WrestleMania is coming to MetLife Stadium in 2013.
Three sources close to the NFL, New Jersey politics and sports in northern New Jersey told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the annual wrestling event would be coming to the Meadowlands next year. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because Gov. Chris Christie will hold a news conference Thursday at the two-year-old stadium to announce a major international event.
Executives of the Super Bowl-champion Giants and the Jets, who co-own the stadium, also plan to attend.
WrestleMania will be held in Miami in April. The event, which has a week’s worth of activities, generally fills stadiums. Last year’s event in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta drew a crowd of 71,617 and generated millions in revenue for the region.
Since making the full-time shift to holding the spectacle in football stadiums in 2007, the production has rivaled the Super Bowl. WrestleMania drew 72,219 fans at University of Phoenix Stadium in 2010; 72,744 to Houston’s Reliant Stadium in 2009; 74,635 to the Citrus Bowl in 2008 and 80,103 to Ford Field in 2007.