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Philadelphia still 'very interested' in hosting future WWE WrestleMania

The city of Philadelphia has been in talks with the WWE the last couple of years about potentially hosting a WrestleMania, but has not been able to secure the mega-event.

However, Larry Needle, the executive director of the Philadelphia Sports Congress, told philly.com Tuesday that the city is still "very interested" in bringing the biggest wrestling event in the world to the City of Brotherly Love.

Despite Philadelphia having a large wrestling fan base and lineage, the WWE has awarded WrestleMania 31 in 2015 to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. and WrestleMania 32 in 2016 to AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

According to Needle, Philadelphia was unable to make an official bid for either of those years due to scheduling conflicts with either the Wells Fargo Center and/or the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which would host WrestleMania's ancillary events. WrestleMania itself would emanate from Lincoln Financial Field.

Needle maintains that the city has a great relationship with the WWE and will wait for the company to send out its next request for proposal to see if it will be able place an official bid for a future WrestleMania, even as early as 2017.

In that request for proposal, which the WWE sends out to cities across the country, the company outlines its needs from the cities if they were to submit an official bid for the event. It also includes the dates for the event.

Among the company's needs is the proper infrastructure, which includes transportation and hotels.

According to Needle, the WWE typically sends the request for proposal anywhere between 18 to 30 months before the event, which means the WWE could send them later this year.

If Philadelphia were to land WrestleMania, it could mean more than $100 million of economic impact to the city. WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans marked the third year in a row the event generated more than $100 million for the host city's economy at $142.2 million.