A lot of fans in Saudi Arabia have complained online about the tickets for both Smackdown and the Royal Rumble, where ticket resellers look like they bought a large chunk of tickets only to put them on sale just days before the event for way more money than the face value.
While Michael Cole said at the start of Smackdown that it was a late-arriving crowd at the arena, the Riyadh Season Stadium at KAFD remained with a lot of empty seats throughout the three-hour broadcast as fans could not afford the price for the resold tickets.
The Webook.com reselling website has an incredible amount of Royal Rumble tickets up for sale, with general admission tickets which originally sold for 80 Saudi Riyal, or the equivalent of $21, now selling for a minimum of 1,102 Saudi Riyal, or around $245.
A platinum ticket for 700 Saudi Riyal face value, or $155, is now at 2,656 Saudi Riyal, or the equivalent of $600.
Thousands of tickets remain available for resale at time of this writing, which will have a great impact on the number of attendance at tonight’s show.
WWE is not getting any gate money from these shows as they received a fixed fee, rumored to be in the $200 million range, for Smackdown and Royal Rumble. But while the tickets were originally all sold out, having empty seats thanks to resellers will affect the way the show is filmed and lit up.
