TKO Group executive Nick Khan said one of the challenges with trying to price tickets these days is how brokers snap up low-priced inventory, leading to regular fans paying more and properties missing out on unrealized revenue. Asked at this week’s CAA World Congress of Sports about how WWE is taking steps to preserve the opportunity for all fans to attend its shows, Khan brought up a phenomenon that TKO saw when it started its Zuffa Boxing property last fall with the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
“We wanted to make sure the upper bowl was priced family friendly,” Khan said. “As soon as we put them on sale, the upper bowl was sold out in three minutes. It wasn’t sold out to families. It was sold out to third-party ticket brokers. So the cheapest we priced seats was I think at $35. A day later on the third-party broker websites, there were $75 [tickets]. So the marketplace dictates the ticket price.”
He said the company views secondary market prices as the actual marketplace and sets the initial prices based on where they anticipate the secondary market rates will land.
The WWE president said he hopes to get close to last year’s record-breaking gate for WrestleMania 42 this weekend in Vegas. The 2025 show, WrestleMania 41, was also held at Allegiant and drew nearly 125,000 fans over two days in what WWE later said was its highest grossing showcase ever. Wrestling news site Post Wrestling later cited Pollstar data as the gate being over $66 million. Said Khan: “Listen, last year we set records, which we set the year prior, the year prior to that. So this year, we think it’s going to get close to that record -- but fingers crossed.”
Khan said WWE wanted to go back to the same venue two years in a row because TKO struck a seven-figure deal with the LVCVA after it saw “how easy it was for Vegas to handle that big of a crowd.” He added: “It’s a city built for tourism. So we were impressed with that.”
Next year’s WrestleMania 43 will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the first time it will be held outside North America. “For international properties, we realized years ago we can’t simply pipe out American content,” Khan said. “Internationally, you got to be boots on the ground. And if you look at our revenue from international now, it’s substantially greater than it was five and a half years ago.”
