Could WrestleMania 32 At AT&T Stadium Become The Biggest WrestleMania Ever?

Wrestle Mania 32 has found a home. The biggest professional wrestling event of the year will be held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on April 3, 2016. The official announcement came late after an episode of Monday Night RAW took place at American Airlines Center in Dallas. There will be a press conference on Tuesday afternoon to inform the media.

AT&T Stadium has the potential to host the biggest Wrestle Mania of all-time. With a capacity of 105,000, which includes standing room, there is a possibility Wrestle Mania attendance could top 100,000 for the first time in history. The current record for Wrestle Mania attendance stands from Wrestle Mania III at the Silver dome in Pontiac, Michigan. On March 29, 1987, 93,173 fans attended the event headlined by a match between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, one of the most famous matches in professional wrestling history. The 93,173 attendance held the overall record for a live indoor sporting event in North America. The record wasn’t broken until 2010 when the NBA All-Star Game hosted 108,713 at AT&T Stadium.

With Wrestle Mania becoming a week long spectacle, which includes multiple events surrounding the event such as a week of Wrestle Mania Axxess all week and the WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony the night before, WWE has continually grown the scale of Wrestle Mania each year.

WWE has shifted the event from smaller arenas like Madison Square Garden to bigger football stadiums over the past 10 years. Wrestle Mania 22 in 2006 was held at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois and had an attendance of just 17,159. From that time, Wrestle Mania has shifted to stadiums and has not had an attendance under 70,000 in that time. Since the shift to stadiums, Wrestle Mania 29 at Met Life Stadium was the most attended at 80,676.

This announcement comes at a time when WWE is doing well, at least on the secondary market. The upcoming Royal Rumble event, which officially kicks off the road to Wrestle Mania each year, is still the most expensive wrestling event TiqIQ has tracked on the secondary market over the past five years. The current secondary market average price for Royal Rumble tickets is $469.13 with a get-in price of $218.

Wrestle Mania 31 this year will be held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on March 29. The current secondary market average price for Wrestle Mania tickets on TiqIQ is $344.41 with a get-in price of $93. That price would place it just behind Wrestle Mania 29, which had an average price of $396.77 and a get-in price of $104, for the most expensive Wrestle Mania over the past five years on the secondary market.