Early Estimate For ‘Mania Buyrate Number, More Cuts Coming?

Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (F4WOnline.com)

» Internally, no one has any confidence that Wrestlemania will do a buyrate anywhere close to the past two events. Most company officials predict the show doing somewhere in the 500k range, which would be the lowest since WrestleMania XIX in 2003.

If the “25th Anniversary of WrestleMania” experiences the same percentage drop as the Royal Rumble did (23 percent), the number would be around 800,000 buys. However, it would cost the company approximately $4,000,000 as compared to last year, and will more than likely lead to more cost-cutting measures from the company.

So much of the company’s financials are tied into the revenue that WrestleMania produces, so a number of jobs are on the line with this year’s event. WWE will be releasing their 1st quarter report featuring the numbers from WrestleMania in May, so that’s when you can probably expect another storm of company layoffs to hit providing things don’t turn around creatively within the next few weeks.

» As reported last week, the buyrate for this year’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view came in and the number was disappointing to say the least.

The show did 445,000 buys, with 40% of those coming from outside of the United States (thus bringing in less revenue to the company). The figure is down from the 575,000 buys the show did last year — a 23% drop. The reaction backstage to the number was said to have been a complete shock to some, although others saw it coming as pay-per-view buyrates have been down in recent months.

The main draw of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view is the Rumble match itself and many feel this year’s event year was not hyped as well as previous years. The creative team felt the match would simply sell itself. Apparently, it did not as this year’s Rumble pay-per-view drew it’s lowest buyrate in twelve years.

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