Wrestlenomics has secured documents related to the City of San Antonio’s deal to bring the WWE Royal Rumble to the Alamodome in January 2023.
After a lengthy procedure, Brandon Thurston who operates the Wrestlenomics site, secured multiple documents last Friday after attempts by WWE to block the contract from being shared.
Thurston initially sought information regarding the City of San Antonio’s agreement with WWE to stage the January 2023 event shortly after the event’s conclusion.
Both Thurston and a second entity inquired about the records with Thurston seeking the “attendance, sales, and communications between the City and WWE”.
The City argued that releasing the information would disadvantage future bidding:
“[T]he City regularly competes against other venues nationwide for both the ability to host WWE events and other high-profile events at the Alamodome,” which is owned and operated by the city. “In such highly competitive selection processes, the City’s competitors would gain a tremendous advantage if they gained access to [the venue contract related to Royal Rumble 2023] requested by Mr. Thurston. Disclosing such details, including event-specific pricing structures and revenue splits, could give an advantage to any of the City’s competitors and result in another municipality, organization or facility undercutting the City’s future bids and taking its business.”
The Office of the Attorney General appeared to back the WWE’s request to prevent the disclosures but reversed its decision this past January which led to a complaint being filed by WWE against Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Chris Legentil, EVP, Talent Relations & Head of Communications at WWE, argued in the complaint that, “If this information was made publicly available and Brandon Thurston was permitted to publicize our financial information and negotiated terms on Wrestlenomics, WWE would lose our bargaining power in negotiating all of our live events and much of the value of a bidding process for venues.”
After analyzing the records, Wrestlenomics reports that the WWE received $546,710.74 in value from the City of San Antonio including a $250,000 site fee to stage the Royal Rumble event. It also contains language regarding “proposed percentage splits” and “fee structures” attached to the event with the City receiving a small percentage of ticket sales to aid transit, services, traffic safety costs, operational/maintenance fees, and a ticket service fee. The City also received 15 percent of sales of “novelties”.
The City submitted expenses related to the event totaling $575,415.98 to the Texas Governor’s Office seeking reimbursement.
The full story is available on the Wrestlenomics site including links to the various records obtained.
For disclosure: Brandon Thurston is affiliated with POST Wrestling and co-hosts a weekly show with John Pollock
