The Wrestlemania 29 Early Spring NY Weather Disaster Prediction Thread

[flyonthewall2983]

Rain is the least of their worries. Can you imagine watching them perform in 40-50 degree weather?

[Dylan Waco]

I've been at the top of football stadiums in 10 degree weather - I'd do it again tomorrow and wouldn't think twice about it.

[flyonthewall2983]

Football players don't play in their underwear.

[Dylan Waco]

They also don't play under massive lighting rigs and are on the field for hours, not minutes.

[khawk20]

Would WWE have enough foresight to have a backup date booked, just in case?

[NintendoLogic]

Dave from about a year ago:

 

I know Vince has said many times Yankee Stadium is not an option. He will not risk weather and shadows ever again.

I guess upstaging the NFL has rendered that moot. Well, you know what they say about hubris.

[Kevin Ridge]

I think they will be fine with weather. We are not talking about ice/snow by this time when show is ready to go. They will have roof around ring to handle any winter time weather. Me, I am looking forward to this show as probably my best chance to watch Wrestlemania live in this area. Yeah it will probably cool for those in person but will be fine for me.

[flyonthewall2983]

Probably, but as someone with a pessimistic view on the current product, it's fun to think about.

 

I know Vince has said many times Yankee Stadium is not an option. He will not risk weather and shadows ever again.

What was this in relation to?

[NintendoLogic]

Probably, but as someone with a pessimistic view on the current product, it's fun to think about.

 

I know Vince has said many times Yankee Stadium is not an option. He will not risk weather and shadows ever again.

What was this in relation to?

 

Someone broached the idea of having WM at Yankee Stadium.

[Loss]

But what was "again" a reference to? It implies that he was the victim of a show destroyed by mother nature once before.

[NintendoLogic]

That was a reference to the rain at WM24. The forecasts called for thunderstorms, so it could have been a lot worse.

[sek69]

I don't know if its all about upstaging the NFL, MetLife Stadium has a football capacity of 82,500. Vince might want a new kayfabed attendance record to hype since WM3 might as well have been a million years ago to most of the current audience.

[Jingus]

I don't know if its all about upstaging the NFL, MetLife Stadium has a football capacity of 82,500. Vince might want a new kayfabed attendance record to hype since WM3 might as well have been a million years ago to most of the current audience.

There's at least half a dozen stadiums in the USA which top out at over 100,000 capacity (mostly gargantuan football fields at Big Ten universities). I wonder why Vince has never tried to run Mania at any of those? Is he just afraid that the building might be half empty?

[Cox]

I think the idea is to have Mania in large metropolitan areas. Most of those giant football stadiums are not in major metropolitan markets like New York, Atlanta, Miami, etc, or tourist locations like Orlando. Vince is probably worried that if he holds Wrestlemania in Columbus, Ohio or Knoxville, Tennessee, it will come off too small-time.

[Marty]

I think the idea is to have Mania in large metropolitan areas. Most of those giant football stadiums are not in major metropolitan markets like New York, Atlanta, Miami, etc, or tourist locations like Orlando. Vince is probably worried that if he holds Wrestlemania in Columbus, Ohio or Knoxville, Tennessee, it will come off too small-time.

Reminds me of Jim Cornette's point in the 1997 Timeline interview. (Cornette was pointing out that San Antonio was not much of a tourist attraction, therefore it was a mistake to do a stadium show there (Royal Rumble 1997). Aside from, I think, ringside, every ticket in the arena was cheaper than dirt, and they still couldn't sell the place out.)

[goodhelmet]

I think the idea is to have Mania in large metropolitan areas. Most of those giant football stadiums are not in major metropolitan markets like New York, Atlanta, Miami, etc, or tourist locations like Orlando. Vince is probably worried that if he holds Wrestlemania in Columbus, Ohio or Knoxville, Tennessee, it will come off too small-time.

Reminds me of Jim Cornette's point in the 1997 Timeline interview. (Cornette was pointing out that San Antonio was not much of a tourist attraction, therefore it was a mistake to do a stadium show there (Royal Rumble 1997). Aside from, I think, ringside, every ticket in the arena was cheaper than dirt, and they still couldn't sell the place out.)

 

Couldn't have picked a worst example since San Antonio revolves around tourist attractions... the Alamo, the Riverwalk, Texas stereotypes, the Missions, etc.

 

At one point, San Antonio, Boston, San Francisco and New Orleans were the four cities with the biggest stream of revenue coming from tourism.

 

That doesn't mean I disagree with Cornette's point that SA was a bad choice for doing a Dome show in 1997. It is a poor city with poor people and early 1997, wrestling wasn't really hot yet.

[sek69]

Counterpoint: the NHL is doing the Winter Classic in Michigan Stadium and will probably draw 100,000 easy on January 1rst (they've got that many people for college hockey before, no reason they won't get that many here too).

[NintendoLogic]

The 93,173 figure came about because the WWF wanted to set an indoor attendance record and no indoor stadiums at the time had anything close to that kind of capacity. The current record is 108,713 for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. There's no way the WWE could credibly claim a significantly larger figure than that.

[Loss]

Wrestlemania is sold to cities now as a package deal, hyping that they can pump a lot of money into the local economy. It doesn't make sense not to do the show in a major market at this point.

[artDDP]

I don't know if its all about upstaging the NFL, MetLife Stadium has a football capacity of 82,500. Vince might want a new kayfabed attendance record to hype since WM3 might as well have been a million years ago to most of the current audience.

There's at least half a dozen stadiums in the USA which top out at over 100,000 capacity (mostly gargantuan football fields at Big Ten universities). I wonder why Vince has never tried to run Mania at any of those? Is he just afraid that the building might be half empty?

 

They could always do what WCW did: Book a stadium for PPV or "Nitro" and then curtain off two-thirds of it.

[Ricky Jackson]

The current record is 108,713 for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game.

I'm a fan of basketball, but how much papering and cheap tickets went into the NBA achieving that number? And talk about a record that is already totally forgotten only two years later.

[Log]

Wrestlemania is sold to cities now as a package deal, hyping that they can pump a lot of money into the local economy. It doesn't make sense not to do the show in a major market at this point.

My wife works for the city in a PR capacity here in Louisville. She was in on a "virtual chat" with the Mayor a few months back. Someone wrote in proposing the city try to get Wrestlemania. She was a bit embarrassed to have to point out to the Mayor and the city supervisors that it is actually a big deal for a city to host.

[jdw]

The current record is 108,713 for the 2010 NBA All-Star Game.

I'm a fan of basketball, but how much papering and cheap tickets went into the NBA achieving that number? And talk about a record that is already totally forgotten only two years later.

 

There were reports that they "sold" over 95K going into the last week. I've seen reports (including by the terrific Mark Heisler at the time) that 20% were complimentary, which would be 86K paid and 22K not. It would be wrong to quantify all those complimentary tickets as "paper", since the massive majority of comps in things like this go to Sponsors, business partners, owners, etc. It's not "paper" in the sense that we use it: freebies to make the crowd look good. I doubt any of it was really paper, and instead a split between tickets sold and folks with connections getting in.

 

There were cheaper tickets, but you'd get the same thing at a Mania: the joint is so freaking but and it's an All Star Game not a Super Bowl, so folks aren't going to spend $400 to sit in nosebleed seats. Heisler had the gate at $8M+, which would be in the range of a $100 per ticket average on the 86K that he reported were sold. That's... pretty freaking great for an All Star Game (read: exhibition) where a big chunk of the tickets are nosebleeders that are going to need to be reduced.

 

John

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

 

OK, here's the seating chart. Tickets go on sale Saturday and for those of you who have been to a Mania before, I have two questions:

 

1) It is likely to be an automatic sellout? Last year wasn't but this is the New York market. I can't afford one of the floor seats or anything but will it be possible to buy a mid-level seat Saturday morning without resporting to Stubhub?

 

2) What is the highest level you can be at and still see the ring? I'm trying to strike a balance between affordability and, um, watchability. It's not really worth it to spend over a hundred bucks just to watch a Titantron.

[soup23]

2) Not sure what the ticket prices are for each section here but for WM 27, we would have been in the the equivalent of about Section 125, halfway up and that was a good view of the ring and the tickets with fees and all were around $100. I would say anything in the 300 section will pretty much have you staring at the titantron.