Cities have been bidding for the right to host WWE WrestleMania for years, much like the NFL does with the Super Bowl every year. When these types of events take place, the local economy benefits greatly.
WWE’s first major premium live event in the United Kingdom in over three decades, Clash at the Castle, will take place next month in Cardiff, Wales. When the show was first announced, some fans were surprised that it would be held in Cardiff rather than a larger city such as London.
Dave Meltzer was recapping the WWE second quarter 2022 earnings call on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio. He mentioned on that call that Clash at the Castle is being held in Cardiff due to the city paying the company for the event. Meltzer stated that WWE will change its major event strategy in the future and will attempt to have cities bid on other major events such as SummerSlam and the Royal Rumble.
“They also mentioned that with Cardiff, not only are they getting ticket revenue, but the city of Cardiff is paying for them to come in, which probably is why they went to Cardiff and not London for this big show. They are working on, for the biggest shows of the year, to do what they do for WrestleMania, which is essentially to put them up for bidding from cities.
“So say you want SummerSlam, say you want Royal Rumble, instead of WWE going to Houston, Texas because they feel it’s a market where they can sell 30,000-40,000 tickets at the stadium, they will still be going to a stadium. But they want the city to pay them to bring them in because they’re bringing tourism and things like that to the city. The idea is for the big shows, going forward, this is their attempt, and this is what they’re gonna try to do….where the local government pays them to come in.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
