TKO Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro participated in the 53rd Annual Global Technology, Media, and Communications Conference hosted by JP Morgan. During the event, he discussed various topics, including WWE’s decision to reduce the number of its live events by 75% and the plan to continue this trend.
Shapiro said, “We cut those house shows down to where now we’re doing 200 events a year. We cut them 75%, the number of house shows that we do. We feel that’s a good place to be and we’ll continue to prune as we go through. WWE has tremendous upside on global partnerships. Tremendous upside on ticket pricing. Tremendous upside on site fees, dynamic pricing, yield management. All areas we’re really focusing and pushing in on as it related to live events. As you saw on our first quarter, our margins significantly expanded as it relates to WWE live events.“
On the controversy surrounding WWE: UNREAL due to its unprecedented look behind the scenes—particularly into WWE’s often-guarded creative process:
“I always tell Nick Khan, careful—let’s not give away the Coca-Cola recipe here. But having said that, I think just a little sneak behind into the writers’ room, as evidenced by SNL, is something all fans and viewers want to see.”
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
