Press Release: Wrestlemania Shatters Records

[bad_meetz_evil]

STAMFORD, Conn., May 7, 2007 – The biggest event in sports entertainment had its best year yet. World Wrestling Entertainment® has announced that WrestleMania 23, held April 1 at Detroit’s Ford Field, established new records for pay-per-view buys and revenue. Preliminary estimates show that WrestleMania 23 has achieved 1.2 million pay-per-view buys, achieving global revenues in excess of $24.3 million.

“Once again, the WWE fans have responded and made WrestleMania 23 a record-setting success,” said Geof Rochester, Senior Vice President, Marketing. “The WWE brand continues to perform well in the ring, on television, and across all our media platforms– a trend we plan to continue into next year’s WrestleMania 24 in Orlando.”

The event also set new attendance and ticket revenue records, spurred record highs in merchandise sales, and brought unprecedented page-view numbers to WWE.com.

WrestleMania 23 packed 80,103 ecstatic fans into Ford Field setting an all-time venue attendance record, with fans converging on Detroit from 24 countries, all 50 states and 9 Canadian provinces. WrestleMania 23 is the highest grossing one-day live event in WWE history, grossing more than $5.38 million in ticket sales.

The event set an all-time WrestleMania record for merchandise sales with more than $1.6 million in gross revenue with a per cap of $21.37. Online, the WWEShop.com experienced more than $395,000 in sales during the week leading into WrestleMania 23 -- 50 percent higher than at the same time last year.

WWE.com shattered its all-time WrestleMania record by 114 percent with an astounding 67.6 million page views the Monday following WrestleMania 23. WWE.com received more than 120 million page views from more than five million unique site visitors from Saturday, March 31, through Monday, April 2.

The week-long celebration in Detroit was also the culmination of the 2007 WWE Fan Axxess Tour. The annual three-month tour brought a series of parties, rallies, and autograph signings to 14 cities across North America – energizing more than 237,000 fans in the lead up to WrestleMania 23.

WrestleMania 24 will take place on Sunday, March 30, 2008, at the Citrus Bowl in downtown Orlando. A crowd of more than 60,000 fans from around the world is expected to attend.

credit: W-E