Government officials, mainstream media embrace WWE WrestleMania
With WWE’s WrestleMania 32 in the rear view mirror, my road to WrestleMania 33 Orlando is now officially underway.
Actually, the journey began prior to WrestleMania 32, in March, with a WrestleMania 33 Press Conference at the Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando to introduce the greatly renovated, refurbished and redesigned Citrus Bowl Stadium as the home for WrestleMania 33 on April 2, 2017 -- making Beautiful the host city, Orange the host county and Sunshine the host state for WrestleMania Week 2017.
The Citrus Bowl Stadium is now Camping World Stadium, an outdoor venue seating more than 65,000, and WrestleMania will fill it.
Just how grandiose is WrestleMania?
Well, at the press conference, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, Central Florida Sports Commission Senior Vice President Brent Nelson, Full Sail University President Garry Jones, and even Florida Governor Rick Scott attended.
Scott also was a guest of the opening of the state-of-the-art WWE Performance Center in 2013 in Orlando.
But this time it’s about WrestleMania 33.
Under the direction and vision of WWE Chairman/CEO Vincent Kennedy McMahon, WrestleMania blossomed into a mega event -- the Super Bowl of pro wrestling/sports entertainment. Growing tremendously, cities are bidding to host it, i.e. NFL’s Super Bowl and FIFA’s World Cup.
Mr. WrestleMania (Behind the Scenes) John Saboor, the executive vice president of special events for WWE, helped open and close the WrestleMania 33 press conference in his home county. Saboor served on the other side of the partnership in 2008 when WWE chose Orlando for WrestleMania 24. Saboor was a key figure of the Central Florida Sports Commission. He did such a good job luring WrestleMania 24 to Orlando that WWE hired him.
With major improvements ($207 million worth in 2014) to the Citrus Bowl, Orlando again proved just how much it wanted to facilitate another WrestleMania Week as its mayor, Buddy Dyer, made a special day-trip to WWE headquarters in Stanford, Conn. The move paid off, impressing WWE officials, including Mr. McMahon.
And that move will also payoff for Orlando in 2017.
Record setting
WrestleMania continues to set attendance and financial records, attracting tens of thousands of fans from around the globe to WrestleMania Week, which means a colossal economic boost to the host area.
Orlando experienced that in 2008 for WrestleMania 24, and the numbers have grown since then.
WrestleMania 32 in 2016 set plenty of records at AT&T Stadium in Arlington/Dallas.
In addition to setting a company attendance record of 101,763, it also became the highest-grossing live event in WWE history at $17.3 million. This year’s spectacular also broke records for digital and social media engagement and merchandise sales.
WrestleMania 32 was the most social event in WWE history, according to Nielsen Social data. It generated 2.5 million mentions on Twitter throughout the day and 1.3 million mentions during the broadcast alone.
The event set data usage records, totaling 8.6TB on the AT&T network. WrestleMania also set a record for data traffic at AT&T Stadium, an increase of 36 percent over the College Football Playoff National Championship Game in 2015.
On the WWE Network, the event reached 1.8 million households, making it the most-watched WrestleMania in the streaming service’s young history, with pay-per-view data still forthcoming. WWE Network subscribers viewed 21.7 million hours of programming during WrestleMania Week, compared to 15 million hours last year, a year-over-year increase of 45 percent.
On the merchandise side, WWE generated a record-breaking $4.55 million in WrestleMania product revenue, an increase of 37 percent or $1.2 million, from last year’s previous record at WrestleMania 31.
WrestleMania 31 economic impact
WrestleMania 31 generated $139 million in economic impact for the Santa Clara/San Jose, Calif. region in March 2015, according to a study.
An estimated 78 percent of fans that attended WrestleMania 31 lived outside the Bay Area with a total of $22 million spent on hotels and accommodations and another $6.2 million on area restaurants. The show from Levi’s Stadium also generated approximately $23.2 million in federal, state and local taxes.
For the fourth consecutive year, the WrestleMania festivities generated more than $100 million in economic impact for its host region. WrestleMania has generated more than $700 million in cumulative economic impact for the host cities over the past nine years.
Giving back, mainstream appeal
Not only a financial success but the area is impacted during WrestleMania Week by several WWE community service type offerings -- giving back to the host community through hospital visits, WrestleMania Reading Challenge, WWE Be a STAR anti-bullying rallies, a Make-A-Wish party, an online auction and more.
WWE is such a giant on social media, often top trending, that the mainstream media is embracing WWE. The entertainment type and now even the sports genre covers WWE’s WrestleMania. ESPN -- which plotted against WWE Monday Night Raw many, many years ago -- is now walking with WWE during WrestleMania Week. SportsCenter is there reporting, thanks largely to SportsCenter Anchor Jonathan Coach Coachman, a former WWE broadcaster/talent who emphasized to his authority figures WWE’s massive worldwide appeal.
It’s about putting smiles on faces, and everyone is grinning wide throughout WrestleMania Week.
- About WWE
WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family friendly entertainment on its television programming, pay-per-view, digital media and publishing platforms.
WWE programming reaches more than 650 million homes worldwide in 35 languages. WWE Network, the first-ever 24/7 over-the-top premium network that includes all 12 live pay-per-views, scheduled programming and a massive video-on-demand library, is currently available in more than 170 countries. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai, Munich and Tokyo.
Additional information on WWE (NYSE: WWE) can be found at
wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com.
For information on its global activities, go to
http://www.wwe.com/worldwide/.
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This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Government officials, mainstream media embrace WWE WrestleMania."