Earlier today, WWE officially announced that WrestleMania 37, scheduled initially for Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, CA on March 28, 2021, is being moved to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL and that Sofi Stadium will now host WrestleMania 39 on April 2, 2023.
Raymond James Stadium was originally scheduled to host WrestleMania 36 in April 2020, but that event was moved to the WWE Performance Center due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It had been widely reported that WrestleMania 37 would not be happening at Sofi Stadium as planned for several months, but WWE had not made an official announcement until today.
With the pandemic still going on, and the case numbers being worse than ever coupled with California’s more restrictive protocols, there was little chance WWE would have been able to have a live crowd at Sofi Stadium or anywhere else in California.
WrestleMania 37 in Tampa will be the second time the event will be two nights, taking place on April 10 and April 11, 2021. WWE also announced that they “will announce ticket availability and safety protocols for WrestleMania 37 in the coming weeks. Information on additional WrestleMania Week events is forthcoming.”
WrestleMania 38 will take place on April 3, 2022, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, which was the site of Wrestlemania 32 in 2016.
With the Sofi Stadium WrestleMania being pushed back two years, the attendance record for pro-wrestling in Southern California set by a match between Freddie Blassie and John Tolos should hit its fiftieth anniversary. They drew 25,847 fans to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 27, 1971. This is the second time WWE has scheduled an event in a stadium that would break that record and ended up having to change venues keeping the record alive. WrestleMania VII was initially scheduled to be held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum but was moved to the Los Angeles Sports Arena due to low ticket sales.
Along with the announcement, WWE released a “WrestleMania Report” video announcing the changes. The video features Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, Sasha Banks, and John Cena.
