Wrestlemania returning to Sin City: WWE taking marquee event to Las Vegas in 2025

WrestleMania is headed to the Sin City.

WrestleMania 41 will be held at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders, WWE announced on Saturday, bringing the flagship event back to Las Vegas for the first time in more than 30 years. WrestleMania 41 will again be a two-day event, which began in 2020, but it will also take place later in the calendar. The event will be April 19-20, on Easter.

It's an unusual and rather late announcement for WWE, which typically announced the location for the next year's WrestleMania during WrestleMania week. Yet no announcement was made leading up or during WrestleMania 40 on April 6 and 7.

There will be some differences than past WrestleManias with the 2025 edition. Most notable, it will be taking place later than typical on the calendar. WWE president Nick Khan said at the SBJ World Congress of Sports on April 17 that WWE planned to move away from hosting the event the same weekend of the Final Four, which takes place the first weekend of April and had taken place at the same time as WrestleMania the past three years.

Why did WWE chose Las Vegas over Minneapolis for WrestleMania 41?

The decision to hold WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas was expected as reports began to circulate about WWE's desire to bring it close to the Las Vegas Strip. Khan also said at the SBJ World Congress of Sports that Las Vegas was among the sites being considered for the event and it wouldn't be held at an outdoor East Coast stadium. WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia took place in frigid weather.

However, before Las Vegas emerged as the leading contender to host WrestleMania 41, it was widely expected next year's event would take at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, especially since it's an indoor stadium that wouldn't have to deal with any possible cold conditions.

Minnesota Sports and Events President Wendy Blackshaw told the Star Tribune that Minneapolis was in the running for WrestleMania 41 but "new ownership" resulted in it not being selected.

"We were informed by WWE that Minnesota would not host WrestleMania in 2025 due to a change in direction by new ownership," Blackshaw said. "Although disappointed, we are in discussions with WWE about future events in Minnesota. We are optimistic that Minnesota will host WWE events here in the future."

WWE in Las Vegas history

WrestleMania 41 will be the first WrestleMania held in the Las Vegas area since 1993, when WrestleMania 9 took place at Caesar's Palace, which was the first time WWE held the event outdoors. For most of its beginnings, WrestleMania was held in arenas, but it has taken place in stadiums since WrestleMania 23 in 2007 – with the exception of WrestleMania 36 due to COVID-19.

Allegiant Stadium has hosted a WWE premium live event in its short history. SummerSlam 2021 took place at the indoor stadium and was the first professional wrestling event to happen there. The attendance of that event was 51,326, but it is expected to be a bigger crowd for WrestleMania 41. The stadium has a capacity of 65,000 for NFL games, and it'll likely have more seats than SummerSlam with a high chance of selling out. WrestleMania 41 marks another premium sporting event to be held at Allegiant Stadium, as Super Bowl 58 was played there.

With WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, WWE will also have its other shows – Raw, SmackDown, NXT Stand and Deliver and the 2025 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony – in the city. The location for the events has not been announced yet.

WrestleMania 40 saw The Rock return to a WWE ring and Cody Rhodes capturing the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship over Roman Reigns.