Tony Khan wanted to capture the fans' energy in different buildings.
In late 2024, AEW started making some changes to their live event strategy, as the company began booking some unique venues, such as GalaxyCon Columbus and the Hammerstein Ballroom. AEW also announced their schedule for the beginning of 2025, and the company will run the Arizona Financial Theater in Phoenix on February 19. Meanwhile, AEW will continue to hit new markets.
Speaking with Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp after the AEW All In Texas on-sale event, Tony Khan was asked about AEW hitting new markets and changing their live event strategy.
"It’s really exciting. We’ve had a great history in AEW of running all over North America and the US in these great venues. Across America, we’ve found a lot of great places for AEW. One of my favorite places for AEW is pretty close to here, Austin, Texas. We’ve had great experiences there in Cedar Park. Some of my favorite shows, going back to the first year of AEW television, have been in that venue. When we came back out of the pandemic, we went right back there again and had a great night. Every time we go there, the fans bring the energy and it’s a great, great venue. I thought, ‘Let’s try to capture that energy in different places around the country. Find buildings like that.’ It’s been great. We had a packed house for Collision (at GalaxyCon). They were tremendous. A new venue in Indianapolis; it was great to be there at Fishers. The Fishers Events Center, one of the first events they had in the building was AEW Dynamite and Rampage. In Columbus at GalaxyCon, it was a great experience. The GalaxyCon executives were there and they were thrilled with it. They loved it. There were big AEW fans. When you go to an event like GalaxyCon, you think, ‘Are we going to get people coming in that don’t know us as well because they are here for the convention?’ There may have been some first-timers or people new to the experience, but almost everyone, I felt like, were big AEW fans. It was really good for the show," Khan said.
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