{"id":10812,"date":"2016-03-08T10:28:05","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T16:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=10812"},"modified":"2016-03-08T15:31:41","modified_gmt":"2016-03-08T21:31:41","slug":"10812","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/03\/08\/10812\/","title":{"rendered":"Official Announcement &#8211; WrestleMania 33 to Orlando in 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3912049911\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p><strong>Mar. 8 Update:\u00a0<\/strong>WWE issued a press release officially announcing WrestleMania 33 on April 2, 2017 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida.<\/p>\n<p>The usual wrap-around events will take place including WrestleMania Axxess, the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame, post-Mania Raw, and other events.<\/p>\n<p>[ <a href=\"http:\/\/corporate.wwe.com\/news\/2016\/orlando-citrus-bowl-to-host-wrestlemania\" target=\"_blank\">Press Release &#8211; Official Announcement<\/a> ]<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mar. 7 Update:<\/strong>\u00a0WWE is officially bringing WrestleMania back to Orlando, reports Brian Fritz for the Orlando Sentinel.<\/p>\n<p>WM33 will take place April 2, 2017 at the Citrus Bowl. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/sports\/os-orlando-to-host-wrestlemania-in-2017-20160307-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Full Report<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>A formal announcement is scheduled for Tuesday in Orlando attended by Florida dignitaries and WWE CEO Vince McMahon.<\/p>\n<p>Renovations to the Citrus Bowl, existing relationships with Florida officials, WWE&#8217;s secondary location in Central Florida through the Performance Center, and Florida&#8217;s tourism appeal were big factors that led to Orlando getting next year&#8217;s WrestleMania bid.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mar. 3 Update:\u00a0<\/strong>Orlando news publications are starting to pick up on the likelihood of WrestleMania returning to Orlando in 2017.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-122073405\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/orlando\/blog\/2016\/03\/orlando-wwe-rumored-to-announce-wrestleania-33-at.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Orlando Business Journal<\/a> reported on WWE potentially announcing next week that\u00a0Orlando will host WM33.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Feb. 19 Update:\u00a0<\/strong>The City of\u00a0Orlando&#8217;s mayor is confident that WrestleMania in 2017 or 2018 will return to Orlando.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Buddy Dyer\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/sports\/fighting\/article61257417.html\" target=\"_blank\">talked to the Miami Herald<\/a> about his confidence level that WWE will announce Orlando for either WrestleMania 33 in 2017 or WM34 in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re in a competition right now, and we understand it&#8217;s down to a handful of cities for 2017. We put in bids for both 2017 and 2018,&#8221; Dyer told reporter Jim Varsallone.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was part of our proposal for the events as well (traveling to WWE HQ in Connecticut).\u00a0I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve had many mayors who have come [to Stamford] to make the pitch for WrestleMania, so there\u2019s some mutual admiration going on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dyer stressed renovations to the Citrus Bowl in Orlando as a key selling point for bringing back WrestleMania. Dyer also said he would like to see Orlando in a regular rotation of hosting the annual event.<\/p>\n<p>It helps that Dyer has been to the Performance Center in Orlando to build a relationship with WWE staff down in Florida.<\/p>\n<p><strong>February 13 Report<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1107980929\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>The time is drawing near for WWE to announce the WrestleMania 33 location in March\/April 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The City of Orlando is considered a frontrunner, prompting a conversation with Allen Johnson, a key name from Orlando&#8217;s overseeing facility\/sports industry.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/sports\/fighting\/article60196141.html\" target=\"_blank\">Johnson was asked by Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald<\/a> about Orlando potentially hosting WrestleMania again. &#8220;I think we\u2019re ready for it,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe\u2019re prepared to whatever year they decide to come back. We\u2019re ready for them, and we now have the infrastructure in place to accommodate it much better than before, and they know that. They\u2019ve toured the stadium. They\u2019ve been here and seen what we now are capable of versus what we were capable of. That gets us in the conversation to host one of those events.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Mania host stadium would be the Citrus Bowl, the same as in 2008 when Orlando hosted WM24. However, according to Johnson, the stadium is much different than eight years ago after $207 million in renovations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It allows us to be in the conversation, where before at the older venue we didn\u2019t have the infrastructure in place to repeat some of those big events that we were lucky enough to have,&#8221; Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>It helps that WWE had a successful Royal Rumble PPV in Orlando, which sold about 12,000 seats after\u00a0production-area seating was taken out. \u00a0Plus, the presence of WWE&#8217;s Performance Center in the Orlando area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very comforting for them (WWE and UFC) to know that they\u2019re walking into a place that\u2019s already prepared to handle their events,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1300271167\"><div id=\"pwtor-1518376634\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Mar. 8 Update:\u00a0WWE issued a press release officially announcing WrestleMania 33 on April 2, 2017 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. The usual wrap-around events will take place including WrestleMania Axxess, the 2017 WWE <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/03\/08\/10812\/\" title=\"Official Announcement &#8211; WrestleMania 33 to Orlando in 2017\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,3],"tags":[1572,1724,132,71],"class_list":["post-10812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-news_wwe","tag-orlando","tag-wm33","tag-wrestlemania","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/03\/WM33logo_3x2.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10812"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12848,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10812\/revisions\/12848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}