Access All AreasOVO Hydro head of live entertainment programming James Bruce (pictured) reflects on how the team at the Glasgow venue prepared to host Scotland’s first globally broadcast pay per view WWE live event and ended up setting an arena gate record for a WWE show.
This June was record-breaking at OVO Hydro. We kicked off with a series of sell-out shows, featuring three spectacular nights with both Girls Aloud and The Killers, then welcomed Liam Gallagher back to the city where it all started for him.
Just a few months earlier, we were thrilled to find out that we had been successful in a bid to host Scotland’s first ever WWE premium live event, Clash At The Castle, adding even more excitement to our jam-packed June lineup. With a tight timeline to plan and execute, immediately a team was pulled together, and it was all-hands-on-deck across programming, ticketing, marketing, event management and technical.
With pro-wrestling’s global popularity at an all-time high, Clash At The Castle Scotland was poised to become OVO Hydro’s biggest sports entertainment event ever, drawing the largest viewing audience to date. To bring that level of attention to Scotland was already an achievement.
WWE shared our huge ambitions to turn the SEC campus into a full WWE activation across event weekend, immersing fans travelling from far and wide in all the Clash At The Castle action. From on-site merchandise stores to VIP offerings, and a kick-off event preceding the two main shows, the amount of work that went into providing a memorable experience for ticketholders was enormous.
This event had the venue’s operational teams working more closely than ever before. Hosting a landmark event like this during such a busy period for the venue meant pressure was felt across all departments; but it was great to see that all teams rose to the challenge, and it clearly strengthened internal relationships.
I think that is testament to the team spirit here at OVO Hydro, with special shoutout to our event managers Susan O’Donnell and Chris McConnell, technical team Emilia Wieremiej and Chris Neary, ticketing manager Brian Reid, and programming manager Matt Brown who led on event execution for the SEC.
Pictured l-r Matt Brown, Susan O’Donnell, Chris McConnell, Brian Reid and James Alexander.
We learned a lot from partnering with WWE, who deliver shows like this on a weekly basis, and were incredibly slick and professional. A strong working relationship allowed us to make efficiencies and maximise offerings such as merchandise. In a weekend of standout moments, hearing WWE’s chief content officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque commend the Hydro team for our hard work in WWE’s press conference was a highlight.
Ticketholders travelled from as far as Australia to witness some of WWE’s most renowned Scottish Superstars inside the ring. The noise in the OVO Hydro as Drew McIntyre was piped in to Scotland the Brave, and the ovation when local tag team Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn won the Women’s World Tag Team Championships will live long in my memory.
The excitement of the Scottish crowds lived up to expectation too, with this event even setting an all-time WWE arena gate record – further proof that OVO Hydro has the best fans in the world.
Despite some challenges amid a busier than usual summer, collaboration across departments, and with external partners WWE, to deliver the ultimate weekend of wrestling in Glasgow, will be the legacy of this event for the venue. Both Smackdown and Clash At The Castle were a great success and the appetite at OVO Hydro to host more shows of this style and scale is stronger than ever.