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WWE received government approval for a projected $4,240,456 in tax credits for Wrestlemania 41 and related events around Las Vegas, as reported earlier by Nevada Current.
That’s in addition to the $5 million site fee from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which we reported on last year.
WWE’s application, which is viewable in full below, submitted with the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), states the various events, including each day of Wrestlemania at Allegiant Stadium, T-Mobile Arena events for Raw, Smackdown, and NXT Stand & Deliver, were budgeted for $33.7 million in production costs. It’s unclear whether the NXT TV taping on Tuesday at the Fontainebleau theater was included in this budget.
The application doesn’t indicate that these expected costs included WWE’s non-in-ring events at the Fontainebleau Theater, some of which, like the Roast of Wrestlemania, may not have been eligible as it wasn’t broadcast on major television or streaming platform. The filming locations on WWE’s application are limited to Allegiant Stadium and T-Mobile Arena.
The application says WWE’s productions would put 450 Nevada residents to work and another 750 workers from outside the state. Nevada residents were to earn wages just under $2.7 million. Those outside Nevada were to be paid $19.7 million. These costs likely include WWE staff and talent.
In terms of revenue — putting media revenue aside, as annual guaranteed deals make that money difficult to assign — Paul Levesque at the Saturday night press conference indicated each night of Wrestlemania broke the records of last year’s events, suggesting each event took in more than $18.4 million ticket sales, the greater of last year’s gates. WWE’s announcement also claimed records in merchandise and sponsorship sales.
The government approved WWE’s request to keep certain information from its application confidential. Among that material was a script that’s required as part of the application as well as a “compensation limits page, talent expense and building rent budget items contained within the incentive calculation worksheet”. The government stated that WWE demonstrated to the reasonable satisfaction of GOED’s Executive Director that those materials contain proprietary information, trade secrets, or confidential economic information, and therefore, citing exemptions in Nevada law, were not included in the application that was made public.
As a result, $17.9 million of the $33.7 million in costs — which evidently went toward building rent, other building costs, and talent expense — are in sum attributable to those three categories but are not itemized. (See page 4 of the application below.)
The document from WWE claims Wrestlemania events generate “more than $200 million in economic impact for host cities.” That figure is said to be a total of WWE’s own spending, hotel, and per diem, as well as impact from visitors who spend money at hotels, restaurants, and other businesses.
Monetary values in the table on the fourth page of the application were redacted by the GOED.
We redacted direct contact information for TKO, WWE, and UFC personnel.
Last year, AEW received approval for a $373,388 tax credit for Double or Nothing and the prior night’s Collision taping, both at the MGM Grand Arena, on May 25 and 26, 2024. For the two events, AEW’s application indicated the company budgeted for $3,868,200 in costs, including $2 million on talent. The AEW application was discussed at the time we first reviewed it on an episode of Wrestlenomics Radio.
That application from AEW is below. Again, we redacted direct contact information for personnel.
Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He operates and owns Wrestlenomics.