WWE’s announced attendances were down to a similar degree as WrestleTix estimates of tickets distributed, this year versus last year. On a percentage basis, it appears the company was fairly honest about the difference.
WrestleTix estimates of the ticket maps suggest attendance in the same stadium in Las Vegas, Allegiant Stadium, was down between 15% and 17%. WrestleTix estimated 50,081 for Saturday and 52,011 for Sunday. That’s down from last year’s numbers of 60,151 and 61,389.
WWE, meanwhile, announced 50,816 and 55,255, for Saturday and Sunday, respectively. That’s down 17% and 13%, respectively, from what the company announced for last year’s events.
WrestleTix estimates do not include suites. It’s unclear if WWE’s announced attendance takes those attendees into account or what WWE’s numbers are based on.
Allegiant Stadium is controlled by the Las Vegas Stadium Authority, which discloses attendance data quarterly, so I expect data to be included in their quarterly report in August later this year. For last year, LVSA listed attendances of 58,538 for Saturday and 60,103 for Sunday. It’s unclear what specific category of attendance those numbers reflected, whether that’s tickets sold, tickets distributed (sales and comps), tickets used (aka “scan count”, or “turnstile count”). I asked the LVSA’s media representative to clarify when reporting on that data last year and the organization didn’t respond. The LVSA’s number is likely not the number of tickets sold, because live event trade Pollstar lists the two-day total for last year’s WrestleMania as 113,412. The LVSA numbers total a higher number, 118,641.
Last year’s WrestleMania broke all live event gate records in pro wrestling history, totaling $66 million, or about $33 million each day. Even adjusting for inflation, those two events are #1 and #2 in pro wrestling history for ticket sales revenue. Gates for this year’s WrestleMania events aren’t currently known.
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Brandon Thurston has written about wrestling business since 2015. He operates and owns Wrestlenomics.