Possible reason why WWE is struggling with WrestleMania 38 ticket sales - Reports
The ticket sales for WWE WrestleMania 38 doesn't seem to be going according to plan, and Dave Meltzer has explained what could be the possible reason.
WrestleMania 38 will be WWE's return to the AT&T Stadium after six years. It was 2016 when WWE hosted the "biggest" WrestleMania of all time, at least from an attendance standpoint.
WWE managed to sell over 100,000 tickets for WrestleMania 32, although some sources disputed this and claimed that the 100,000+ figure meant those in attendance all across the venue.
The company will try to replicate the figure from 2016, but for two nights. While this is great news for fans and superstars, WWE may not be celebrating just yet following news of ticket sales for WrestleMania 38.
As per a report from Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer Radio, the ticket sales for WrestleMania 38 hasn't lived up to expectations just yet (H/T Wrestlingnews.co).
“Mania tickets, I don’t have a number but you could tell from the push really hard and everything like that [that they are] far far far far far from a sellout. I didn’t expect it would be this quick. The first time they went to AT&T Stadium, it actually didn’t sell out until a week out and that was for one show…I know that the number was lower than they expected."
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Meltzer added that the pricing that WWE put out may have been a mistake, as it is high enough to "scare people away."
"It’s funny because when I talked with them a couple of weeks ago, [they said] because we’re gonna do two shows, we’re gonna make it pricewise easier. And they did not do that and that may have been a mistake. I mean the price is really high, high enough to scare people away. There is a certain thing that you can charge more money for WrestleMania than any other show but there is a limit on everything as far as how much you can charge.”
It should be noted that ticket sales for WrestleMania 32 didn't sell quickly either until it was a couple of months closer to the event. Meltzer stated that the high prices put out initially by WWE may be to attract fans who are willing to pay up, while the majority will wait for the WrestleMania 38 ticket costs to reduce.
Could WWE take a similar approach with WrestleMania 38 like 2016?
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It would be a revisionist history to say that WWE sold 85,000+ tickets in an instant for WrestleMania 32 in 2016. While tickets went into sale in late 2015, WWE found themselves in trouble.
Many top stars, including Seth Rollins, John Cena, and Randy Orton, were all out of WrestleMania due to major injuries. Ticket sales were slow, but the surprising name to make a big difference was Shane McMahon.
In February 2016, Shane O'Mac returned to WWE TV after nearly seven years, and within his return segment, a high-stakes match against The Undertaker was booked for WrestleMania 32. To add to that, Vince McMahon gave the Hell in a Cell stipulation.
This reportedly saw a massive boost in ticket sales, and this was hardly two months before the Grandest Stage Of Them All. WWE could take a similar approach, but the reported Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar main event won't be enough to sell 100,000 tickets for two days at WrestleMania 38.