Sports entertainment and professional wrestling promotion WWE has announced a new multi-year partnership with the Indiana Sports Corp local nonprofit that will see it bring three of its headline events to Indianapolis, Indiana, over the coming years.
WWE’s showpiece two-night events - WrestleMania and SummerSlam - and the one-night Royal Rumble, will all take place at Indianapolis’ 70,000-seater Lucas Oil Stadium over the coming years, starting with the 2025 Royal Rumble on February 1.
The three premium live events are among the company’s four highest-profile annually, and given the nature of professional wrestling in allowing floor seating attendance may well be in excess of the 70,000 installed seats at the Lucas Oil Stadium, which is the home of the Indianapolis Colts NFL franchise.
WWE will also host editions of its weekly Monday Night Raw, NXT, and Friday Night Smackdown TV shows in the state of Indiana, in locations including Fort Wayne, and Evansville, over the course of the partnership.
Speaking on the partnership, WWE executive vice president of talent relations and head of communications Chris Legentil stated: “Indianapolis is a fantastic city for major events and we’re excited to invite the WWE Universe to Lucas Oil Stadium for Royal Rumble in 2025, and a future SummerSlam and WrestleMania.
“Patrick [Talty, Indiana Sports Corp president] and the team at Indiana Sports Corp have done a phenomenal job bolstering local economics and tourism, and we’re proud to partner with them to shine a light on the great state of Indiana.”
Talty himself added: “We are excited to bring this groundbreaking partnership to Indianapolis and our state.
“For over four decades, our city’s sports strategy has brought in millions of visitors and priceless hours of international brand-building media coverage. This partnership with WWE continues to push that strategy forward in new and exciting ways.
WWE has never run an event at the Lucas Oil Stadium since its opening in 2008, although it runs multiple events yearly at Indianapolis’ 18,000-seater Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and it hosted WrestleMania VIII on April 5, 1992, at Indianapolis’ Hoosier Dome, the predecessor to the Lucas Oil Stadium prior to its construction.
When WWE does host a WrestleMania in Indianapolis it will likely be one of the largest events yet for the company, capitalizing on the crest of a wave that saw 2024’s WrestleMania XL become the most successful event in company history.
The two-night show, which took place April 6-7, broke the attendance record set at WrestleMania 39 by 78%, with 145,298 fans in attendance at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, US, over the two nights (April 6 and 7), and viewership was up 41% across both nights versus last year’s record-setting audience.
WrestleMania XL also became the most-viewed WrestleMania of all time on social media, with over 660 million views over the two days. WWE’s YouTube channel saw its most-viewed day in its history on April 7, with over 67 million views in 24 hours, in addition.
Meanwhile, merchandise activity, carried out in partnership with Fanatics, saw a sales increase of more than 20% when compared to the previous record set at WrestleMania 39.
