AEW is doing their first overseas show at Wembley Stadium this summer. AEW's largest attendance to date is somewhere in the ballpark of 20,000 at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. Wembley's capacity is around 90,000 depending on how it's configured.
this 70,000 attendee discrepancy led some wrestling old heads and journalists to speculate on how AEW could draw such a large number of fans and what "success" would look like.
some said just topping their max attendance would be a win. some said 40k. others compared WWE's numbers in Cardiff for Clash at the Castle (62,296), or for this year's Wrestlemania (~80k per night for a 2 night event).
some said AEW would struggle to break even 10,000 fans, which is about a large weekly TV crowd. people started throwing out wild ideas on how to entice people to come to this show.
this conversation was rampant and it seemed like nobody believed that this show was going to be a success, no matter how you measured it. this is not the first time i've felt like i live in a completely different reality when it comes to discourse about AEW. about 2 weeks ago, after a baffling take from Eric Bischoff1 proposing bringing in widely despised retired wrestler Goldberg, i wrote this:
and today, Tony Khan2 posted this:
so, for everyone playing at home: that's 50,000 tickets sold, before announcing a single match, before sales opened to the general public.
at this point, i wouldn't be surprised if they sell out the whole damn thing, but what ultimately matters is i was right, you jabroni marks.
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erstwhile wrestling promoter who's worked for WCW, WWE, and TNA
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owner of AEW, Very Online