Royal Rumble 2023 site fees revealed

[Chris]

WWE Royal Rumble 2023: San Antonio paid over $500,000 in site fees and incentives, contract discloses

After various legal efforts to keep the details confidential, we've published the contract that reveals WWE's deal with the City of San Antonio

wrestlenomics.com

The City of San Antonio gave WWE more than $500,000 in value, including a $250,000 cash site fee, to bring the Royal Rumble to the Alamodome in 2023, according to government records obtained by Wrestlenomics. The exact value was estimated ahead of time to be $546,710.74. Ultimately, San Antonio submitted expenses totaling $575,415.98 to the Texas Governor’s Office for reimbursement.

That dollar figure is on par with the $500,000 reportedly provided to WWE by the St. Pete-Clearwater tourism organization for Royal Rumble earlier this year, just outside Tampa. The return to the local economy is multiple times the investment if economic impact studies commissioned by interested parties can be believed. While touting it won the bid for this year’s Rumble, the St. Pete-Clearwater organization told media that the San Antonio event the year prior provided local economic benefits totaling $69 million. After this year’s Rumble, the same organization said it returned $47 million to the area near Tampa.

TKO executives have routinely named site fees paid by local governments as a major growth opportunity for the parent company of WWE and UFC.

Public knowledge of WWE’s site fees is limited as TKO doesn’t disclose those details in its public filings. Las Vegas will pay $5 million for Wrestlemania next year, about ten times the going rate for WWE’s second-biggest annual event. Vegas paid $300,000 for Summerslam in 2021, plus covering another $30,000 in marketing costs. Puerto Rico paid $1.5 million for Backlash in 2023, plus free use of the venue. Cardiff provided about $2.8 million for Clash at the Castle in 2022. $5.2 million in costs and fees were covered for Wrestlemania in 2022 in Arlington.

After months of effort to obtain the contract between WWE and San Antonio, the document was released to us on Friday in response to our public records request to the Office of the Governor.

 

[Chris]