Backstage Details On AEW's Arlington Residency
All Elite Wrestling recently announced that they have partnered with the city of Arlington, Texas to host the Path to All In Series at the Esports Stadium beginning on July 20. The series of events will include four live episodes of "AEW Collision," one taped episode of "AEW Collision," and the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, which takes place on July 26.
Wrestlenomics have been able to discover a few more details about the residency, with one financial note being that AEW is paying a half-price rate of $232,000 to use the venue across a six week span, with the local tourism organization potentially granting the company money or incentives to offset these costs as the events are set to bring in a healthy amount of revenue for the city. The figure of $232,000 breaks down as $112,000 going to the Arlington Expo Center, which will be paid in two instalments before the company moves in, while the rest will go to the Esports Venues, LLC company for the use of the building's broadcast suite that is located on site.
AEW is also set to make that money back and more based on ticket sales alone. The report from Wrestlenomics suggests that the Esports Stadium will be scaled to a total of 1,290 seats. This means selling just over 5,000 tickets (or selling out four of the events) at an average ticket price of $45 will cover the rate that AEW is paying to use the building. While this residency takes place, episodes of "AEW Dynamite" and "AEW Rampage" are still set to take place in locations around the United States, but no dates or locations have been announced at the time of writing as the July 17 edition of "AEW Dynamite" in Little Rock, Arkansas is the latest event announcement the company has made.
WWE Have Reportedly Had an Impact on the Schedule
In late April, a schedule of when AEW will occupy the Esports Stadium was sent to the City of Arlington, and in amongst the scheduled live episodes of "AEW Collision," the one taped episode stands out, for good reason. The taping that is set to take place on August 1 is a direct result of WWE Summerslam taking place on August 3, meaning that the August 3 edition of "AEW Collision" will also air at a different time than the usual 8PM ET timeslot to avoid competing with WWE's Premium Live Event.
The schedule also noted that there will be two exclusive Ring of Honor taping days taking place on July 28, two days after the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, and August 16, two days before the company loads out their equipment. However, these dates have remained unannounced and weren't included in the official press release AEW presented on May 16, signalling that these dates could change at some point. Wrestlenomics did reach out to AEW's public relations team for an update on the schedule but weren't given a comment.
AEW and ROH might not be the only companies using the Esports Stadium over the summer. Wrestlenomics also received email records between AEW and government staff where the idea of potentially subletting the venue to CMLL or New Japan Pro Wrestling was floated around between staff members. However, AEW's Vice President of Global Touring Ryan Seddon stated that the focus has been to get AEW's 'ducks in a row' and that discussions regarding such things could happen. However, it seems as if it has just been nothing more than an idea at the time of writing.