WWE Summerslam ticket sales at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis still stuck under 25,000 for both nights, but why?

Tickets for Summerslam, now just over two weeks away, continue to lag well behind hopes and expectations based on prior recent big WWE stadium-hosted PLE events.

According to WrestleTix’s latest tabulation, 22,780 tickets are distributed for Saturday’s event and 22,364 are distributed for Sunday’s event. In almost any other era, given the prices of tickets, this would be seen as a healthy advance with over two weeks to go, but it’s well below other stadium WWE events. WrestleMania in Las Vegas earlier this year drew fewer fans than the year before, but that was written off in great part as due to being in the same venue two years in a row

Since CM Punk’s return and WWE Title win and since Seth Rollins was named Roman Reigns’s opponent for the World Title, ticket sales haven’t spiked. WrestleTix says that only 711 and 633 additional tickets have been distributed for each night compared to the tally seven days earlier.

There are over 72,000 seats on the current map up for purchase. The cheapest tickets available at $76. The most expensive tickets, in the thousands of dollars each, is well below what WWE was charging for WrestleMania.

Summerslam last year drew 50,493 on Saturday and 58,186 on Sunday. The pace now is for this year’s event to draw roughly half of last year’s totals.

WWE has been advertising locally in the Minneapolis area, including video board ads at Mall of America in nearby Bloomington, Minn. (the photo for this story shows the video ad which is in the same atrium as where the first WCW Nitro took place). There are other video screen ads in Mall of America’s food court.

The location of Minneapolis, Minn. is in the upper middle part of the United States geographically, with the nearest major markets being Milwaukee, Wisc. and Chicago, Ill., which are 5 and 7 hour drives. Minneapolis isn’t near a major Canadian city, either. That said, it has a top rated airport that is a major hub for travel, Minneapolis is centrally located between the West Coast, East Coast, South, and Southeast parts of the country, and the US Bank Stadium is a state of the art, weather-protected facility. Minnesota weather is hot in August, but not usually as hot as Southern markets.

The reasons for slow ticket sales more than likely includes, in great part, apathy toward WWE’s matches and booking. Roman vs. Seth and Punk vs. Cody features wrestlers all in their 40s who have all wrestled in main events in most major WWE events in recent years. Same with Brock Lesnar. WWE is also leaning into “dream fights” between babyfaces or blurring the lines in terms of who fans are invested in rooting for, so the lack of clear-cut heel-face dynamics might cause a certain segment of fans to be ambivalent toward the match outcomes compared to more traditional heat-generating match-ups such as Cody vs. Roman or Sami vs. Roman in recent years that drew massive crowd heat. (There’s a reason pro sports have home teams in home markets play a team from out of market, as opposed to neutral cities hosting two teams that fans locally aren’t invested in rooting for.)

It could also be an anti-TKO vibe among the fanbase in general, with WrestleMania earlier this year feeling more like a grotesquely greedy big-corporate cash-grab at the expense of a pleasant fan experience. Platforming the Pat McAfee character to announce on their own TV show that WWE is “absolute shit” while listing the reasons probably didn’t help, either. Not announcing specific matches for each night so fans can choose if their budget is tight could also be a factor. General anxiety in the economy can contribute, also.

Whatever the cause, barring a late massive surge in ticket sales, WWE has reason to look inward at some of the decisions that appear to have burned through years of goodwill built up and look to change some of the internal justifications and rationalizations for how they present the product to fans. It also might be wise to pull back on the two-night formula and reduce ticket prices, as many fans are probably now waiting for a drop in prices or special deals since so many good seats remain available.

Why do you think ticket sales are slow? Email me at kellerwade@proton.me to let me know your thoughts. What might have caused you to consider attending? Where is your interest level in the stars being featured or the storylines they’re part of? Your comments might be published in a future article here at PWTorch!

MORE: This week’s Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast “Tuesday Flagship” episode with guest cohost Zach Heydorn from Sports Illustrated and Brass Ring Media dealt with this situation in-depth for the first 45 minutes or so. Check it out HERE.