Ticket-holders for AEW Grand Slam Australia have been told that the show is moving to a smaller venue.
The February 15th event was originally announced for the 52,500-seat Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
However, sales had been underwhelming, with WrestleTix reporting that “Initial VIP sales were encouraging but after that, much of the map was still available in large quantities of available tickets.”
On Wednesday, ticket-holders received emails to inform them that the show would now take place at the 13,600-seat Brisbane Entertainment Center, an indoor arena.
Dickie Bird of POST Wrestling’s apparel partner Chopped Tees shared the text of the email, which reads:
Dear Ticket Holder,
The promoter of AEW Grand Slam Australia, wishes to advise you that the venue for Grand Slam Australia on Saturday 15th February 2025, has been changed to Brisbane Entertainment Centre 1 Melaleuca Dr, Boondall QLD 4034.
Ticketholders do not need to take any action, your new event tickets will be sent to your Ticketek App in the next 2 weeks. Your Stadium tickets will not be valid for the new venue.
If you have any queries about your re issued tickets, please contact Ticketek here.
Enjoy the show!
Regards, Ticketek Team
The change was also reflected on AEW’s ticketing website, although at the time of writing, the sales link still showed a seating map of Suncorp Stadium.
Hopefully the amenities are good enough in the new venue…
But seriously they need to fire whoever books arenas. The product is ice cold, why would anyone think they could sell out a massive dome and not even announce anything.
I may be wrong, but I believe AEW was / is being brought to Australia by a local company (TEG Sport) - who likely was in charge of booking the venue, and local promotion.
That said, they’ve apparently still sold 10K tickets - so its going to be a sold out crowd for the show now for certain, which will make for a great atmosphere and hot crowd.
This does worry me slightly for Y’all In in Globe Life Field in Arlington. The stadium has a capacity of 40K. With a big stage set-up and ring maybe 30K seats go on sale. I’m planning on being there but I don’t know if AEW is hot enough of a draw right now to get close to 30K.
We are currently in the third biggest period in WWE history. It’s ridiculous to compare anything to those booms, because of you continue to do so, everything else will be called a failure.
The ongoing narrative around AEW being cold is far worse for the company than anything else I can think of. And I fully believe some of that is a PR move co-opted by others to keep the perception of AEW down.
Like you said. They just had a PPV with 10K. They just signed the biggest TV deal for a company not called WWE, ever. They have consistently strong PPV butyrates. They are usually the top ranked entertainment show on cable on Wednesdays.
They’re doing great. Could it be better? Of course.
The same could have been said for decades worth of WWE too!
I don’t know how you can look at weekly TV attendance and not consider them cold. TV ratings are also down but most of TV is down so whatever. But not being able to sell tickets is a big indicator.
They aren’t as hot as they used to be or like WWE. If you look at some upcoming WWE shows there is softness there too.
The weekly TV shows could draw better but the PPVs draw great as do the big shows. That’s what they are more known for rather than episodic TV. Their strength is the big matches and shows
I agree. You don’t even have to compare AEW to WWE. Just compare AEW to AEW, it’s hard to see the numbers they pull now and not think about the numbers they used to get. Different than to say that they’re doing bad, it can’t be denied they’re doing well as the number two wrestling company, but to say they’re cold at the moment relative to what they used to be feels fair to say.
The biggest problem with AEW is actually people being in complete denial. TV ratings and attendances are down double digits year over year over year. The product is so cold that they did a ‘We must save AEW’ twice in 3 months with two different groups.
I am far from an AEW apologist or huge fan. But I think people are too hard on them.
They just signed the biggest television deal for a company other than WWE. They’re the UK’s number one wrestling company, and the audiences in Wembley are historic.They just sold out 10 K for a pay-per-view and likely doing more than 10 K in Australia. Their television ratings are consistently near the top of the list, their decline is because of what happens to cable TV.
Their television ratings are consistently near the top of the list, they’re decline is because of what happens to cable TV.
Now, if you want to compare to WWE that’s fine. They’re not as hot as them. They’re more in line with NXT for sure. But that doesn’t inherently make them a failure when they’re able to provide jobs for lots of people, put out a product that at least some people enjoy and also make money.
Is AEW the most successful promotion ever not named WWE? Yup.
Is the TV deal great for AEW? Yup.
Are they popular in the UK (owing partially to their TV distribution)? Yup
Does AEW benefit from debuting in a market? (Checks personal experience with Collision in Vancouver) Yup.
Is cable in North America down? Yes.
Is AEW more known for their PPVs? Yes.
However, their live tv tapings have had horrible attendances, especially considering where they once were. But no one is expecting them to sell out hockey/basketball arenas like they did in 2019. Vibes matter and if you want to grow further and get more money - the point of this whole endeavor - you want your TV to have vibes that push people from viewers to attendees. IF AEW still had that party feel, the live show attendance wouldn’t suffer as much.
The debut in Australia was always going to do well, but there is a limit. It should be considered a loss to have to downsize the venue. However, the show vibes will benefit from the smaller, packed venue.
