The last few years there has been a lot of debate over the numbers Dave Meltzer post and the vast difference in what WWE reports for attendance publicly.
This debate seems to go on, even though Vince himself admitted in a 2017 conference call that WWE purposely misleads with their attendance reports.
From Fightful.com
80,709 fans went through the turnstiles at WrestleMania 32 last year. This is in contrast to the 101,763 attendance announced live at the event and restated in WWE press releases. The event was held on on April 3, 2016, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
In February WWE CEO Vince McMahon admitted the 101,763 number included “ushers and ticket takers and all of that”. Fightful.com learned the number of fans in attendance from the Arlington Police Department.
The debate regarding Dave Meltzer’s numbers and WWE’s recently picked up steam after Bruce Prichard (on his podcast) argues that WWE does not exaggerates numbers and Dave purposely reports lower numbers.
Since many don’t listen to WWE conference calls I wanted to chime in with proof that WWE does indeed inflate numbers as per Vince McMahon himself and thankfully Fightful.com had it!
F-NYC take:
If WWE inflates recent numbers as a public company, you can imagine how easily they would inflate the Wrestlemania III numbers that have been in question for years.
As a public company, WWE has to give the correct gate for the evening, but can do creative wording such as “in attendance” instead of “through the turnstiles”, to give them a more positive narrative.
Hopefully this ends any future debate, but I doubt it!
PS: While I cover MMA for the site, I will chime in once in awhile in this area along with Cassidy & Brad
FRANKIE NYC
https://twitter.com/FrankieNYC_Biz
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