WWE confirmed over the weekend that WrestleMania 37 will take place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on April 10-11. But along with that announcement came the important question that has hung over every WWE event for nearly a year — will live fans be in attendance? Stephanie McMahon confirmed the answer is “yes” during an interview with TMZ Sports, saying, “That’s the current plan. Of course, ticket information is not available yet ’cause we’re still trying to figure out all the different machinations.”
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So now the question is how many fans will be allowed inside the NFL football stadium for each night of the event? According to ESPN, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had an average attendance of 14,483 fans for their eight home games in the latter half of 2020, which 22.1% of the stadium’s capacity. According to a new report via WrestleVotes on Wednesday, WWE is looking at roughly 25,000 fans for both nights.
WWE is planning on permitting upwards of 25,000 fans for WrestleMania on each night. The real internal discussions are what to do after. Some would like a soft “reopening” of the touring schedule for Live TVs as continuing the ThunderDome post Mania comes with location headaches.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) January 20, 2021
No matches have been confirmed for either night as of yet.
While that would be the lowest attendance a WrestleMania has run inside of a stadium, it still gives the show a bigger crowd than any of the Manias that have taken place inside of an arena. WWE began running WrestleManias inside of stadiums on a consistent basis beginning with WrestleMania 23 at Detroit’s Ford Field in 2007. Due to the pandemic, last year’s WrestleMania had an official attendance of zero and took place inside WWE’s Performance Center.
“The opportunity for Tampa Bay to host WrestleMania in April is, in true WWE fashion, the perfect comeback story and marks a clear indication that our beautiful city is poised to bounce back stronger than ever. We can’t wait to once again showcase all that team Tampa Bay has to offer,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said in the press release for WrestleMania 37’s relocation.
Vince McMahon commented in the release by saying “On behalf of everyone at WWE, we thank Governor DeSantis, Mayor Castor, Mayor Williams and Mayor Butts for their graciousness and flexibility in what was a collaborative effort to bring the next three WrestleManias to these iconic stadiums in their world-class cities.”
