Post by Ed Becker on Jul 24, 2013 3:58:06 GMT -6
Of course this is for the bi-weekly Impact broadcasts. This is not a reflection of my opinion of the product. Most of this will be me thinking out loud regarding expenses, etc. There's a lot of them when you take the show on the road and have to beam up the HD signal, rent the building and all that other happy horseshit.
Spike/Viacom is happy with the ratings. They chip in for Impact. We also know that their PPV numbers suck and the shows they taped had dogshit for buys. Their house show revenues stink on ice. Looking at those numbers, I can't think they even come close to making their nut. No idea what kind of merch they're moving.
Here's your biggest expenses:
- For the 2 hours of live Impact, they (and by they I mean both Panda Energies and Viacom) need to get an HD signal from the trucks at the building to the satellite and back to Viacom. This is never cheap. I would think this probably costs more than renting the building. We also don't know where and when the taped Impacts get edited, if they need to get it bounced off the bird, etc.
- Renting the arena. For last Thursday, it was an estimated crowd of 3500 with a few hundred comps. TNA has been running big rooms sectioned off for TV & PPV since they went on the road. They'll get the room cheaper if they only use half of a 12k arena but it probably costs them at least $30k to rent that plus insurance and other building expenses. Here's my rationale... 20 years ago it cost something like $10k to rent the US Cellular Arena in Milwaukee. It has a max capacity of around 12k for wrestling. It's also a union building... stagehands, bartenders, ticket takers, cleanup crew, etc. Still have to pay the people you don't use. That adds to the bill. Some facilities even when non-union have that built into the contract. The pay for the people who set up and tear down the chairs...
- Insurance: When I was doing the demolition derby thing 10 years ago a general liability policy ran about $1000-$1500 per day depending on the facility. This covered fans, drivers and show crew. I would think that would be at least tripled these days for a wrestling show. Also, there are only a handful of companies that will underwrite such events.
- How many trucks do they use to transport the set, ring, etc. Who owns those trucks? Fuel can be a killer for a touring show. Ya also have to pay the drivers. Hell, who sets that shit up?
- Who pays the cameramen?
- What about gimmicks? You need 2 ladders to make one as TNA and WWE use them. An 8' table runs $70-80.
- Gotta pay building security.
- Tack on fees to the local police if they're needed to direct traffic or for security. That's usually billed as overtime for the coppers.
- Depending on the contract, the building usually keeps concessions and may get a cut of merch. Again, all of these people need to get paid.
- Ticketing: Just pull the rape van up over there...
Just a handful of thoughts. With these expenses in addition to whatever talent from Hulk to Sting to Kurt to Jeff get, and then the rest of the talent, I really can't argue with the $600k figure. Shit adds up.
Spike/Viacom is happy with the ratings. They chip in for Impact. We also know that their PPV numbers suck and the shows they taped had dogshit for buys. Their house show revenues stink on ice. Looking at those numbers, I can't think they even come close to making their nut. No idea what kind of merch they're moving.
Here's your biggest expenses:
- For the 2 hours of live Impact, they (and by they I mean both Panda Energies and Viacom) need to get an HD signal from the trucks at the building to the satellite and back to Viacom. This is never cheap. I would think this probably costs more than renting the building. We also don't know where and when the taped Impacts get edited, if they need to get it bounced off the bird, etc.
- Renting the arena. For last Thursday, it was an estimated crowd of 3500 with a few hundred comps. TNA has been running big rooms sectioned off for TV & PPV since they went on the road. They'll get the room cheaper if they only use half of a 12k arena but it probably costs them at least $30k to rent that plus insurance and other building expenses. Here's my rationale... 20 years ago it cost something like $10k to rent the US Cellular Arena in Milwaukee. It has a max capacity of around 12k for wrestling. It's also a union building... stagehands, bartenders, ticket takers, cleanup crew, etc. Still have to pay the people you don't use. That adds to the bill. Some facilities even when non-union have that built into the contract. The pay for the people who set up and tear down the chairs...
- Insurance: When I was doing the demolition derby thing 10 years ago a general liability policy ran about $1000-$1500 per day depending on the facility. This covered fans, drivers and show crew. I would think that would be at least tripled these days for a wrestling show. Also, there are only a handful of companies that will underwrite such events.
- How many trucks do they use to transport the set, ring, etc. Who owns those trucks? Fuel can be a killer for a touring show. Ya also have to pay the drivers. Hell, who sets that shit up?
- Who pays the cameramen?
- What about gimmicks? You need 2 ladders to make one as TNA and WWE use them. An 8' table runs $70-80.
- Gotta pay building security.
- Tack on fees to the local police if they're needed to direct traffic or for security. That's usually billed as overtime for the coppers.
- Depending on the contract, the building usually keeps concessions and may get a cut of merch. Again, all of these people need to get paid.
- Ticketing: Just pull the rape van up over there...
Just a handful of thoughts. With these expenses in addition to whatever talent from Hulk to Sting to Kurt to Jeff get, and then the rest of the talent, I really can't argue with the $600k figure. Shit adds up.