Wrestlemania to stream live with no audience
March 17, 2020
By Nik Roseveare
Wrestlemania, WWE’s annual flagship PPV event, will no longer take place in front of a live audience, but it will go ahead as a live, streamed production via the WWE Network – the company’s SVoD platform – and through other PPV providers.
Wrestlemania 36 was scheduled to to take place in front of some 70,000 fans at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida on April 5th. It would have featured around a week’s worth of events, including the Hall of Fame ceremony and the smaller NXT: Takeover PPV. Now the full calendar of events, except Wrestlemania itself, has been cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
A statement from WWE read: “In coordination with local partners and government officials, WrestleMania and all related events in Tampa Bay will not take place. However, WrestleMania will still stream live on Sunday, April 5 at 7 pm ET on WWE Network and be available on pay-per-view. Only essential personnel will be on the closed set at WWE’s training facility in Orlando, Florida to produce WrestleMania.”
It’s a big hit for the WWE. Although the company makes most of its money through TV deals, last year’s WrestleMania event brought in over $16 million in event ticket sales alone.