WWE deal stems from long-simmering talks with Sports Corp.

When World Wrestling Entertainment President Nick Khan watched Indianapolis host the 2022 College Football Playoff National Championship, he took his enthusiasm straight back to his staff.

Khan “walked away from that experience with such a great feeling about Indy as a big-event city that he came back to the office and said, ‘The folks in Indiana really know how to do a large-scale event. We should look into that,’” Chris Legentil, executive vice president of talent relations and communications for WWE, told IBJ. “So, that set off these actions into motion.”

By late March 2022, WWE was in talks with the Indiana Sports Corp. about hosting at least one event—“Royal Rumble”—in Indianapolis, but those conversations gradually evolved into an even larger deal, Legentil said.

Ultimately, the two organizations reached an agreement announced Monday that will bring a trio of top-rung WWE events to Indianapolis over the next eight years. The deal is expected to drive hundreds of millions of dollars into the state’s economy—the kind of WWE bonanza that Indianapolis sports and tourism officials have been pursuing on and off for more than a decade.

The arrangement is the first of its kind that Stamford, Connecticut-based WWE has ever reached with a U.S. sports commission. It includes a “WrestleMania” and “SummerSlam,” which the city last hosted in 1992 and 2008, respectively, and a “Royal Rumble,” which Indianapolis has never hosted. The three shows will all be at Lucas Oil Stadium, with expectations that they will collectively generate at least $350 million in local spending.

“As time went on, it seemed like there was appetite and demand … to bring multiple events to Indianapolis, and we thought we could do a larger deal,” Legentil said. “We thought we could make more of an impact if we did something long term, and we have a wonderful partner in Patrick Talty, the Indiana Sports Corp. president, who shared our desire to come up with a creative deal that works well for both sides and ultimately presents something very attractive to the public.”

Conversations escalated in January 2023, when Khan and other WWE executives entertained leaders of Indiana Sports Corp., Visit Indy, the Capital Improvement Board and Indy Chamber during the “Royal Rumble” event in San Antonio. Throughout the weekend, the parties discussed broadly a deal that would allow Indianapolis to secure multiple premium events from the entertainment juggernaut’s stable.

Talty himself acknowledged that Indianapolis came to the table with something of an advantage, as he’d spent three years as senior vice president of live events for WWE, from 2012 to 2015. But he also credited Khan with being open to the idea of giving Indianapolis an opportunity at an extended deal in the first place—something it had previously done only with Saudi Arabia.

“WWE has been one of those things that—between the CIB, Indiana Sports Corp. and Visit Indy—we had been talking about for quite a few years,” said Talty, who moved to Indianapolis in 2019 and took the reins of the sports tourism group in July 2022.

“It’s one of those things where you have to work to go after it—you have to want it. One of our strategies was to talk to [Khan] about a ‘Royal Rumble’ or ‘SummerSlam’ to kind of lead into showing WWE that we are a great host city—so why not start with one of those events and then start working on ‘WrestleMania’? Lucky enough, those conversations coalesced into a great partnership that we both felt was mutually beneficial.”

Talty said that, while he is confident Indianapolis would have secured the deal even without his WWE experience, it was likely a factor in the agreement’s breadth.

“Me having been an executive with WWE, I think what that allowed us to do was understand the value and strength of the brand and what it really could do for our community,” he said. “I think understanding that really helped us get all of our partners together. Another piece of it is understanding how their business works and what’s important to them—understanding how you can put deal points together.”

He said WWE’s event goals are to make its athletes and executives feel like they are the host city’s singular focus and to promote its shows big and small in a way that builds interest and anticipation.

“Understanding that helps us be in the right position to show them why we believe in WWE and why we want to do this partnership,” Talty said.

Long courtship

Indianapolis had tried multiple times to secure major WWE events. Then in 2018, it was asked to bid for the 2023 “WrestleMania” but ultimately opted against the opportunity. “WrestleMania” is usually held in early to mid-April—around the same time as the NCAA Final Four—and has taken place outside the Midwest for more than 15 years.

The last “WrestleMania” in the region was in Detroit in 2007. The 2025 event is set for Las Vegas, with expectations of drawing as many as 180,000 visitors. The 2026 “WrestleMania” will be in Minneapolis, followed by Nashville in 2027 and potential overseas shows in 2028 or 2029.

The 1992 show in Indianapolis, a one-day affair featuring headliners Sid Justice, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Randy Savage, drew 62,167 people to the Hoosier Dome. “WrestleMania” became a two-day event starting in 2020.

As for the events in Indianapolis’ new contract, “Royal Rumble” is set for Feb. 1, 2025, but “WrestleMania” and “SummerSlam” haven’t been assigned dates.

The city and others across the state are expected to benefit from a flurry of other weekly and special pay-per-view shows throughout the eight-year agreement. Those could include tours of “SmackDown,” “Monday Night Raw” and even non-televised or special house shows at Gainbridge Fieldhouse or at venues in Evansville and Fort Wayne.

Since the 1980s, Indianapolis has hosted more than 100 events sponsored by WWE and its predecessor, the World Wrestling Federation, including several pay-per-views and more than 15 iterations each of “SmackDown” and “Raw.” Cities throughout Indiana have hosted an additional 20 sanctioned events over that period.

As with many major sporting events Indianapolis hosts, the city is developing plans for one or more legacy projects tied to the contract period. That initiative will be overseen by Lauren Sparkman, president of Indianapolis-based Sparkland Studios, who will chair the local organizing committee for the WWE partnership.

Financing the deal

While neither Talty nor Legentil was willing to discuss financial specifics of the deal, Talty confirmed that the Sports Corp. tapped into the state tourism bid fund to secure the WWE’s commitment.

The fund, he said, “is really meaningful, and people are having discussions about events across the state that they would not otherwise be having, if not for that bid fund.” Still, he declined to share how much of the $6 million fund was used for WWE.

Local sports and tourism officials will likely need to raise more money and work with Indianapolis government leaders to secure funding for each event, but a strategy for doing so has not been finalized.

David Lewis, president of the Indy Championships Fund—a $26 million fund used to host the 2021 Final Four, the College Football Playoff National Championship and NBA All-Star Weekend—said he hasn’t been approached about fundraising for WWE but would be open to doing so.

“WrestleMania” alone is a costly endeavor for host cities, with some economists pegging the price tag at $20 million. Those costs are generally associated with added security and road controls, discounts on stadium rentals and other spaces, and tax or financial incentives to entice WWE to select the city as a host.

Costs can also include temporary infrastructure and hosting-related activities. For example, “WrestleMania” often includes a fan village in the host city’s convention center, and Indianapolis will likely be asked to create such an attraction, for both that and other headliner events.

Even with the added costs, however, WWE contends its largest events create massive financial ripples for the economies that host them. “WrestleMania” brings its host city about $200 million and draws crowds of 120,000 to 150,000 people, a mix of local traffic and visitors. That economic impact figure includes numerous ancillary wrestling shows that often take place across the city in connection with—but independent from—“WrestleMania.”

Legentil said he expects “Royal Rumble” to serve as a natural segue to future WWE events in Indianapolis. He called the local fan base “very strong” and said local sports personality Pat McAfee and Indiana Pacers player Tyrese Haliburton—both big fans of professional wrestling—will shine an extra spotlight on WWE programming.

“We believe if we do it correctly, that ‘Royal Rumble’ will inspire a lot of positive chatter, just as the Super Bowl did for Indy, just as the College Football Playoff National Championship did for Indy,” Legentil said. “So that’ll drive interest in a two-night ‘Summer Slam’ in future years and, of course, a multi-night ‘Wrestlemania.’”

Talty said while WWE typically pursues a standard bid process for its big events, this agreement allows Indiana to work directly with the company to make the events bigger than ever. It also brings stability to the local tourism industry.

“This was really important when we started to think about this [deal], to be able to lock up the three events rather than having to bid on them,” he said. “It fills the calendar, and it fills the hotels and makes the tourism industry strong. So when we can guarantee that over a long period—that’s a home run, that’s gold.”

Legentil said that, in addition to WWE shows, the partnership opens the door for other events by WWE’s parent, Connecticut-based TKO Group Holdings, including those within the Ultimate Fighting Championship brand, which operates separately from the wrestling circuit.

“I’d say we’re open for business,” he said. “If there’s interest from the Indianapolis side, then of course, we’re always going to have that conversation.”

Talty said Indiana Sports Corp. doesn’t want to get out over its skis on hosting other TKO events and is instead focused for now on “Royal Rumble” and “blowing away the expectations of what that event looks like, as a host.”•