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Philadelphia was reportedly a finalist for WrestleMania 31; Philadelphia Sports Congress denies report

Philly.com and other media outlets received statements from WWE and the Philadelphia Sports Commission earlier this week stating that the city never placed an official bid for WrestleMania 31 in 2015 because of a lack of available facilities for the event.

UPDATE 7:20 a.m.: Philly.com was able to get in touch with Larry Needle of the Philadelphia Sports Congress and here's what he had to say regarding the city's negotiations with WWE.

Needle said that the facilities that would have hosted the ancillary events for WrestleMania 31 in 2015 were the Wells Fargo Center and the Philadelphia Convention Center.

He said that there was a scheduling conflict with one of those venues that coincided with WrestleMania, but did not want to say which one in particular.

He went on to say that the scheduling conflict was a good and bad thing because it meant that there are a lot of events coming to the city, but it may lose out on events as well. WrestleMania 31 turned out to be one of those events.

He denied the report from the San Jose Mercury News that said that Philadelphia was a finalist for the event, saying that he had no idea where that could have come from.

Needle also said that the city is very interested in hosting a future WrestleMania and is in steady contact with the WWE about doing so.

According to Needle, Philadelphia will attempt to make another run at hosting a WrestleMania in the near future.

Philly.com will update further as soon as more information becomes available.

From earlier: Philly.com and other media outlets received statements from WWE and the Philadelphia Sports Commission earlier this week stating that the city never placed an official bid for WrestleMania 31 in 2015 because of a lack of available facilities for the event.

However, those statements go against what the San Jose Mercury News reported back on August 20.

The reported stated that Santa Clara, Calif. was a finalist to host the mega-wrestling event in 2015. It also reported that its lone competition was Philadelphia.

From the report, "Santa Clara is a finalist — competing against Philadelphia — to host the spring 2015 showcase of folding-chair smacks and body slams at the San Francisco 49ers' new stadium."

Philly.com posted a story based on this report a day later.

Santa Clara was eventually awarded WrestleMania 31 and will host the event at Levi's Stadium, which set to open in time for the 2014 NFL season.