A budget of $5 million is being earmarked by agencies in San Diego for the Survivor Series.
The November 29 event at Petco Park was secured by San Diego through the initiative by the San Diego Tourism Marketing District (SDTMD), as reported by Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.
The SDTMD initially approved for $650,000 to go toward securing the event with WWE and staging the first stadium-sized Survivor Series.
Wrestlenomics was able to obtain documents related to the process and learned of an additional $4.25 million in added expenses, which was requested by the San Diego Padres for the event at their home park.
The records that Thurston reviewed continually refer to a total budget of $5 million, which suggests that is the true worth of the deal rather than the initial six-figure fee approved.
The $5 million figure would make this one of the richest location fees for a WWE event in the U.S. behind this year’s SummerSlam in New Jersey ($7,125,250), WrestleMania 38 in Texas ($5,198,205), and WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas ($5 million along with $4.2 million in tax credits).
The records show that the SDTMD believes Survivor Series will lead to 18,000 hotel rooms being booked and $3.6 million for lodging-based businesses in the city.
A representative for the City of San Diego tells Wrestlenomics that mentions of the city on WWE programming are a consideration, but not a determining factor. Their key priority when approving such grants is generating hotel revenue during slower periods.
The full report is available at Wrestlenomics.com.
