April 17 Dynamite ticket sales

https://x.com/wrestletix/status/1779590921450860737?s=46&t=JWp1FDcxOniaaPmFyvmyrg

They’re at 2,000 lol. Maybe do some actual promotion instead of barfing out matches on social media. What an ice cold company

They’ll be fine and likely surpass last time there.
Lots of people leave it until the week of, and when local promotion ramps up in markets.

2 Likes

They were 3,000 last time. No chance they sell 1,000 tickets in three days

They’ll be close to 3K. At least passing 2500.

Look at all ticket movement for their shows in the last six months. A ton happens the week of.

1 Like

So which it it - likely surpass last time? Hit 3K? 2500? Lol.

They hit 2500 maybe. But those numbers are all pathetic. The company needs some major help in promoting these shows and booking buildings. TK must be losing boatloads of money

BTW it’s set up for 2400. So yeah probably not getting anywhere close to 3,000

1 Like

How much do you think booking an arena on a Wednesday night costs in most markets?

Even at 2500 people with an average $40 ticket, that’s a $100 000 gate. They’re not spending more than 1/10th of that on rent for a venue. Not to mention deals they likely have in most markets.

More importantly, they have replaced the person (Rafeal Morfi) booking venues, and seem to be finishing on the last commitments from the last person. They seem to be targetting much larger markets as they head into the spring / summer. (Booked by new COO, Kosha Irby).

They release tickets based on demand in a market. If 2400 is crossed, they can continue opening up sections.

1 Like

Isn’t this kinda business-as-usual for AEW in 2024? Feels like we see this same story every week these days. Barely any tickets sold ahead of time, followed by a big run-up to sneak past 3000 sold in the week of.

The card looks awful to be fair, so it’s hard to blame people for staying home. Claudio/Ospreay should be great, but everything else looks like a cure for insomnia.

2 Likes

It looks the exact same as last year.

And it’s not just the venue fees. All the travel, the tv crew and the enormous roster has to get there.

And just think how better it would be if talent actually promoted things. They don’t do any local media. It’s a TNA situation as far as that goes. They fly in and get the hell out.

It’s just not that sustainable

They need more wrestlers to do media and make appearances. They did zero appearances for WrestleDream in Seattle, which was ridiculous because they had a million wrestlers there. Also did little to no media. Same situation for Vancouver and Everett shows upcoming.

And also announce appearances or matches weeks before. Not the week off on social media.

2 Likes

They don’t need to do much in the Vancouver market as apparently ticket sales are good for the debut but it’s a big building they’re running here, not the 6500 scaled down to 2400 they’re running in Indiana.

Promote things ahead of time. We’re in the same
Boat.

I’m one potential ticket buyer but promote something weeks in advance - like they once did - so I can decide if I am going to go or not. Like, again, West Coast here — the Vancouver show starts at 4 pm on a Saturday. You gotta give me something ahead or I’m going to do something else. Not everyone is terminally online and not everyone is all-in just because you’re coming.

Dynamite lost its vibe and mojo a long time ago. The shows can be good but somethings missing and they were losing it before I stopped watching.

3 Likes

If they’re smart they should have something big for Kyle O’Reilly - big local star and it’s his first time ever working a venue this size in Vancouver. Give him a big match and have him do local media.

They should also try and get El Phantasmo for something. Again, another local guy. Give me ELP vs Danielson for the Dragon retirement tour.

Bollywood Boys would also be a good decision to use. And also Nicole Matthews for the women.

I was also at the Smackdown at Rogers in January so it will be interesting to compare a full to a half-filled crowd.

1 Like

No joke, Elp vs Danielson gets me to buy a ticket.

Bollywood boyz are lock. Have to be.

I’ll be interested to hear your comparison. Just saying, but I realized Smackdown was that night when I saw all The WWE merch bags around downtown. Lol. And there was a lot.

Edit: just realized the NWA guys are live. I’m coming!!! Lol.

Other edit: when Dynamite at its smallest and most insignificant, AEW has to “settle” for 4-4500 people in a 6500-seat venue. Best of luck to them changing the course and seeing bigger weekly audiences again.

3 Likes

As I was saying…
https://twitter.com/WrestleTix/status/1780764073329664150
Tickets Distributed: 3,012

1 Like

That’s encouraging. They moved a lot of tickets.

2 Likes

It is. This is true. Congrats to them! This kind of reinforces the type of last minute social media advertising they do for their shows. You always want to move tickets in the final days leading up to the show. :blush:

But, I’m not sure you want to have the trend of moving approximately 33% or your total tickets in the final three days before your A-show in a b-level stadium at Indianapolis’ fair grounds. :woman_shrugging:

I could be wrong though. lol. :laughing:

2 Likes

No matter the market, this is how the ticket trends have been. Boston for Big Business saw 2K move in the last 48 hours.

There is no easy solution to changing things right now. The industry leader is in the midst of their third boom period in their history. Historically, I’d say AEW is fairing far better than other alternative products during those other periods (85-89 - countless territories died, 1998-2001, their main national alternatives died off).

Yes, there is room for improvement. I think once the new rights deal is locked in, there will be more money for marketing and changing how they approach markets in advertising.

They’re not being looked at as the “hot new thing”. WWE is taking the attention and money from the vast majority of fans right now. AEW just needs to stay the course, weather the current storm, stay strong and be at their best to navigate the landscape once the current exceptional outlier business successes of WWE comes back down to reality for a while.

1 Like

Well, they’ve already got a match announced for next week. That’s progress. And the pay-per-view on Sunday should drum up interest.

1 Like

Maybe I’m alone here but I don’t think AEW can market their way out of this mess. Like WWE didn’t sell out all those arenas back to back because of their genius marketing, or announcing matches in advance or whatever. People bought up tickets to those WWE shows way in advance because they wanted to see their favourite stars. You know you’re getting Cody. There was a decent chance you might see The Rock or Cena for a while there. You’ll probably get Sami or Gunther or whomever else you are excited to see. You can count on this because WWE booking doesn’t completely phase hot acts out for no apparent reason every 8 weeks. The stars are the stars.

But reliable appearances from stars is what AEW lacks. Like they’ve got plenty of people who could be stars or should be stars. But they don’t push them like stars or build up real long-term storylines that people actually care about so it doesn’t matter. Right now to me Will Ospreay is feeling like a big star that I would buy tickets in advance to see. Even if it’s just a promo, I wanna see Ospreay, because he’s got that aura. But if I bought a ticket today for a Dynamite in six weeks, am I even gonna see Ospreay? Or is he gonna be wrestling Kommander or Rampage that week and I’ll be stuck watching Orange Cassidy wrestle Anthony Ogogo? The lack of reliable booking is perhaps a much bigger issue than the marketing.

2 Likes

I agree with everything you are saying.

I get this is how things are, that they’re doing really well (not doubting that, and rooting for their existence and wider industries’ success), and are moving thousands of tickets in the final days before the show. However, if I am working there, I want those 2k tickets in Boston to fill the final seats in the largest setup possible, rather than get to 3/4 of what I have that enormous building set up for. Get closer to 13-14,000, not 9k - which is nothing to be snubbed, that’s a good number. 2k tickets moved in 48 hours in Boston and 1k in 72 hours in Indiana is impressive. However, there is always a real possibility that one day the % of the show’s tickets that will move in the final 48-72 hours will be lower and the total number of tickets sold trend downward. That would be a concern from this trend: one day, it’ll stop and you have to hope you are on the positive side of things if/when it does.

There is no easy solution. Undoubtedly, WWE will cool off eventually - could be weeks or many years from now, but when is unpredictable.

However, this type of movement provides “evidence” that their marketing and last-minute booking style is “working” in some sense of the word and rewards fans for being constantly online and consuming something from the product.

I’m also mentioning the fairgrounds because that smaller building they ran in Indy is 15 minutes away from the BIG building the Pacers play in downtown - the arena they want to be running but can’t right now (18,000 capacity). I mention this because between wrestling media and threads on this board, we have evidence that the building being run matters to some people and their perception of the product and whether they’ll buy a ticket or not. I also know my words and thoughts don’t matter, so, keep on keeping on and go rasslin!

@McGuire72 Agreed on the booking, for sure.

1 Like