TKO President Mark Shapiro is opening up about WWE’s decision to bring WrestleMania back to Las Vegas for a second straight year, and the criticism that followed.
In the months leading up to WrestleMania 42, there was plenty of discussion online regarding ticket sales and the high cost of attending WWE’s biggest event of the year.
Some fans pointed to the expensive ticket packages and overall travel costs as possible reasons for the reported decline in attendance compared to last year’s record-setting event.
Speaking with Yahoo Finance in an interview recorded prior to WrestleMania 42 weekend (see video below), Shapiro addressed the situation directly and admitted he may have made a mistake by moving the show from New Orleans back to Las Vegas.
Even so, he made it clear he has no regrets about the call.
“WWE, UFC, PBR, in today’s economic climate and obviously a lot going on from a geopolitical perspective and a lot going on at home from an affordability perspective, we’re still seeing massive uptick, maybe even more so, of families and fans that want to come out and escape the day-to-day,” Shapiro said. “They’re doing it through the lens of our sports and entertainment properties. We’re seeing strong growth on our ticket yields, we’re seeing sellouts across the board on our UFC numbered events and our Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and Premium Live Events at WWE. PBR is having its best year in the last 5 years. That should tell you something in terms of demand, anticipation, and following and should bode well for years of long-term sustained growth.”
Shapiro continued by specifically discussing the company’s decision to return to Las Vegas instead of sticking with the originally planned New Orleans location for WrestleMania 42.
A rare admission.
“I would tell you that Vegas is 2 years in a row for WrestleMania 42, so some of the challenges we had there is usually we move WrestleMania year after year to a new spot and that allows us to obviously grow and see the kind of economic impact we would expect,” he said. “Maybe it’s a mistake I made because Vegas was so huge last year and such a winner for our fans and the product that I said to Nick Khan, ‘We’ve gotta go back to Vegas next year. We have to move New Orleans down the road and we got to come back to Vegas.’ Las Vegas, I don’t need to tell you, is the Mecca for great events. More and more events are moving there, music has residences, and more and more sports teams, as evidenced by the NHL and soon-to-be Major League Baseball, are popping up there with teams to come. Absolutely no regrets on going back there, but the only reason you’re hearing some of the, hey it’s not what it was last year, it’s because we’re not benefiting from the first mover experience.”
As previously announced, WrestleMania 43 is currently scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia.
