– During an appearance at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference earlier today, TKO President Mark Shapiro spoke on plans for WWE to cut back on live events next year. The scaling back of live events will bring the total to about 200 compared to about 300 in 2023 and about 250 this year. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):
Mark Shapiro on TKO’s plans to cut back on WWE live events: “We’re cutting events at WWE. We’re taking our low-margin, marginally profitable events, untelevised events that Vince put in place to grow the brand, right? You’re taking the show on the road, we’ve gotta go to every city we can get to grow the WWE brand. Well, the WWE brand, while we still have to grow it, it’s on fire right now.”
On it being less necessary to put on marginally profitable live, non-televised shows: “We don’t need to carry these marginally profitable events. Andrew Schleimer, our CFO, and Nick Khan at WWE have been hands-on involved with cutting back those events, trimming those events. What was 300 [events] last year will be roughly 250 this year. And next year, we’ll be close to 200.”
WWE currently has a handful of live events scheduled before the holiday season.
