Update On Actual WrestleMania 39 Attendance
There were a lot of fans in attendance for two nights of WrestleMania 39, but some new details provide some insight into the actual attendance numbers.
It’s fair to say that WrestleMania 39 on April 1st & April 2nd was a huge success for WWE at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. It was the first WrestleMania that was held at the relatively that hosted Super Bowl 56 in 2022 and is the home of the Los Angeles Rams (who won that spectacular Super Bowl 56) and LA Chargers.
WrestleMania 39 had huge crowds both nights, the fans were into most of the matches – especially the big ones and the quality of matches was very high.
The main events of the two nights led to different reactions. On WrestleMania Saturday, Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens put an end to the 622-day Smackdown Tag Team Title reign (they held the Raw Tag Team Titles too) of The Usos – Jimmy & Jey Uso. The fans loved that while many people consider it one of the greatest tag team matches in WWE history.
As for the WrestleMania Sunday main event, Cody Rhodes put up a fight against Roman Reigns and nearly won, but once again the numbers game came into play for the Tribal Chief as Reigns got an assist from Solo Sikoa leading to a Spear by Reigns for the win. According to a recent report, Reigns winning was “always the plan” even though a lot of people predicted Cody would win.
Whenever WWE holds a major stadium show like WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble and other big ones, the company always tends to inflate the number to make it sound even more impressive. It has been said over the years that WWE and Vince McMahon often come up with their own number for “entertainment” purposes. Since WWE is a publicly-traded company, the real number always comes out.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (available via subscription) is a noted wrestling historian covering attendance figures in WWE for the past 40 years, so he broke it down as usual in this week’s newsletter.
“They claimed 161,892 fans in attendance over the two nights, broken down as 80,497 and the first night and 81,395 the second night. WrestleTix listed the total number of tickets out as 67,303 and 67,553 respectively, and full capacities set up as 67,530 and 67,603. So they were sellouts aside from a few scattered singles.”
“But both nights basically sold out, as compared to last year in Dallas where the real total each night was only 3,000 lower, but neither night was close to being a sellout. There were rows of empty seats in different places notably on the floor, but those would be tickets that scalpers didn’t unload or people who had left early.”
As he continued, Meltzer seemed to question WWE’s claim that they have the record attendance for any event in SoFi Stadium history.
“WWE claimed it as the record attendance for any event at So Fi Stadium, but the reality is that with the big stage set up at WrestleMania, it is impossible, even with the seats on the floor, for a show with that size of a stage to beat an NFL sellout. The actual paid attendance historically will come out in late July in the corporate books, but last year’s paid was roughly 7,000 each night below the WrestleTix total number and 20,676 per night below what WWE announced.”
“The gate was $21.6 million, which would be $10.8 million per night, up from $8.5 million per night last year. The single event record remains $17.3 million at AT&T Stadium in 2016.”
WrestleMania 40 (using the WrestleMania XL logo) will take place in April 2024 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.