Reasons Why Tony Khan Doesn't Book Smaller Venues For AEW

Many questions have been asked of Tony Khan’s approach to booking AEW events in 2024, with it being debated as to whether or not AEW should aim to book smaller arenas due to a drop in attendances, with some venues having reduced capacities and large sections curtained or tarped off.

Earlier in 2024, Tony Khan explained to GV Wire that bigger venues have a lot of benefits that smaller ones don’t, "It depends on the market and the time. A lot of times, those arenas have a lot of big advantages like email lists and marketing and they are a destination venue for shows. It depends on the market and the timing. Certainly, bigger arenas do have a lot of advantages. They have a lot of sale contacts and really good marketing resources.”

Per Sean Ross Sapp during a Q&A on Fightful Select, it seems as though this philosophy has not changed, as he offered reasons as to why AEW still don’t run smaller venues. He explained that he’s asked numerous times, and has been given reasons such as amenities, the quality of the venue, ease of parking, mailing lists, the ability to open up more sections if tickets are moving, and more concessions staff.

It reported this week that AEW’s upcoming stadium show in Australia, Grand Slam, is not doing well in terms of ticket sales.