WWE recently revealed that it will move WrestleMania 36 to the Performance Center, as the superstars face off in Orlando instead of in Tampa Bay, which was the previous plan. Moving from Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium and in front of only a streaming crowd will have a big effect on Vince McMahon‘s bottom line, though it will also have a significant impact on Tampa’s pockets, and as far as how much, a new article from The Wrap brings those losses on both sides into view. To put it into perspective, last year WrestleMania 35 sold-out New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, pulling in $16.9 million at the gate. Now, the capacity at MetLife (82,500)is larger than that of Raymond James (65,890), but even with the lower crowd size, that would have been a sizable haul if you do the math.
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According to estimates, WrestleMania 36 would have taken in around $15 million. Now, WWE also has other shows and events going on in and around WrestleMania, including NXT TakeOver, the Hall of Fame, and more. The estimate for the four shows at Amalie Arena is around 4 million.
The overall number estimate for this year’s WrestleMania sits around $22 million once you figure in the additional shows and estimated merchandise sales, which in the last two years generated an additional $3 million in merchandise during the quarter of WrestleMania.
As for Tampa’s losses in all this, they are also pretty substantial. According to New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, WrestleMania 36 and all the other events that come with it generated $165.4 million in “direct, indirect, and induced impact”. Now, those numbers might be overstated, but even if you take some of that away, that’s a substantial impact on any city.
If Murphy’s numbers are true though, it would make WrestleMania 35 the eighth straight WrestleMania to generate more than $100 million in economic impact for the city that’s hosted it, and now Tampa will lose out on that anticipated influx of traffic and money. That impact comes in the form of several factors, which going by a recent Enigma study includes hotel stays ($23.9 million on hotels and accommodations for WM 35), restaurant traffic ($6.6 million WM 35), and “derived” impact, which could be equal to the creation of 1,534 jobs in the area.
Still, the show must go on, and fans can watch WrestleMania 36 on the WWE Network on Sunday, April 5th.
