As I write this, two-night tickets for WrestleMania 41 are $1,100. Each. Now, just like a Vegas street psychic, I know what you’re thinking …
“Zack, those must be tickets dipped in gold, right?”
“These come with food, drinks, and a personal car service for the weekend?”
“For this price, Steve Austin will slam a couple beers with me in a suite as the show is on?”
No, nope, and nada. The tickets on Ticketmaster are two-night tickets in the fifth to last row inside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the home of this year’s Granddaddy of Them All event on April 19 and 20 next year. It comes with nothing, but a steep hike that only a trusty StairMaster could get you ready for.
What the hell is happening?
What the hell are we doing here? Yes, WWE is on a hot streak and has the winds of momentum at their backs, but $1,100? That’s not good business, it’s arrogance and hypocrisy of the highest order.
Hypocrisy? Why? Ha! We’ve all heard the little talking WWE heads speak these exact words — “We put smiles on peoples faces.” Right? You’ve heard it? Just not all people, I guess. Only the ones that can fork out this kind of obscene dough. It’s ridiculous.
Let’s do some math. If a Dad like me has two children that like the WWE and want to attend WrestleMania, I’m adding up $1,100 x 3 for the tickets, approximately $1,200 for flights (I’m being generous there), and then another $700 for a hotel room for two nights on The Strip. So, a grand total of $5,200 before even landing in Nevada.
Now, I get it. WWE will likely sell out both nights of their biggest event in 2025 at these offensive price points. Just because they can, doesn’t mean they should. Nick Khan and Company may think “why the hell not” while they bask in lots of zeros on all their checks, but WWE fan bank accounts aren’t endless. At some point, the company won’t sell out their events at these bonker rates and they’ll lose more than just ticket sales when that happens. The good will will be dropkicked out the door, too.
WWE needs good will
WWE should be careful about that. It took a long time to get good will back from their audience. A really long time. The stench of Vince McMahon still very much lingers on the organization, but smart creative, over talent, interesting storylines, fun atmospheres, and McMahon not being a part of things sparked a renewed interest on the part of the fanbase, but more importantly, a renewed willingness amongst lapsed or disgruntled fans to make a return.
If Nick Khan is thinking he has that into perpetuity now, that level of arrogance has another thing coming. Especially in pro wrestling. It can go away in the blink of an eye.
Look, WrestleMania is like the Super Bowl. The same “we put smiles on faces” talking WWE heads say that all the time. I suppose it’s true in that it’s the biggest event on WWE’s calendar each year and now it’s also a fan convention, corporate retreat, and yeah, a wrestling show. What it has going for it, though, is that it really isn’t the Super Bowl.
WrestleMania is not the Super Bowl
Fans still want to attend WrestleMania. They don’t go to the Super Bowl anymore. Going to the Super Bowl now … sucks. It’s corporatized and unaffordable, making it not only unappealing for traditional fans to attend, but impossible for them to attend because of the price.
WrestleMania doesn’t have that issue — not yet anyway. It’s an event that only works as successfully as it has since it’s inception in 1985 because fans that attend care about what’s going on. If WWE continues on this wild ticket price trajectory, the event will lose what makes it special.
WWE is a business. They need to charge fans for the service they provide them, so I’m not arguing that WrestleMania should cost the same as a house show event in Peoria, Illinois. Charge more, but don’t lose your damn minds about it.
At WrestleMania 29, you could squeeze into Metlife Stadium for $50. This year, you’d have to double that 22 times for your ticket. That’s a lot of wins on red at the Vegas roulette table.
Good luck.
Are you going to WrestleMania 41? Have you bought tickets? Let us know in the comments!
Subscribe to the Brass Ring Media YouTube channel HERE.
Become a Brass Ring Media member HERE.
Sports prioritising profit over fan experience, intentionally driving fans off in the chase of more money per head, is the first step on the road to cultural irrelevance. This has been going on for a while, but as you said, $1100 tickets is a wild escalation. I went to Money in the Bank in Toronto, and it was $400 for two. That's wishy washy, but even as a broke college student, I could take it, so I think $200 per head is on the upper limit of what's acceptable.
$1100 is ludicrous, and is an intentional massacre of WWE's own cultural relevance. Business people may say that cultural relevance does not pay a salary, but I inherently disagree. How many people would've bought Stranger Things merchandise if it cost $1100 to consume in its best form? That's the value of cultural relevance. Sports uniformly right now seem to be spitting all over the concept of cultural relevance, and I don't understand it.