WrestleMania Attendance
I’ve heard a lot on these airwaves and social media about WWE’s attendance claims for Wrestlemania. I worked in pro sports, specifically sales & marketing, for seven years, so I wanted to give you some insight into that process. Honestly, WWE is not as nefarious as you may think.
When it comes to announcing attendance, there’s three numbers to consider: tickets distributed (sold/comped), announced attendance, and actual attendance (people that actually came through the turnstiles). For the books, you always go by the tickets distributed because that’s actual revenue. For what you announce, it really depends on the optics of how many people came in, and your organization/team’s philosophy.
Often, our team would announce a sellout when we were generally within 100 or so tickets of actually selling out with the majority of those left being single seats. There were other times that we were close but due to weather or another factor, it would look foolish to announce a sellout because of how it looked. We went on a game-by-game basis and adjusted accordingly.
We weren’t trying to deceive anyone, but be as accurate as we could while also helping to create a perception of a hot ticket. Every team does that — just look at the longest sellout streaks in sports and you’ll find plenty of “No way!” moments among those games for attendance.
With WWE, they always catch hell for announcing a number that is ridiculously out of whack with actual attendance. In the case of this past weekend, a bump of 4000 when you’re talking about the difference between 97,769 and 101,763 doesn’t seem that outlandish to me, and is honestly a much smaller gap than what I expected. Their philosophy is to create a perception that they draw record crowds for Wrestlemania every year, even if their distributed number says otherwise.
It’s not illegal, and is just what they determined is best for their business. There are bigger things to be worked up about.
[Josh Nason]
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READ IT HERE: April 4, 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Wrestlemania 32 preview, Jon Jones arreste
WrestleMania 32, the Daniel Bryan story updated, the entire weekend and history of St. Louis wrestling are all part of the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WrestleMania 32: The matches, schedule, what hasn’t been promoted, ticket sales, gate numbers, ticket sales and secondary market prices for all the sold out events over the weekend.
Aftermath of the Hulk Hogan/Gawker trial, what is next, Nick Denton’s attempt to explain their decision, and more.
Jon Jones arrest, the key points and what he’s facing. Lots more on Daniel Bryan, the retirement of Brie Bella, the WWE special on Daniel Bryan, and a lot more details of his issues and a time line of thing. Friday night’s Madison Square Garden event.
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SummerSlam tickets, a crazy Hulk Hogan story from years back, John Cena update, more on ESPN’s coverage of WWE, WWE wrestler whose push is being rethought, Roman Reigns talks being booed, Newcomers to WWE, and more people getting looks. Global cruiserweight tournament that WWE is putting together. We also have an update on the WWE Hall of Fame.
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TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
Top Stories
Texas Monthly looks at the troubles and issues with people trying to enter AT&T Stadium on Sunday. Apparently, this isn’t the first time the stadium had issues of that sort, though WrestleMania may have been the worst. According to the article, WWE and stadium officials blamed increased security measures for all the delays and congestion. The article notes word spread amongst fans that issues with WIFI related to scanning tickets were to blame. The reporter noted the irony of WIFI issues at a stadium with the corporate name of a telecommunications giant. One tweet shared in the article shows a video of fans chanting angrily packed in a corridor seemingly near their breaking point. The inflated attendance figure is also reported as fact for what it is worth. It also quotes an article from Deadspin.
Here’s Sika’s ringside reaction when Roman Reigns won the WWE title at Wrestlemania.
WWE & Professional Wrestling
Chris Jericho called into Busted Open Radio to call out the fans who said he buried AJ Styles by winning at WrestleMania.
(Photo: WWE)
Forbes looks at AJ Styles being put into the main event title picture.
A YouTube video shows Charlotte nameplates being placed on new WWE women’s championship
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A reporter for Rolling Stone lists five key things from last night’s Raw.
A Fox Sports article says Nakamura vs. Zayn was the match of the weekend.
Legacy Wrestling on April 30th in Manheim, PA, features Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae, Caleb Konley, and more.
In some unfortunate news, Anthony “Crimson” Mayweather was arrested over the weekend on domestic assault charges for headbutting his wife. He’s currently out on a $2500 bond.
The aforementioned Gargano and LeRae are set for the IWA East Coast event in, yes, Nitro, West Virginia, at the Kingsway Outreach Center along with BJ Whitmer and more. Gargano will be doing a seminar for wrestlers/those in training before the show.
Combat Zone Wrestling’s “Best of the Best 15” iPPV show this Saturday in Vorhees, NJ, with Shane Strickland, Lio Rush, Ethan Page, Veda Scott, and lots more.
How about a video of Hillbilly Jim explaining how to hide your cash in an offshore shell company?
The BBC ran a story about a local promotion who had to apologize after advertising an “Islamic baddie”.
Time Warner Cable is offering a sweepstakes to its CABLE customers to win airfare and tickets to a Lucha Underground taping in Los Angeles. One caveat: You need to know the name of the current champion.
Vince Russon joins Podcast One.
UFC & Mixed Martial Arts
Bleacher Report’s Mike Chiappetta talked to Bellator fighters that moved from the UFC on why they made the jump.
Tickets for UFC 199 (June 4th at the Forum in L.A.) featuring rematches between middleweight champion Luke Rockhold vs. Chris Weidman and bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber go on sale later this week.
Conor McGregor’s manager guarantees “Mystic Mac” will defend his 145 pound title at some point.
Brian Stann talked about what he sees for Cyborg Justino in the future, Jon Jones, and more.
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