Everybody knows about the biggest college athletics tournament taking place this week. It’s the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championship at the Wells Fargo Center.

Heyo!

Low-level jokes aside, this is a humongous event and the chatter behind the scenes is that demand for tickets and boxes was way higher than anybody had anticipated.

Speaking with a few people in the know, we’re told that this is going to end up being, as one person put it, “the highest revenue event in suite sales history” at the Wells Fargo Center. Why? Well apparently some totally loaded business people are hardcore wrestling fans and their interest level is high. It was mentioned that some of the suites sold for more than $100,000 and others were booked more than a year in advance.

We were also told that a small number of public tickets sold out in hours and the only thing still available ahead of Thursday’s kick off is a fan experience and hospitality package. They’re going to run a fan fest next door, at Lincoln Financial Field, featuring clinics, autograph signings, and all of that.


Reaching out to Comcast-Spectacor, we got a quote from Wells Fargo Center General Manager Mike Sulkes (our emphasis in bold) –

“I don’t think the general sports fan in Philadelphia is aware of how big of an event this is. It’s among one of the highest in-demand tickets at the building ever, and the college wrestling fanbase is as passionate as it gets. We’re looking forward to welcoming their fans back, the first time since 2011, and to be the setting where national champions will be crowned.

It’s a three-day, national event but with a large local presence. Penn State, Pitt, Lehigh, Lock Haven, Penn, and Drexel will be represented on the mat, plus Rutgers and Rider from New Jersey. Even if you’re apathetic on wrestling, you probably know that PSU is a powerhouse, and they’ll be going for their 13th national championship and fourth in a row, so the Nitters will be everywhere this week.

WE ARE! – Spending a lot of time and money on college wrestling, for good reason.

What’s interesting is to think about the popularity of wrestling in Philly, or lack thereof. It does not seem to be a big deal in the city proper, or the inner parts of Delco or South Jersey (EDIT – I am receiving feedback that wrestling is pretty popular in SJ). However, if you go about halfway up Montco and over to central Bucks it’s huge. Wrestling was a big deal growing up out here. You’d put teams like Spring-Ford and Quakertown and Pennridge in the gym and that gym was full. Newspaper writers were there, like the great Don Seeley of The Pottstown Mercury (RIP to both). Honestly it felt like wrestling was as big as basketball and sometimes as popular as football. There would be more people at the football game, but they’d be walking around the track and bullshitting, basically just there for the social aspect. But the wrestling matches everyone was dialed in. Those were great atmospheres.

Then you go up into the Lehigh Valley and further north, and forget about it. Huge programs at both the high school and collegiate level, Penn State being the crown jewel. Look no further than guys like Bo Nickal, who excelled there and are now fighting on UFC pay per view cards. I’ve always felt like wrestling is similar to combat sport in this region. Underground, sure, but thriving circuits when you go outside of the city limits. There’s just not a lot of media coverage or penetration in a pro sports town.

We will circle back with Spectacor after the tournament and see if they’ll divulge a final revenue number, or at least some confirmation of the record breaking.