This April, WWE will bring the 41st annual edition of its marquee show, Wrestlemania, to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, at a time when fans are raving about the matches and stories being told by the world’s biggest wrestling promotion.
But right now, many fans are raging at how much it will cost to attend the “Granddaddy of them All,” as prices in presales even for nosebleed seats to the two-night event cost $1,050 before Ticketmaster’s fees. Fans have posted screenshots of what they are being charged for upper deck seats for themselves and family and friends to go to Wrestlemania, with the final cost reaching thousands of dollars when fees are added in.
At the top end of the scale are seats in the rows closest to the ring and entrance ramp, which are going for a staggering $15,000 each before fees. For comparison, premium event company On Location is offering a $10,500 package that includes suite seats to Wrestlemania, an exclusive party at Topgolf with WWE veteran The Miz, and a visit in the suite from one of wrestling’s most famous stars, The Undertaker.
To show just how much Wrestlemania prices have skyrocketed, some fans posted their receipts to show what they paid for the event when it was held just last year at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. One fan showed a receipt for two upper deck seats to that event for $252 after fees.
Part of this is simply the immense surge in fan demand for WWE events amid renewed enthusiasm for its programming after COO Paul Levesque, known to fans as Triple H, took over as the promotion’s head of creative after the ousting of founder Vince McMahon. It is enthusiasm that has been capitalized upon by TKO, the Endeavor-owned holding company that has run WWE since it acquired the company from McMahon last year and which also runs On Location and UFC, among other sports brands.
Under TKO, WWE has moved many of its biggest shows, called premium live events, outside of the U.S. to countries like France, Canada, Australia, Germany and the UK, among others. While prices to these shows were also extremely high and drew grumblings from fans, they became sell out events that were met with roaring crowds, acclaim from fans for the matches put on, and record gate revenue for WWE.
With that in mind, there’s little doubt that Wrestlemania 41 will sell out despite costing thousands, not hundreds, to get in. WWE’s top two stars, Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns, are expected to continue their popular feud with likely involvement from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who may wrestle one or both of them come April. Next year also marks the retirement tour of John Cena, and there will surely be thousands who will pay any price to witness his final Wrestlemania match 20 years after winning the WWE Championship for the first time at the event.
But the anger over the presales also stems from Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing model, which adjusts the prices of tickets for high demand events in real time based on fan interest. The model led to widespread backlash last year after tickets to see music artists like Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen soared as high as $5,000, and the model is being blamed by WWE fans for making Wrestlemania tickets even more exorbitant.
Most recently, Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing earned it scrutiny from the European Commission and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which are investigating the model after prices for the wildly anticipated reunion of the Britpop band Oasis soared after going on sale.
“The only winners in this situation are big ticketing platforms, at the expense of fans who find themselves priced out of gigs,” Dutch European Parliament member Lara Wolters told The Guardian last month. “This is not a system that seeks to maximise joy by filling the stadium with an artist’s biggest fans, but to maximise profit from music like any other product.”
