How Orlando Won WM24

The Orlando Sentinel's website outlines how Wrestlemania 24 was brought to Orlando, Florida for 2008. The article discusses how Orlando was on a list along with cities such as Miami, Tampa, Atlantic City and Las Vegas as potential locations for the big event. WWE marketing advisor Bob Collins decided to approach Orlando, since it has always been such a great tourist location. Collins eventually had the idea brought to John Saboor of the Central Florida sports commission. Saboor loved the idea, and he and the mayor took their team on a trip to WWE headquarters in Stamford, CT to pitch Orlando as the preferred choice for WM24. Their presentation included binders they handed out to WWE executives which read "We've Got 2 words for you....Choose Orlando" on the covers.

The major decision WWE made after the presentation was that it wanted Wrestlemania held at a bigger venue so it asked for the Citrus Bowl. Saboor and his staff had originally suggested Amyway Arena. The reason for this is Amyway Arena only holds 15,000 people. Wrestlemania 23 at Detroit held over 70,000, so you can see the major dropoff that would have occurred. On March 21, 2007, WWE officially accepted Orlando and announced it as host for its biggest Pay Per View of 2008. The festivies for Wrestlemania 24 are set to kick off March 24th and run through the week, culminating with the huge Pay Per View, March 30th at 7PM EST.

Read the full Sentinel article on Wrestlemania 24 here.