WrestleMania to Tampa in April, moves to two nights for the first time

The WWE made official what had been long-rumored on Saturday, announcing that Wrestlemania 37 will be at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on April 10th and 11th.

The Showcase of The Immortals will come back to the city that was originally scheduled to host the event in April of 2020 before COVID-19 shut down the event and forced a greatly scaled-down version to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.

It will be the first time a single venue has hosted both the Super Bowl and WrestleMania, the largest two annual events for sports tourism in North America, in the same calendar year. Tampa hosts Super Bowl LV on February 7th.

For the first time, ‘Mania will be scheduled over two nights. This was a change many fans have been crying out for for a long time, as when the pre-show is included, it’s basically a seven-hour affair or longer for those in the stadium. Now with two nights available, it will be interesting to see if more WWE talent is able to participate instead of being thrown in a ring for a battle royal an hour before the main program begins.

There have been no announcements for other venues, but the Tampa Bay Lightning are on the road that weekend, so it’s likely Amalie Arena could play host to events such as the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony and the usual NXT Takeover pay-per-view that precedes WrestleMania in an indoor stadium in the same city.

There was also no information about how many fans will be allowed in the venue, but about 16,000 people saw the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last home game, and with field/floor seating available that might increase for The Greatest Spectacle in Sports Entertainment.