The Wrestling Post – Wrestlemania Edition

Welcome to another edition of The Wrestling Post.  Its the biggest week of the year for the WWE as Wrestlemania 29 happens this Sunday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

New Jersey Area Expected to Receive Huge Financial Upside from Wrestlemania 29

The Bergen Record (NJ) reports that the area can expect a financial impact to the region comparable to last year’s $102.7M economic impact in Miami.  In addition, to the financial boon from wrestling fans from travel, hotels, food, rental cars and entertainment, Miami received $15.3M in local, state and county taxes.  Last year’s attendance at Wrestlemania 28 was 78,363.  First day ticket sales for this year’s event was at a record 52,000.   This generated over $10 million in gross revenue as compared to $6.3 million last year.  The report also states that hotels surrounding the event are sold out.  

Some interesting demographic figures from the article:

Who goes? WWE.com attracts 12.3 million unique monthly visitors, and 58 percent of them have at least some college education and 46 percent have a household income greater than $60,000, according to a WWE website. The company says 74 percent of its television audience is over 21 years old, and 36 percent are female. It does particularly well with black and Hispanic viewers.

Payout Take:  The wrestling may be fake, but the money is real.  The annual wrestling extravaganza is a destination event for fans and the WWE has supplemented Sunday’s event with an Expo (WWE Axxess), a “Hall of Fame” ceremony and other events this week.  The economic impact to the area is what appeals to cities to have this event in their city.  Despite what you think about pro wrestling, Wrestlemania is one of the biggest economic generators around.  

Social Media Explosion Supporting Wrestlemania

The WWE has announced a “record social media activation” for Wrestlemania 29.  The number of initiatives going on this week include CEO Vince McMahon joining twitter, Wrestlemania will stream on multiple platforms including Apple, Android and Windows 8 devices. The WWE also will provide bloggers with embeddable content on a new Yahoo! web site. It has included celebrity “social media ambassadors” including Jimmy Fallon, Lil’ Wayne and Charlie Sheen to name a few.  These ambassadors will be tweeting from various events the WWE will be conducting throughout the week.

Payout Take:  The WWE is ahead of the line with social media and the brand activation shows. It has taken advantage of its tech/social media-savvy demo and given them tools to play with which in turn will help promote the WWE brand.  Certainly, the WWE will be trending all over twitter this weekend.  It is interesting that it has not utilized Tout more as it had invested in the video snippet, social media platform.  

Hart Family Settles with WWE

The Washington Post via AP reported that the Hart Family has settled with the WWE in a lawsuit involving the rights to the likenesses and images of deceased WWE wrestler Owen Hart.  Hart died in a staged accident at a WWE PPV.  The Hart Family sued in June 2010 alleging that the WWE did not pay royalties to the Hart Family (or Owen’s estate) for the use of Owen in WWE produced content.  No terms of the settlement were disclosed although it is rumored that the WWE will be able to utilize Owen’s likeness and images again.

Payout Take:  The real in-ring death of Owen Hart was one of the more tragic events in pro wrestling history.  Its good to see that the two sides in this lawsuit have settled and it appears that the sides have come to an agreement on the use of Hart’s likenesses and imagery in WWE content.