AEW attendance has taken a huge blow in recent months, with TV tapings doing poorly and only pay-per-view events performing well.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that AEW has made some recent changes to live events that could have affected ticket sales.
AEW previously offered late ticket price drops or buy-one-get-one-free offers. However, recent AEW events haven’t done this, resulting in low attendance.
This means that late sales that generally improve the numbers haven’t occurred.
There had been an increase that led to better sales in the fourth quarter of 2023, with AEW Dynamite up 4.7% from the year before and AEW Collision averaging 3,400. However, the numbers have changed.
For instance, one fan noted that the February 28th episode of AEW Dynamite in Huntsville, AL (which currently has 1,202 tickets out as of this past Tuesday) was only offering lower-level “official platinum” seats that were already very expensive.
The Probst Arena could hold around 7,000 if sold out, and when told that only higher-priced seats were available, the fan stated that he would assume it was if he didn’t know better.
If fans are of the notion that the event is sold out or close to selling out, they aren’t likely to buy tickets. The same goes for AEW only putting expensive seats up for sale.
Some of the changes can be directly attributed to the change in management from Rafael Morffi to Kosha Irby who is in charge of booking venues as well as merchandise.
It is speculated that AEW may book bigger markets and fewer shows in towns like Bossier City, LA, or Savannah, GA in the future.
While smaller markets cost less to book, they also draw fewer people, thus affecting ticket sales.
