AEW is expected to receive a six-figure reimbursement from the Texas Event Trust Fund program for their week-long All In festivities in Arlington earlier this year.
A report from Wrestlenomics confirmed that AEW had been approved this year to be given just over $1 million worth of state and local reimbursements to help cover costs for All In, the promotion’s pay-per-view presentation from the GlobeLife Field, along with the smaller events they had planned in the days prior.
However, while AEW is still expected to receive a significant amount of help from local government, it’ll be lower than the million-dollar figure initially expected.
Documents acquired by Wrestlenomics show that the “actual attendance” for the event was 23,759, including 21,973 spectators. This was 29 percent less than the projected attendance back in February, when it was predicted that the event would attract 32,500 fans.
The figure of 21,973 spectators was counted by tickets scanned to enter the venue. The number of tickets sold for the event could differ. WrestleTix notably counted that 27,245 tickets were distributed for the event.
The reimbursement to AEW will be lower due to the turnout being significantly smaller than what was initially projected, Arlington City Manager Trey Yelverton explained to Wrestlenomics. If AEW ends up getting 29 percent less, in line with how much the attendance was lower than expectations, they are still expected to receive around $700,000 in reimbursements.
Yelverton said that an event with attendance 25 percent lower than its projected outcome can have its reimbursements proportionally reduced. He also mentioned that AEW hasn’t received the funding yet, as the process usually takes six-to-12 months following an event’s conclusion.
Documents uncovered in the report also detailed scrapped plans regarding other events that were at one point planned to be held before All In.
An application for AEW’s funding filed earlier this year shows that the promotion had also planned to present events from Mexican promotion CMLL and New Japan Pro Wrestling as part of the weekend. CMLL’s show was tentatively named “Lucha Libra Resurgence,” and NJPW was scheduled to host an event titled “Strong Style.”
Both shows were planned for the Arlington E-Sports Stadium, the venue where AEW ended up hosting ROH’s Supercard of Honor during All In weekend.
The schedule also listed an AEW-themed concert, “Music Showcast,” including performances from Chris Jericho’s Fozzy band and Swerve Strickland. This also ended up not getting finalized.
The attendance at All In unsurprisingly came from all around the world. A document showed that 6,258 fans came from outside of Texas, representing 23 different countries. It’s expected that the true number of travel-in attendees is even higher, as documents showed that the residences of 5,255 attendees could not be confirmed.
