Royal Rumble 1997 attendance
 

I did not know this until 5 seconds ago but the 1997 Royal Rumble in San Antonio had 60,000 fans in attendance! I take it that is the largest non-Wrestlemania WWE crowd of all time other than Summerslam 1992?

My question..... why did the Rumble have 60,000 people that year and not Wrestlemania?

Because the Rumble was held in San Antonio's Alamodome with Shawn Michaels headlining as the hometown boy. Mania was just held in Chicago at Allstate Arena or whatever used to be in Chicago.

Really, this was the first stadium show for WWE since Summerslam 1992 (first in US since Mania VIII) and they wouldn't have another one until Wrestlemania X-7 in 2001.

I figure the WWF assumed they could fill the building with Michaels headlining since he was the hometown hero. I guess they figured that it would be more interesting to have HBK in the challenger role instead of champion, which is why they had him drop the strap to Sid at Survivor Series only to win it back at the Rumble, with the plans for Mania having been HBK dropping the title to Bret Hart.

Awesome show. I wish WWE would run the AlamoDome again.

I have only watched the actual Rumble from that show and never noticed the giant crowd. Figured it was a 20,000 arena. That seriously blew my mind right now.

I guess it makes sense with the hometown hero AND the Royal Rumble being a double main-event.

They had a RAW in both the Georgia Dome and Skydome in 99.

Oh yea forgot about those. I remember wondering why they just didn't do a PPV in those venues instead of Raw.