Downtown hotels nearly sold out ahead of Royal Rumble

Downtown Indianapolis hotels are nearly sold out for Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble at Lucas Oil Stadium, and local tourism officials say they are hopeful the demand bodes well for upcoming World Wrestling Entertainment events in the city.

Most of downtown’s inventory of more than 7,500 rooms has been booked for more than a month, officials said. However, a smattering of rooms remain available at a handful of properties—albeit with higher-than-typical room rates.

Based on an IBJ search late Thursday, the few rooms still available for Saturday night were priced above $350. Most were listed in the $399 to $550 range, including those at The Alexander, Homewood Suites by Hilton near IU Indianapolis, Le Meridien Indianapolis and the Conrad Indianapolis. The downtown Embassy Suites by Hilton was asking $699 for the night.

Patrick Tamm, president of the Indiana Restaurant and Lodging Association, said he thinks hotels are trying to strike a balance between increased rates and meeting the needs of fans, many of whom could be repeat customers.

“It’s obviously the first of many [events], and we’re looking forward to the fans really getting to know Indianapolis, and frankly, coming not just for this weekend, but for future events,” said Tamm. “There’s a lot of excitement for that, and hopefully the fans just have a wonderful experience like we always deliver for folks, so they look forward to immediately coming back for the next round. It’s a good deal.”

The deal between the Indiana Sports Corp. and World Wrestling Entertainment, announced in June, will last for eight years and bring multiple WWE shows to Indianapolis, including a Summer Slam event and Wrestlemania.

While the partnership is expected to drive about $350 million in spending for the Indianapolis economy, it’s not entirely clear how much Royal Rumble alone will generate. In recent years, the show has led to about $40 million in economic impact, members of the host committee said.

This year’s event is set to have a record-breaking crowd for the WWE, with nearly all of Lucas Oil Stadium’s 65,000 available tickets already sold. Previously, the largest crowd was 1997 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, which drew just more than 62,000 spectators.

Chris Gahl, executive vice president of Visit Indy, said the high demand for hotel rooms will extend to the suburbs this weekend.

“Downtown hotels are teetering at a virtual sellout with higher-than-expected hotel rates,” he told IBJ.

While most all of downtown’s hotels will be used by visitors tied to the wrestling event at Lucas Oil Stadium, some properties are hosting other events.

The Association of Fraternal Leadership & Values, which has hosted its annual conference in Indianapolis for more than two decades, is slated to gather this weekend, as well. The event, set to feature more than 2,300 participants, will be held at the JW Marriott. Phil Ray, general manager of the hotel, said at least 600 of the property’s 1,013 rooms were part of a block reserved by the conference before Royal Rumble was announced.

The Downtown Indianapolis Marriott will also host WrestleCon, a free event unaffiliated with WWE, but meant to tap into the same audience.

“We love the fact that we’re a city that’s very diversified with our events, whether it be sports or wrestling or concerts,” said Ray, who said the city benefited when downtown offered events to “stimulate demand and make people want to come down and use our hotels, our restaurants and our bars.”