WWE bursts into Las Vegas this week with a “full card of professional wrestling events, topped off with WWE’s Super Bowl” -- WrestleMania 41 -- taking place this weekend, and the festivities are expected to ”draw 180,000 visitors” to the city, according to Mick Akers of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority noted that those visitors are expected to “occupy over 144,000 incremental room nights at hotels” in the city. The LVCVA approved a $5M sponsorship agreement with WWE to host the events. As the week of wrestling actions kicks off, there is “still a smattering of tickets for WrestleMania left for sale” on Ticketmaster. As of yesterday, tickets for Saturday’s matches “started at $140 (lowest-priced seats are noted to have limited views).” The “cheapest ticket was $210” for Sunday (also with an obstructed view), and a two-day ticket “started at $1,600.” All prices are retail and before taxes and fees. On no-fee secondary ticket marketplace TickPick, tickets to Saturday’s event “start at $599 (obstructed view).” Sunday “was $328,” with the “cheapest two-day ticket costing $599” (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 4/15).
ARE YOU READY? In Las Vegas, Eli Segall noted records show that WWE “expects to spend more than” $30M producing its multiday spectacle, and it “landed some state-approved tax breaks to help.” The Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development spokesperson Carli Smith noted that the office “recently approved” WWE’s application for upwards of $4.24M in tax credits. She said that the applicant can use the credits “toward specific types of taxes” or “sell them to another company with a tax liability in Nevada.” TKO Group Holdings Senior Tax Manager Brendan Nugent said that the production will “hire 450 Nevada residents on a temporary basis, with payroll exceeding” $2.6M, and buy goods and services from Nevada vendors, “totaling around” $5.3M. As part of its application, WWE included a $33.7M budget for WrestleMania and its associated events -- including Raw, SmackDown and NXT. The budget “provided spending totals for dozens of categories,” including stagehands ($2.4M); set design and construction (nearly $1.2M); catering (roughly $353,000); pyrotechnics (around $276,340); and props, stunts and gags (roughly $200,700). It “redacted spending totals” for three line-items in the budget: building rent, other building costs and talent (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 4/15).
