News On WWE Wanting Cities To Bid For Major Premium Live Events
World Wrestling Entertainment Premium Live Events draw huge crowds, so the company is looking for cities to bid for major shows in the future.
The current method that WWE uses for WrestleMania is for host cities to put in bids while presenting why they think their city/stadium should host WWE’s biggest event of the year. It has worked very well for many years, so WWE wants to do it for other major Premium Live Events (formerly known as pay-per-views) as well.
It was reported by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE is going to encourage potential host cities to bid on major events in the future. As an example, Meltzer referenced Cardiff, Wales paying to present the upcoming Clash at the Castle PLE from Principality Stadium:
“They mentioned also, that with Cardiff, not only are they getting ticket revenue, but the city of Cardiff is actually paying for them to come in. Which probably is why they went to Cardiff and not London.”
“And they are working on, for the biggest shows of the year, to do what they do for WrestleMania, which is essentially to put them up for bidding from cities.”
“So say you want SummerSlam, say you want Royal Rumble, instead of WWE going to Houston, Texas because they feel it’s a market they can sell 30,000-40,000 tickets at the stadium, they will be going still to a stadium – but they want the city to pay them to bring them in because they’re bringing tourism and things like that to the city.”
“So the idea is for the big shows, going forward, this is their attempt and what they’re gonna try to do.”
What isn’t known is how much money WWE was paid to run Clash at the Castle, but we do know ticket sales have been very strong. It’s expected that there will be around 70,000 people to watch the first WWE stadium show in the UK since SummerSlam 1992.
The last WWE show taking place at a major stadium was SummerSlam on July 30 at Nissan Stadium, which is the home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
Looking ahead to 2023, it has been reported that San Antonio’s Alamodome is likely going to be the host of the Royal Rumble, but that hasn’t been made official yet.
WrestleMania 39 in April 2023 will be at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles (home of the NFL’s Rams & Chargers) while WrestleMania 40 will be at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.