UPDATED: 03/17/20 11:40 a.m.
Sports events across the U.S. have been canceled due to public safety concerns surrounding COVID-19, including March Madness, St. Pete’s Firestone Grand Prix and the rest of the NHL season (which has been put on ice for now).
Add Wrestlemania 36—which was scheduled to take place in Tampa on Sunday, April 5—to the list, and then save some money for the pay-per-view because the event is canceled in Tampa.
"In coordination with local partners and government officials, WrestleMania and all related events in Tampa Bay will not take place," the WWE wrote in a statement. "However, WrestleMania will still stream live on Sunday, April 5 at 7 pm ET on WWE Network and be available on pay-per-view. Only essential personnel will be on the closed set at WWE’s training facility in Orlando, Florida to produce WrestleMania."
In a release, officials at Amalie Arena, said that "If you purchased your tickets through Ticketmaster, you will automatically be refunded in the next 30 days. If you purchased your tickets at the ReliaQuest Ticket Office at AMALIE Arena, refunds will be made available once the ticket office reopens. Currently the ticket office is closed for safety reasons due to the current COVID-19 virus situation."
Wrestlemania weekend—which was to feature all-star wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Dave Batista—was not just one day of wrestling. It was a five day-long celebration that also included a Friday Night Smackdown and NXT TakeOver.
This highly anticipated sports-entertainment event expected a crowd of 70,000 attendees.
But on March 16, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged a nationwide halt of all events and gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks, meanwhile St. Pete mayor Rick Kriseman enforced that national declaration on a local level, even instilling a 9 p.m. bar and restaurant curfew.
The Hillsborough County Emergency Policy Group decided on Thursday, March 12 that the city was not calling off Wrestlemania. Since then, droves of other upcoming events in Tampa Bay have either been cancelled or postponed, including Hunahpu’s Day and Philfest, leaving Wrestlemania 36 the last mass event standing—until today.
Check out Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s ongoing list of event cancelations and postponements due to the coronavirus pandemic at cltampa.com.
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This article appears in Mar 12-19, 2020.