AEW All In Texas actual attendance revealed, state reimbursement reduced
A lower than expected turnout for July’s AEW All In from Arlington, Texas’ Globe Life Field will result in the company getting a reduced reimbursement from the state.
The news comes from public records obtained by Wrestlenomics that revealed the actual turnstile count (aka tickets scanned for those coming into the venue) at 21,973 which included 274 suite tickets out of 678 that were actually sold. Actual attendance in the venue was listed at 23,759 according to the documentation. While not specified, the difference could be arena workers and other personnel.
The total amount of tickets sold & distributed was not provided in the records. WrestleTix had previously estimated 27,245 as total distributed. Following the event, AEW head Tony Khan had said he thought the attendance was at nearly 29,000. In pre-show media, he said that All In was nearing the $3 million mark in gate revenue.
Why that scan count matters is the Texas Event Trust Fund which uses both state and local funding to help cover expenses for certain events coming into the state. AEW was set to receive $1 million in pre-approved funding based on a February estimated attendance of 33,490 with 32,500 of those being fans.
Arlington City Manager Trey Yelverton confirmed to Wrestlenomics in the report that AEW would end up receiving “around $700,000 in reimbursements” toward All In costs.
In the past, WWE has also received reimbursement from the same fund for events like WrestleMania.
Another interesting note from the full Wrestlenomics report had nearly 6300 fans coming to All In from outside Texas with just over 4600 fans coming from outside the Dallas/Arlington market. The residences of nearly 5300 fans could not be determined.
Additionally, documentation showed that there was originally both NJPW and CMLL events planned for All In week in addition to a Chris Jericho/Fozzy/Swerve Strickland combo concert that never happened.
Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.