From April 5th-8th, WWE and their marquee event, WrestleMania, returns to New Orleans. Ranked by Forbes as the 6th most valuable sporting event in the world, WrestleMania and its surrounding events are expected to generate over $150 million in economic impact for Louisiana from the tens of thousands of tourists to New Orleans.
Hosting the event for the second time in 4 years, the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation is leading the New Orleans Local Organizing Committee, consisting of the State of Louisiana, City of New Orleans, New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, SMG, and New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation.
“WrestleMania is an outstanding event and a perfect fit for one of the best host cities in the world. We’re proud to have won the bid and are ready to welcome back the event, which brought visitors from all 50 states and more than 20 countries to New Orleans in 2014,” said Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation President and CEO Jay Cicero.
In 2014, a total of 75,167 fans packed the Mercedes-Benz Superdome to witness WrestleMania. The entire week of special events and celebrations generated an overall economic impact of $142.2 million dollars and an additional $6.2 million in tax revenue for the State of Louisiana. Since 2014, the event has continued to grow. WWE has added events including Smackdown Live and NXT to the week’s list of shows. In 2016, WrestleMania Dallas generated a total of $170.4 million dollars.