WWE Net Major Payday For Royal Rumble

WWE has continued its approach of bringing shows to the highest bidder with the Royal Rumble in January 2024.

In September WWE revealed that the 2024 Royal Rumble would take place at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on January 27.

The event actually took place at that venue in 2021 when WWE used Tropicana Field as one of the homes of the ThunderDome that played host to shows when no fans were able to attend due to the pandemic.

This time WWE will be hoping to pack thousands of fans in for one of its biggest shows of the year which will kick off the road to WrestleMania 40.

The St. Pete Catalyst has now given an indication of what the area had to do to bring the Royal Rumble back to Florida, reporting that a PR director for tourist organisation Visit St. Pete-Clearwater confirmed that the body had spent $500,000 of its tourist development tax funding to successfully secure the event. No economic impact projections have been released as of yet for the event.

WWE looking to generate revenue from city bids

Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics expanded on the numbers, noting that Orange County had allocated $850,000 to bring the Royal Rumble to Orlando, although it is unclear if any of that money was spent as a result of failing in that endeavour.

Puerto Rico’s tourist board provided incentives worth $1.8 million to the company for it to bring Backlash there in May. While Welsh Government suggested it had spent almost $3 million to secure Clash at the Castle in their economic impact report which noted the event had a return of ten times on its initial investment for the Welsh economy.