Yes, the show was bad in terms of attendance, but was very well done for the fans who attended.
I spoke with Tom Harriman when I first arrived on Saturday morning. He was disappointed in the attendance, and I heard from several others that Friday night was even worse. While I was there, it appeared there were more legends than fans.
Tom told me he was surprised attendance was so low, because they had put ads on local radio during the Mancow show and Imus in the Morning, as well as Access Atlanta. The only problem with that, as I told Tom, was both those shows had limited reach, and really weren’t hitting the target audience he could have hit.
For example, Mancow is only available in Georgia on 1160AM out of Atlanta and 1230 AM out of Augusta. Imus is only on in Georgia from 1160 AM. Neither show really has a theme that correlates to that of a wrestling fan, at least in terms of the folks that might be interested in actually attending a legends event. And neither is on a station that actually has high ratings in comparison to say, 680 the Fan or 790 the Zone. I honestly believe if he had tried to strike a deal with 790, they would have maybe even gone as far as having a remote from the event, as most of their hosts consider themselves to be old school fans.
As for Access Atlanta, I don’t read it, nor does anyone else I know of. Most folks get there info from the AJC, and I only saw one brief blurb there last week on Thursday. People I know who get the print edition of the AJC said they saw no ads at all. That would have helped. I heard the Access Atlanta piece ran on Friday. That’s a little late.
The only other advertising stream they used was the Internet, which we all know is helpful to hit the hardcore audience, but it doesn’t attract the casual fans, who are the ones you need to help a show of this magnitude reach big levels.
This was also an event that was perhaps too big in terms of talent and quantity thereof, simply because it’s a bad economy. I don’t blame anyone for not being willing to part with money when most are struggling to get by with the daily expenditures of life.
As for your comment regarding GWH not helping promote the event, you have not been paying attention. We have posted every single update in our News and Notes forum, had it listed in our Upcoming Events section for months, plugged it on our radio programs, and even had it featured in our Featured Upcoming Events section on the main site. We did all we possibly could.
I don’t know if money was lost, but it’s a safe bet. Hopefully, these guys try again after the economy rebounds, and perhaps plan for better avenues of advertising next time out.
