What's the story?
The elaborate Rollercoaster theme the WWE opted for WrestleMania 33 actually meant that the company had to sacrifice over $6 million in revenue.
In case you didn't know...
The WWE announced that WrestleMania 33 broke the attendance record at Camping World Stadium, with 75,245 fans in attendance for the event. In addition to that, the WWE announced that this year’s WrestleMania was the second highest grossing edition of the event in the company’s history, behind WrestleMania 32.
The heart of the matter
According to The Wrestling Observer, the paid attendance was 63,100. There is absolutely NOTHING to confirm this number. In fact, from speaking to sources and from attending WrestleMania myself, I can confirm that there were no empty seats at WrestleMania.
In addition to that, I can also confirm that seats were being still being sold for a profit on the day of the event, via secondary market ticket outlets, such as StubHub. My friends from The Steel Cage Podcast actually had to purchase these higher priced tickets on Sunday afternoon, the day of WrestleMania.
The true story about the attendance centres around the amount of money the WWE gave up. With the potential to do 78,500, the WWE opted to sacrifice $1 Million in ticket sales, to increase the size of the entrance stage.
On top of that, sources have confirmed that the company actually spent a whopping $5m on the actual stage itself. An incredible amount of money for just one night.
What's next?
WrestleMania 34 will take place on April 8th next year and will return to New Orleans, LA.
Author's take
WrestleMania 33 was sold out weeks before the event and the WWE could have easily sold more tickets, especially with the event being in Orlando, Florida, one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the US.
The WWE did a fantastic job selling out Camping World Stadium, with everything the overall production of the show and on the whole, the booking of the show itself. The $5 million stage was simply the cherry on the cake and was without a doubt the greatest WrestleMania set of all time.
The WWE deserve nothing but credit for WrestleMania 33, which some so-called journalists in this industry will never give them.
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