Burritocover]

I wish it would go to New Orleans every 5 years. That was by far the best city I've seen it in. It was awesome because it was the one city where everyone who travelled to it were all in the same place all weekend rather than spread out in different parts of the city. I always see fans every year but just a hand full here and there. Last year they basically took over the whole french quarter. Having the stadium right there was great too even though the stadium itself was a dump.