With WWE making the rare exception of not announcing the attendance for either night of SummerSlam this past weekend, it appears the market leader is looking to downplay disappointing ticket sales.
The SummerSlam venue of Minneapolis, Minnesota’s U.S. Bank Stadium – the home of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings – can hold over 70,000 people. Less than two weeks before SummerSlam, the event had sold roughly 22,500 tickets per night, with the stadium set up for a 29,500 crowd. When tickets went on sale in May, the bulk of them ranged from $400 to $3,000, with the cheapest being in the $200 region. However, WWE then dropped tickets to as low as $25 in an attempt to put more butts in seats.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer is of the impression that SummerSlam Night 1 had approximately 35,000 people in attendance, but that he wasn’t sure on the Night 2 number. Meltzer pointed out that this may be the first time WWE has never announced an attendance number for a stadium show, even though the event was “very papered”; as in, comp tickets given away to increase the attendance figure.
As Meltzer put it, “Put it this way, if they were happy, we would have heard an announcement, but the fact that we didn’t hear an announcement tells you that they are very much downplaying it.”
The Observer founder credited WWE for making SummerSlam look good, and for shooting the PLE well, before adding that the upcoming AEW All In may be another reason for not announcing the SummerSlam attendance. With All In expected to hit the 40,000 mark at Wembley Stadium by the time the PPV gets here on August 30th, that would be a larger number than either night of SummerSlam.
For more specifics on these numbers, WrestleTix notes that SummerSlam Night 1 shifted over 35,700 tickets for a setup of 36,258, and SummerSlam Night 2 had just shy of 32,300 for a setup of nearly 33,500. As for AEW All In, the most recent numbers show 36,565 tickets distributed for a 44,091 setup.
