WrestleMania 37 has a new date and venue, which means fans likely will be in attendance.
The company announced Saturday that WrestleMania 37 has been moved to April 10-11 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. — which was scheduled to play host to WrestleMania 36 before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
WrestleMania 37 was originally supposed to take place on March 27 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The home of the Rams and Chargers will now play host to WrestleMania 39 on April 2, 2023. WrestleMania 38 will take place on April 3, 2022 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
WWE said, in coordination with local partner and government officials, it will announce ticket availability and safety protocols for WrestleMania 37 in the coming weeks.
“Florida is excited to welcome back WrestleMania to Tampa in April at Raymond James Stadium,” Florida governor Ron DeSantis said in a statement. “Florida has continued to work with professional sports and entertainment to safely operate while generating revenue and protecting jobs. WrestleMania will bring tens of millions of dollars to the Tampa area, and we look forward to hosting more sporting and entertainment events in Florida this year.”
Under DeSantis, Florida has been one of the states that has allowed fans to attend sporting event during the pandemic. In October, he reportedly gave the states’ sports teams the clearance to fill their stadiums to capacity but the Jaguars, Dolphins and Buccaneers all capped attendance at around 25 percent. For Raymond James Stadium that is around 16,000 people.
California on the hand has had very strict rules about fans attending games during the pandemic. They were not allowed in SoFi Stadium for the NFL season and the San Francisco 49ers had to play home games away from Levi’s Stadium late in the season after local health officials “temporarily prohibited” any sports that involved close proximity and physical contact of people outside one’s household. AT&T Stadium had allowed fans at 25 percent capacity for Cowboys games.
“The City of Inglewood looks forward to the opportunity to host WrestleMania in 2023 and celebrates the deferral of this year’s event to Tampa Bay so they can have their rightful WrestleMania moment. Our time will come,” Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. said.
WWE has allowed a small number of fans to attend their NXT shows at its Performance Center in Tampa, but “Monday Night Raw” and “Friday Night SmackDown” have been held without live fans since March. WrestleMania 36 was held over two nights at WWE’s Performance Center.
“On behalf of everyone at WWE, we thank Governor [Ron] DeSantis, [Tampa] Mayor [Jane] Castor, [Arlington] Mayor [Jeff] Williams and Mayor Butts for their graciousness and flexibility in what was a collaborative effort to bring the next three WrestleManias to these iconic stadiums in their world-class cities,” Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman & CEO, said.