AEW Considering Running Larger-Capacity Venues Following Success Of Arthur Ashe Stadium Ticket Sales

Following the success of AEW’s ticket sales for the Grand Slam event in New York’s Arthur Ashe stadium, All Elite have started going big, yesterday announcing Rampage: The First Dance for Chicago’s United Centre in August.

Whilst fans are speculating that these shows are one-offs to hype up potential new signings Bryan Danielson and CM Punk, it seems this is a new strategy for AEW.

“I was on Google looking at stadiums with a roof and googled all the stadiums in the world with a roof, and I was looking through them and I found Arthur Ashe,” Khan said to The New York Post “Obviously, I’m a big sports fan and I was very familiar with Arthur Ashe from watching the U.S. Open over the years. It had never occurred to me that it could be a great wrestling venue. It’s in a historic, incredible wrestling market in New York and I thought it fit so many things we were looking for.

“We were looking for a big stadium with a roof and I was looking for a great venue in New York and something special that would be a very memorable show and it just fit some many things that it seemed like the perfect venue. So we reached out to them, awhile back, long before the pandemic, and had a really good talk and we were going to try to schedule something in 2020 at Arthur Ashe and we weren’t able to do it. I wanted to do this ‘AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam’ show. It ended up being something we had to shelve for a year and coming back and doing it this year and this September.”

Khan also said the success of the Grand Slam event has him considering running more larger capacity venues in the future, with Khan adding he’s “very happy” with ticket sales across the board.