Tag: WWE site fees

WWE WrestleMania 42 site fee revealed

Posted on by Josh Nason

WWE is set to receive up to $6 million from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for both this April’s two-night WrestleMania 42 and additional shows following a vote this upcoming week.

The news was first reported by LV SportsBiz on Thursday.

The group, which is the city’s public tourism agency, will have their monthly meeting this Wednesday where’s it’s expected they will approve the expense in addition to $1.25 million in F1 race tickets for contacts and customers for an upcoming race. As noted by LV SportsBiz, “board members typically do not ask questions on the LVCVA spending money.”

Revenue for the LVCVA comes from hotel room fees and is spent to promote the city’s hospitality industry on events like WrestleMania.

After New Orleans was set to host the event this April, TKO changed course and decided to keep WWE’s biggest show of the year at Allegiant Stadium for a second straight year. The LVCVA estimated 140,000 “incremental” hotel room stays were attributed to last year’s WrestleMania.

The $6 million will go toward WrestleMania, Raw, SmackDown, NXT Stand & Deliver, the Hall of Fame Ceremony, and WWE World. Last year’s week brought in both $5 million in site fees & $4.2 million in tax credits.

Tickets went on sale in September for the Saturday, April 18 and Sunday, April 19 two-night event.

Nick Khan reveals when WWE decided to enter the site fee ‘business’

Posted on by Josh Nason

Much like its corporate sibling in the UFC, WWE getting site fees and in-kind deals for bringing major events to a city has been a growing focus for both itself and parent company TKO, a topic referenced continually by TKO head Mark Shapiro.

This year alone, WWE will bring in $5 million for November’s Survivor Series in San Diego, California; $5 million in site fees & $4.2 million in tax credits for this year’s two-night WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, and $7.1 million for August’s two-night SummerSlam in New Jersey.

And then, there is the reported $100 million WWE/TKO will receive for bringing WrestleMania to Saudi Arabia in 2027, not to mention this January’s Royal Rumble.

Talking to Puck’s John Ourand as part of a bigger feature on UFC, WWE president Nick Khan revealed when that light bulb went off: when he learned UFC was getting roughly $3 million from Salt Lake City, Utah for an event.

“I looked at our current WrestleMania deal, and we were getting around $150,000 for WrestleMania, and what I call ‘posters around the city’ — otherwise known as value-in-kind. So we got an economic impact report, and got into the subsidy business,” he said.

WWE heads to Indianapolis, Indiana, this weekend for Wrestlepalooza. WWE signed a deal with the Indiana Sports Corp in June 2024, the financial terms of which have yet to be disclosed.

WWE Survivor Series site fee from San Diego tourism board revealed

Posted on by Josh Nason

A new report out by Wrestlenomics on Monday has WWE potentially taking in $5 million for bringing this November’s Survivor Series to San Diego, California.

The information was revealed by public records requests answered by the city’s Tourism Marketing District, a group funded by fees on hotel stays.

Brandon Thurston’s reporting showed an initial outlay of $650,000 approved by the TMD in June. There was an additional $4.25 million budget for other expenses submitted by the San Diego Padres’ baseball team who plays at Petco Park where the event will take place. It’s also a strong likelihood that either the prior Friday’s SmackDown, the following Monday’s Raw or both will also take place in the city.

Documents refer to an overall budget of $5 million. It’s unknown what group will cover the additional budget expenses and specifically what they are for. It’s also unknown how much WWE would get of that $5 million.

The higher end would put it up among other reported site fees, led by this year’s two-night WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas ($5 million in site fees & $4.2 million in tax credits), next month’s two-night SummerSlam in New Jersey ($7.1 million) and 2022’s WrestleMania in Arlington, Texas ($5.1 million).

The report notes that the TMD is estimating 18,000 hotel room nights, good for $3.6 million in revenue alone.

WWE got more than $500,000 in cash & incentives from San Antonio for 2023 Royal Rumble

Posted on by Josh Nason

After a lengthy wait and a fight from both the San Antonio government and WWE, the amount of cash and incentives WWE received for bringing the Royal Rumble to Texas in 2023 has been revealed.

Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that WWE received a financial package of $546,710.74 ($250,000 in cash) for the January mainstay at the Alamodome. The non-cash portion covered other event-related expenses with the full amount submitted to the Texas Governor’s Office for reimbursement.

The amount is in line with what WWE received from Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida, tourist organizations for this past January’s Royal Rumble and a fraction of what they have been reportedly receiving in financial packages for WrestleManias and even 2022’s Clash at the Castle in Cardiff, Wales.

Thurston had to fight for the information via the Freedom of Information Act, noting, “The agreement’s release has been the subject of multiple reviews from the Texas Attorney General, with both WWE and the San Antonio government claiming the contract constituted a trade secret.”

Since February, WWE has had an ongoing lawsuit against the Attorney General’s office with the subject of whether the contract should be published as the primary issue. This, as Thurston noted, is still active despite the said publishing of the contract which is available in full on his website.

Some of the specific financials include WWE providing the city with 15% of “novelties” which Thurston believes is venue merchandise sales in addition to small cuts of per-ticket sales to help offset transit and maintenance costs.

The event drew a $7.3 million gate from 44,569 tickets sold, revealed in a previous Thurston report.

Las Vegas tourism group approves $5 million to host WWE WrestleMania 41

Posted on by Josh Nason

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority have approved $5 million in sponsorship dollars to bring in next April’s WrestleMania 41 and all that surrounds it, announced by the tourism group on Tuesday.

The annual spectacular will be held for the first time at Allegiant Stadium on Saturday, April 19th and Sunday, April 20th during Easter weekend: a typically slow time for the city which is why bringing the event in was attractive for them.

Friday’s SmackDown and the following Monday’s Raw will take place at “at an MGM Resorts venue” in addition to WWE World making their home at the Las Vegas Convention Center for five days.

Lisa Motley, vice president of sports and special events for the group, said the city expects more than 180,000 fans to occupy 144,000 “incremental room nights” during the week and weekend.

Of the $5 million, it’s unknown how much WWE will bring home in terms of a site fee vs. how much will be represented by subsidies (venue rentals, advertising and signage, etc).

During last week’s earnings call, TKO vice president Mark Shapiro said they set a WWE site fee record for this past February’s Elimination Chamber in Perth, Australia, without revealing the actual number. He previously said last December they had signed a deal worth $16 million for a combination of events in the country.

WWE’s largest site fees still come from Saudi Arabia which pays WWE $50 million per PLE.

Other reported and published site fees include $1.8 million in cash and subsidies from Puerto Rico for last year’s Backlash and SmackDown, $500,000 from St. Petersburg/Tampa for this year’s Royal Rumble, and almost $3 million from the Welsh government for September 2022’s Clash at the Castle.