Burst
El Dandy
*inarticulate squawking*
Posts: 8,599
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Post by Burst on Sept 30, 2022 10:49:02 GMT -5
I feel like they've been hitting a lot of the same arenas and markets way too much as has been mentioned, plus they're pretty much over the "yay we can see live events again!" post-covid spike, if you will.
It's actually kind of obnoxious in its own way how much they keep on seeming to default back to Chicago to fill holes in the schedule, and I feel like they're starting to see the diminishing returns from that if nothing else.
If it starts becoming an actual problem, I'd like to see them try running cozier venues that would be easier to fill for whatever numbers they're actually getting. The AEW doomsayers on social will call it a retreat and a surrender, I call that being smart and not stubbornly sticking to your guns if the sales simply aren't there. Plus, if it's indeed an inflation/recession/whatever-related contracture, you'd think it would make more sense to be more conservative when booking venues than to be overconfident.
Again, that's being conservative with venue sizes, not locations. They've been almost too conservative with rotating through the same parts of the country, and while I got that earlier on when everything first opened back up because you had different states that still had different restrictions and obviously Canada was off the table for quite a while, but that's not really a workable excuse anymore. I'd argue they need to get more adventurous with underserved markets and just try aggressively advertising the product more, especially with WWE being on the post-Vince upswing they are.
Plus, IMO, smaller venues sometimes make for better atmospheres and more fun shows.
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Post by Lizuka #BLM on Sept 30, 2022 10:49:17 GMT -5
I'm guessing the move to doing live Rampages is probably just going to make this problem worse. AEW does definitely need to start varying up where they go more often, but it's also probably just a consequence of a combination of 1), how expensive everything is these days, and 2), no longer having the novelty of it being people's first real chance to get out of the house in awhile a year ago.
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Kalmia
King Koopa
Happy to be here
Posts: 11,707
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Post by Kalmia on Sept 30, 2022 10:52:13 GMT -5
Genuine question - are AEW still doing as many cheap deals and ticket combos as they used to? I don't recall seeing as many advertised over the last few months as there used to be, but I could also just be missing them.
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Mecca
Wade Wilson
Posts: 25,099
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Post by Mecca on Sept 30, 2022 10:54:02 GMT -5
Genuine question - are AEW still doing as many cheap deals and ticket combos as they used to? I don't recall seeing as many advertised over the last few months as there used to be, but I could also just be missing them. Their prices are up, I went in June in Kansas City and paid like 70 dollars a ticket, add that with food prices these days...other things happening and people will sit it out. WWE tickets are even more expensive now, wrestling isn't cheap anymore.
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Burst
El Dandy
*inarticulate squawking*
Posts: 8,599
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Post by Burst on Sept 30, 2022 10:54:58 GMT -5
I'm guessing the move to doing live Rampages is probably just going to make this problem worse. Something I just pondered that I'm now curious about... were there ever any numbers released for how much attendance they were drawing when they had the limited crowds at Daily's Place every week? I'm wondering how much of a regular crowd they'd get weekly if they just ran Rampage out of Daily's Place aside from the weeks it would be separate from Dynamite on the road anyway. I can't recall if the Khans own Daily's Place as well, but it does seem like a venue they get more or less free use out of, and they did seem to build up enough of a regular local crowd during the pandemic to make it work. Just food for thought.
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Post by Tiger Millionaire on Sept 30, 2022 10:56:07 GMT -5
I bought tickets for the AC show early, because that's what you had to do last time. They were stupidly high. Now you can get them for much cheaper, and I just feel stupid.
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Burst
El Dandy
*inarticulate squawking*
Posts: 8,599
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Post by Burst on Sept 30, 2022 10:57:48 GMT -5
WWE tickets are even more expensive now, wrestling isn't cheap anymore. It's kinda the catch-22 for live entertainment in general nowadays. No clue what a good benchmark for prices is, but I was checking and the nosebleeds at Jacobs Field start at $17 for the last few regular season games, and I'm sure it'll be more once postseason play starts, and that's for baseball which has easily the most games out of all the major league sports. Football prices are ridiculous and yet you never really hear about football teams struggling for attendance, but that may just be from how comparatively few games there are. I guess it's just tricky to say what's a fair price for cheap seats for a given event nowadays, though it's pretty easy to say what's not a fair price.
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Lupin the Third
Patti Mayonnaise
I'm sorry.....I love you. *boot to the head*--3rd most culpable in the jixing of NXT, D'oh!
Join the Dark Order....
Posts: 36,332
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Post by Lupin the Third on Sept 30, 2022 11:01:42 GMT -5
Besides Minneapolis, Chicago, and Kansas City, they haven't had any shows that are remotely close to the Midwest.
I'd like to go to a show, but I'm not driving 4+ hours to see it. They could run shows in Fargo, Sioux Falls, Sioux City, and Omaha.
But they don't.
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Mecca
Wade Wilson
Posts: 25,099
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Post by Mecca on Sept 30, 2022 11:02:36 GMT -5
WWE tickets are even more expensive now, wrestling isn't cheap anymore. It's kinda the catch-22 for live entertainment in general nowadays. No clue what a good benchmark for prices is, but I was checking and the nosebleeds at Jacobs Field start at $17 for the last few regular season games, and I'm sure it'll be more once postseason play starts, and that's for baseball which has easily the most games out of all the major league sports. Football prices are ridiculous and yet you never really hear about football teams struggling for attendance, but that may just be from how comparatively few games there are. I guess it's just tricky to say what's a fair price for cheap seats for a given event nowadays, though it's pretty easy to say what's not a fair price. Yea you can go to a regular baseball game easy, postseason will be hundreds if not thousands.
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Mecca
Wade Wilson
Posts: 25,099
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Post by Mecca on Sept 30, 2022 11:03:57 GMT -5
Besides Minneapolis, Chicago, and Kansas City, they haven't had any shows that are remotely close to the Midwest. I'd like to go to a show, but I'm not driving 4+ hours to see it. They could run shows in Fargo, Sioux Falls, Sioux City, and Omaha. But they don't. They've run in Kansas City 3 times, that's midwest.
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Post by SneakMan on Sept 30, 2022 11:25:48 GMT -5
It’s because they’ve shifted focus from being a t-shirt company to being a hat company. Julia Hart, Daniel Garcia, Daddy Magic, Marina Shafir - all get new hats and suddenly The Dub is in a tailspin. Coincidence? I think not.
Get your shit together Tony.
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Post by HMARK Center on Sept 30, 2022 11:29:16 GMT -5
All of that said, ratings have been up the last month, general fan satisfaction seems higher the last month...no clue how this'll translate to ticket sales, but it's possible some things are just lagging indicators. I don't think it's anything to lose sleep over at this stage.
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Post by sushiburrito on Sept 30, 2022 12:10:31 GMT -5
Besides Minneapolis, Chicago, and Kansas City, they haven't had any shows that are remotely close to the Midwest. I'd like to go to a show, but I'm not driving 4+ hours to see it. They could run shows in Fargo, Sioux Falls, Sioux City, and Omaha. But they don't. They've done three shows in Cleveland which is apparently in the midwest.
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markymark
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Posts: 18,381
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Post by markymark on Sept 30, 2022 12:14:43 GMT -5
Next weeks Dynamite has atm 465 tickets left, and sold like 2918 tickets so far in a venue capacity of 4200.
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Post by mrtuesday on Sept 30, 2022 12:20:34 GMT -5
Didn't they practically do an entire month in New York? That can't be good for that territory.
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Post by Cyno on Sept 30, 2022 12:20:52 GMT -5
Besides Minneapolis, Chicago, and Kansas City, they haven't had any shows that are remotely close to the Midwest. I'd like to go to a show, but I'm not driving 4+ hours to see it. They could run shows in Fargo, Sioux Falls, Sioux City, and Omaha. But they don't. They've run a bunch in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Indiana, too. But yeah, I don't think they've ever run in the Great Plains states.
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Post by "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik on Sept 30, 2022 12:30:25 GMT -5
It's interesting. I don't think comparisons to the last time they ran in some of these areas is fair because the debut will usually do well in the market. That's the attraction. Now fans are more likely to wait until the show to buy a ticket so they can see what's on the card. Some of these markets may be overworked but Boston has also done well when run every 6-9 months. I wouldn't panic too much but they could invest more in local advertising. They have a good product that almost always delivers to the live crowd. So it's just getting them to be aware and part with their money. And while WWE is doing better over the next few months, their advances are also lower right now. So it could be a general trend this fall/winter.
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dbrussel
Don Corleone
Former WOW employee
Posts: 1,801
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Post by dbrussel on Sept 30, 2022 12:40:00 GMT -5
Tickets are more expensive than last year, so they're doing the same gate even with less people
New markets like Seattle and Toronto are hot, Full Gear is going to do great with MJF, so they have nothing to worry about
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Post by polarbearpete on Sept 30, 2022 12:44:31 GMT -5
It's interesting. I don't think comparisons to the last time they ran in some of these areas is fair because the debut will usually do well in the market. That's the attraction. Now fans are more likely to wait until the show to buy a ticket so they can see what's on the card. Some of these markets may be overworked but Boston has also done well when run every 6-9 months. I wouldn't panic too much but they could invest more in local advertising. They have a good product that almost always delivers to the live crowd. So it's just getting them to be aware and part with their money. And while WWE is doing better over the next few months, their advances are also lower right now. So it could be a general trend this fall/winter. The newness factor has also worn off I’m sure. Because of the pandemic, this is the first time they’ve been touring continuously for a year. And being they have a smaller base to work with than WWE, it makes sense that their ticket sales will trend down as you can’t expect everyone to come to every show.
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champchumpchange
Don Corleone
Everyone needs to drive a vehicle, even the very tall.
Posts: 1,682
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Post by champchumpchange on Sept 30, 2022 12:50:44 GMT -5
Come to Montreal, we'll give you a good house
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