WWE is invading San Antonio this weekend for two days of professional wrestling action that will point attention from the whole word toward the Alamo City. WWE and NXT are both set to takeover San Antonio, however the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that neither event is close to a sell out.
When Bruce Prichard covered the 1997 Royal Rumble on his podcast, he said that WWF partnered with Taco Bell to sell more tickets to ‘sell out’ the Alamodome. They offered discounted tickets partnering with Taco Bell restaurants throughout San Antonio, and this strategy apparently worked. Prichard says that there were also quite a few walk-up ticket sales the day of the event.
WWE isn’t doing any such discounted tickets in the local area for the Royal Rumble this time, nor are they partnering with AAA to bring in the die-hard lucha fans in the area like they did twenty years ago. Instead, they are relying on the fact that it’s the Royal Rumble, and it’s a WWE event, and apparently that this bold strategy isn’t working.
In the latest edition of the WON, it’s noted that there are a “ton of seats remaining” in the Alamodome. Although in 1997 they actually had 62,000 fans in the dome, the event was heavily papered and the actual paid tickets were around 48,000.
The idea of a big destination weekend with NXT on Saturday and the Royal Rumble the next night isn’t bringing in nearly the attention WWE hoped for. As of this week there were even 14th row tickets available on Ticketmaster and seats in almost every price range from $25 and up are still widely available. There is still a chance to fill these empty seats if WWE hits the ground hard by promoting locally, but they still have a lot of work to do.
At this time they have about 40,000 paid tickets for the Royal Rumble, but this isn’t nearly as bad as NXT Takeover’s scenario in San Antonio’s Freeman Coliseum.
Dave Meltzer reports that the coliseum is set up for around 7,000 fans for the Takeover event and they “aren’t even close to sold out.” Although most sections are full, there are still ringside seats and several upper deck sections with a lot of tickets available for purchase.
WWE is no stranger to shooting around bare spots in the crowd for television tapings, 205 Live is a perfect example, but it isn’t a good thing that they might have to employ this type of strategy this weekend.
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