wrestling / Columns
The Hamilton Ave Journal 04.01.10: Volume 2 – Issue 131
THE HAMILTON AVE JOURNAL
By JP Prag
Volume 2 – Issue 131
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
The Hamilton Ave Journal is the only wrestling news report focused solely on the business of wrestling. Here in the Journal we not only look at the stories that are important to the investor and business-minded person, but also delve deeper into stories that most fans of wrestling would overlook. That is because the Journal is about getting the heart of the matters that affect the companies and outlooks of the wrestling world.
And where is Hamilton Ave? That is the location of the WWE Production Studio in Stamford, CT, and thus the most powerful place in the wrestling world. Besides, The East Main Street Journal just does not have the right ring to it.
Who am I? I am JP Prag: consultant, entrepreneur, businessman, journalist, and wrestling fan.
Now, ring the bell because the market is open.
The Journal’s front page area known as What’s News isn’t just about telling you what has happened. The stories in this section are about what will have an effect on the wrestling industry, individual federations, and the wallets of the fans.
LEAD STORY: WrestleMania in the books
For those who did not realize it, this past Sunday the WWE hosted WrestleMania 26, the even poised be the WWE single largest grossing day of the year. If last year’s numbers are any indication, in the end WrestleMania will account for 6-8% of all revenue and 15-20% of all profit. Coming in to the event, there were some signs that this event would lag others as tickets were still available the day of the show, including $750 ringside seats. But as show aired, that all changed. From the WWE press release:
World Wrestling Entertainment(R) made history tonight at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ, as WrestleMania XXVI grossed $5.8 million, becoming the highest grossing and attended entertainment event ever held at the stadium. The previous record was a U2 concert on October 20, 2009 that attracted 50,775 fans and grossed $4.9 million. 72,219 fans from all 50 states and 26 countries attended the sold out event, outdrawing Super Bowl XLII (71,101 attendance) in the same building.
This reporter was on hand for the experience. As the normal occupants of the building (NFL team the Arizona Cardinals) do not normally get crowds anywhere near this size, the staff was ill prepared to handle the influx. Most notable the building has just hired on a new company to handle concessions, and the arena was almost completely out of food by 6:30pm PST. In other words, that $5.8 million number could have been edged higher should the building have been ready for the WWE extravaganza.
At the same time, the parking lots were not ready for the out flux of cars at the same time a concert was starting next door. From azcentral.com:
The battle in the ring was matched only by the battle in the parking lot, as fans leaving the stadium bumped into fans heading to Jobing.com Arena for Paul McCartney’s show later in the evening.
It wasn’t just fans who were eager to see the former Beatle. Chris Jericho, who entered the night as WWE’s world heavyweight champion, said that as soon as the event was over, he was heading to the McCartney show.
One can expect that next year’s destination to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA will not have those issues. The Georgia Dome has hosted many large football, wrestling, and other events in the past and has years of experience doing so. More so, the city of Atlanta wants to cash in as much as possible on the economic impact associated with WrestleMania.
Atlanta is not alone in this desire. Even more cities have come forward with plans to attract WrestleMania then originally reported. From Variety:
Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, Detroit, Toronto, Tampa, Vancouver, New Orleans, St. Louis, Jacksonville are now in the running to lock down WrestleMania 28 and beyond. Orlando and Houston are also hoping to host again.
Other interested cities, like Dallas, had to pull out of bidding the next two years because they were hosting events like the Final Four NCAA championships, but are eying other Manias. Houston and Orlando are also bidding to host again.
Miami-Dade Sports Commission officials “pushed really hard” to set up the show in Miami in 2011, offering up its Miami Beach Convention Center, American Airlines Arena and Land Shark Stadium, but lost out to Atlanta.
The article continues:
The growing interest from cities forced WWE to rethink how it handles bids.
After Orlando, WWE hired John Saboor to serve as senior VP of special events and plan the process, which in the past had focused on brokering deals with individual stadiums and arenas, not entire communities.
Saboor had been instrumental in setting up WrestleMania in Orlando, when he was running the regional sports commission there and seeking out major sports events.
“It was certainly a watershed event for Orlando,” Saboor said, with the event generating $51.5 million for the city. Not only did it fill the Citrus Bowl at a time of year when the stadium sits idle, “it served as a showcase opportunity for Orlando, not only for the fans who attended the show from around the world but the audience that tuned into the pay-per-view.”
After he joined WWE, Saboor realized WWE needed to set WrestleMania in cities that could serve as vacation destinations for its fans, and enable the show to turn into a week-long series of events and generate more revenue for the company, as a result.
WWE Spokesperson Robert Zimmerman also said the cities who are bidding generally do not know what year they are bidding for, another change in tactic. As for WrestleMania 28, everyone will have to wait until February 2011 before anything is officially announced. Meanwhile, the 14 cities will have to wait and see if their packages meet what the WWE is looking for.
Newsbites
Some items of note in the rest of the wrestling business world:
Jordan then crawls through the ring and ultimately walks to a nearby white couch where he sits between a shirtless male and a sexy female.
Behind the trio is the tri-colored bisexual pride flag, plus two male symbols and one female symbol.
Extreme Sports Channel apologises to the UK TNA fans disappointed by the broadcast of TNA – Destination X on Friday 26th March, which was inadvertently cut short as the result of a data entry error in our scheduling system.
We’re committed to broadcasting TNA programming for its many loyal UK fans and we take our responsibility to our viewers seriously. We are conducting a full review to investigate how this error occurred and will take measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
There will be full repeats of Destination X on Wednesday 31st March at 21.00 BST, on Saturday 3rd April at 23.00 BST and Sunday 11th April at 23.00 BST. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to TNA fans who tuned in on Friday and we hope to see you all again for Lockdown in April. – Extreme Sports GM Tim MacMullen
The Journal and the fans in the UK will be watching to make sure Lockdown goes down without a hitch.
In the Marketplace we look at the trends in television ratings. This section is less for critical analysis by the Journal but more for the reader to see what is really going on and to draw their own conclusions.
As with stocks, here in the Journal we track the progress of television ratings. If ratings are the barometer by which we judge the product, then over the course of 52 weeks we should be able to see patterns, trends, and anomalies.
For the week ending March 31, 2010, here are the current standings of our shows:
RAW
Close (This Week’s Rating): 3.7
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 3.2
Percentage Change: ▲ 13.0%
52-Week High: 4.5
52-Week Low: 3.1
All Time High: 8.1
All Time Low: 1.8
SmackDown*
Close (This Week’s Rating): UNAV
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 1.8
Percentage Change: N/A
52-Week High: 2.2
52-Week Low: 1.6
All Time High: 5.8
All Time Low: 1.0
* SmackDown! ratings may include fast overnight if final ratings are not posted. Also, SmackDown! ratings are for the prior week as overnights are not available before this article goes to print.
TNA iMPACT**
Close (This Week’s Rating): 0.6
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 0.9
Percentage Change: ▼ 34.9%
52-Week High: 1.5
52-Week Low: 0.6
All Time High: 1.5
All Time Low: 0.6
SuperStars***
Close (This Week’s Rating): 0.9
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 0.9
Percentage Change: ▲ 4.5%
52-Week High: 1.1
52-Week Low: 0.7
All Time High: 1.1
All Time Low: 0.7
*** SuperStars ratings may include fast overnight if final ratings are not posted. Also, SuperStars ratings are for the prior week as overnights are not available before this article goes to print.
NXT
Close (This Week’s Rating): 1.0
Open (Last Week’s Rating): 0.9
Percentage Change: ▲ 11.1%
52-Week High: 1.4
52-Week Low: 0.9
All Time High: 1.4
All Time Low: 0.9
Analysis:
Without any ado, the biggest news in the ratings front was TNA iMPACT coming in with an all time low 0.56 rating, down 34.9% from last week (not the 50% some are reporting). The last time iMPACT has a 0.6 rating was on February 15, 2007. Before that it was April 1, 2006 preceded by November 19, 2005. And these four instances would be the only time iMAPCT has scored so low since moving to Spike TV in any incarnation. FSN number routinely came in lower, but that is a different story.
RAW came in with a 3.7, the same as two weeks ago when iMPACT scored a 0.8. Given that, not all of iMPACT’s audience went to RAW, or rather wrestling still seemed to be fighting off other forces (see the Editorials below).
So what does this mean for TNA and iMPACT? In a short story: not much. Despite having a terrible week, nothing has changed on the contract between TNA and Spike. Spike will honor their agreement to air iMPACT and pay TNA for the next three years. Yes, if things do not improve in the long term TNA may see their timeslot shift and less favorable contract conditions. For now, though, no one is making a rash move. Let us do a historical comparison.
From week 1 to week 3 of Nitro, ratings dropped from a 2.5 to a 1.9. In the reactionary environment we seem to be in, some people say that Nitro was doomed then. The next week Nitro scored a 2.7. The show went though many up and downs over the next five years, but it took nearly a year before Nitro started to hit a consistent ratings level. iMPACT is still finding its audience and its home at just four weeks into the experiment. There is a long time to go on this journey, so expect many more loses and a few relative victories as time moves on. TNA has a big battle ahead, but their biggest battle is just with themselves, not the WWE.
We all know that wrestling is a business, but we don’t often pay attention to what sells and makes money. Money and Investing looks into the top selling items in the world of wrestling and any interesting figures that may have come out this week.
What are the top selling items for the WWE? WWEShopZone.com releases a list of varying numbers to show what is selling for them:
1. WWE Red/Blue Reusable Bag ($1.99)
2. Shawn Michaels My Journey DVD ($21.99)
3. John Cena Never Give Up T-Shirt ($25.00)
4. D Generation X Worlds Biggest Member T-Shirt ($25, on sale $12.98)
5. Shawn Michaels Bobblehead ($18, on sale $5.98)
6. Shawn Michaels Pericardium T-Shirt ($25.00)
7. Shawn Michaels My Journey DVD/T-Shirt Package ($28.99)
8. John Cena Never Give Up Baseball Cap ($20.00)
9. WrestleMania 26 Red T-Shirt ($25.00)
10. John Cena Never Give Up YOUTH T-Shirt ($22.00)
11. Randy Orton Root of Evil Top Rope T-Shirt ($45, on sale $24.98)
12. Shawn Michaels Cross Pendant ($10.00)
13. Triple H Return to Fear T-Shirt ($28.00)
14. John Cena Attitude Adjustment YOUTH T-Shirt ($22, on sale $9.98)
15. Shawn Michaels Retro T-shirt ($20.00)
16. D Generation X Camouflage Cowboy Hat ($20, on sale $9.98)
17. Hart and Soul: The Hart Family Anthology DVD/T-Shirt Package ($28.99)
18. Stone Cold Steve Austin Bobblehead ($18, on sale $5.98)
19. Rey Mysterio Basics Series #2 Action Figure ($9.99)
20. Triple H Black Lanyard ($6.95, on sale $0.98)
As expected, with Shawn Michaels’ retirement his number of items in the top selling list took a major upswing. Like Ric Flair before him, Mr. Michaels came into this week with six direct and two indirect items. Rounding out the list was John Cena with three items, Triple H with two, and Rey Mysterio, Steve Austin, and Randy Orton all holding one. Clearance items also held on to much of the top selling list, again not the best sign at the WWE’s most profitable time of year.
TNA sometimes releases a list of top selling items on ShopTNA.com. According to the site the top selling items were:
1. Don’s Insane Brown Bag Special ($20)
2. Live Special Insane Deal 3/08/2010 ($40)
3. “Hulkamania” T-shirt ($19.99)
4. Jeff Hardy Enigma T-Shirt (Glow In The Dark) ($19.99)
5. Genesis – 2010 DVD ($19.99, on sale $14.99)
6. Hulkamania Bandana ($9.99, on sale $7.99)
7. Lockdown Fan Interaction General Admission Ticket ($55)
8. AJ Styles “Phenomenal One” T-shirt ($19.99)
9. Hulk Hogan – Change T-shirt ($19.99)
Although the top and bottom of the list stayed relatively the same, a few items got shoved in the middle. Most notably the new Jeff Hardy shirt shot up to number four, cementing Hardy’s return to a top selling list. If his run in the WWE’s list is any indication, Hardy should remain in this spot for a long time to come, making Don West very happy.
Wrestling isn’t just about watching and reading. The best way to be a wrestling fan is to experience it live. Where is wrestling coming to in the next 2 weeks? The Personal Journal answers that question.
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Do you know a wrestling event coming up? Send one in to The Hamilton Ave Journal and we’ll be sure to add it to the list.
The Editorials section is designed for you, the readers, to respond to the views presented in the Journal, send an important news item, or talk about another overlooked business related item in wrestling. Just beware: the Journal reserves the right to respond back.
From the commentary section last week, Question had more of a comment:
I think you should track ratings by total viewers, and not the overall number. Why? Because a 2.0 one week can be a 2.3 the next week, and have the same amount of viewers. It all depends on how many people are watching TV.
For a recent example, the TNA iMPACT replay drew a smaller number than WWE Superstars, but they had almost 400,000 more viewers.
Because of stuff like that, I don’t think using the rating number is an accurate indication of tracking viewers.
The Journal has covered why ratings are used extensively in the past, but Guest#5611 takes first crack at it:
The number of people who are watching any television programming varies both by day of the week and week by week. People aren’t so glued to their TV that they feel compelled to watch constantly.
Saturday night is considered a dead time period because of this. Let’s face it, if you are targeting males 18-24, Friday and Saturday nights are terrible times to put your show on.
Mondays are good because at the beginning of the work week, most people aren’t going out and staying out late. Some time ago, NBC made Thursday destination programming.
Naturally, seasonal events and other happenings mean that not all Mondays are the same, etc.
Bottom line, you can only draw from the pool of people who are actually watching television at the time and not choosing to do something else.
This is one reason to use ratings. Of the people watching television and therefore not doing other things, how many are drawn in to your show.
Of course this isn’t the only tool used in the industry. They do measure total number of people estimated to be watching. It is certainly the only way advertisers will do business.
They also look at more detailed breakdowns.
But like all stats, ratings are valuable if you understand what it is for and their limitations.
Also you’ll want to note that network ratings and cable ratings are different because networks are available in more homes than cable. Given that, they are not an exact comparison, but enough to make then an easy way to look at the results. On top of that, over time the overall potential audience changes as the population grows, so ratings are a way to compare across time the percentage of the audience that was watching at any time.
Given that, even though RAW has more viewers today then in 1998, its ratings are lower because it has a smaller percentage of the audience. Having more people is not enough; that percentage growth has to be in line with the entire population otherwise it is a net loss, hence the comparison of ratings.
Speaking of ratings, last week both RAW and iMPACT dropped, but Kyle has his thoughts on why this might be:
Last night’s Dancing With The Stars season premiere set a show record with 23.9 million viewers, up 19% from last year. I think this had something to do with RAW’s rating dropping.
This reporter’s cousin JP Bag had the reaction most would seemingly have:
You wouldn’t think the audiences ‘co-mingle’, but it does make sense, as after DWTS ended, RAW’s second hour shot right back up!
It does not seem to be fathomable, but it would appear to be the biggest factor. Do not forget that the key RAW demographic also lives with the key Dancing with the Stars demographic, so the latter may control the TV for the night.
Leaving behind ratings, Guest#4673 wanted to give his thoughts in relation to WWE branding:
In the editorials section, there is a brief mention of diversification (as it relates to WWE’s portfolio).
This got me thinking: Shouldn’t WWE diversify its content? Traditionally, Raw was the “sports entertainment” show and Smackdown was the “wrestling” show. What if one brand was PG, while the other was for a more mature audience?
The Journal covered this when the WWE went TV-PG. See issues:
It has been discussed elsewhere, but those ones cover the main points. In Issue #46, Brett summed it up best:
It seems odd to make every brand seemingly the same. I always hear people say they should end the brand split, but what they should do is enforce it, and make each brand different. They have three brands and yet they are all virtually the same.
That’s like if a snack food company decided to only make crackers, but they made three different brands of crackers, with their own logos and ads. All the company has done is split up their sales of crackers 3 different ways. They would probably make more money if instead they made crackers, chips and pretzels. At the very least they could figure out what sold best.
I’ve said before that SD! should be for kids, ECW for adults, and RAW for anyone. That way, WWE can get those young fans that they want, and KEEP them instead of the kids deciding at the age of 12 that wrestling is lame and for “little kids”, because then all the money and work that went into making that kid a fan just went right out the window, yeah the WWE probably got some money out of the kid, but if they built their brands in a similar manner to what I suggest, ideally, they could make that kid a loyal fan and keep the dough rolling in for years to come, from just that one fan.
The brand extension is one of the things people question about the WWE, but generally the WWE is only compared against themselves. Recently, though, the company has acknowledged TNA a few times, including helping to make Eric Bischoff’s biography the number one best seller last week. Jimbob Jones sums this one up:
At $2 a book, WWE isn’t making a profit off of Eric’s books (unless they get 1/2 of his royalties or something).
This was just an attempt to burn inventory (and likely to taunt Bischoff) that backfired.
For all that WWE says they aren’t concerned by TNA, moves like this say otherwise. At least to a small degree.
And Vince McMahon’s comments about the company being “tawdry” this week did not help his situation, as both Dixie Carter and Eric Bischoff called him out of that for past angles in the WWE.
On the same topic, Black Scorpion comments and questions:
All I have to say to that is regardless if you are a WWE or TNA fan primarily, you have to laugh at how this turned out. TNA’s boss as WWE’s #1 seller? First real blunder WWE’s made against TNA.
I do have a question for you. Why do you think Eric Bischoff decided not to put Impact against RAW live every week? When Nitro aired, Eric said he wanted to go head-to-head with RAW and never taped Nitro. Now he seems to have lost some of his genius since it would behoove TNA more to combat Smackdown on Friday nights, a live Impact vs a taped Smackdown would give them a chance of victory, although it’d take a few months of higher ratings. It just makes more sense, or am I wrong?
Mr. Bischoff recently posted on Facebook that the decision to tape every other week was out of his hands as the company was looking at cost saving measures. Although he would prefer to be live every week, it is just not in the cards right now, or more correctly the budget. As for iMPACT vs. SmackDown, being on any night against any show is not TNA’s main problem. Overall, it is awareness that their product exists. Although they have made some strides recently, the average viewer has never heard of TNA. Therefore they could put the best wrestling show ever on every single week but not gain viewership because most people do not even know to seek it out. This is TNA’s biggest hurdle, not figuring out a live/taped schedule and what night to air on.
Aside from the big players, the Journal took time to look at the small players in ROH and DGUSA. Nevermore let us know more about their rivalry:
DGUSA and ROH are both competing for territory here in Ontario, Canada as well. Dragon Gate for example is running a show in May, in the same building that ROH just ran its event last week. Both companies are more or less fighting for the same fans. It’ll be fun to see the competitive quality come out.
Even thought running shows a different times may not seem like competition, people only have so much money to spend in a month. Just like with PPV, if the audience has a choice between attending only one indy show a month, then this becomes a battle over where the dollars go.
Plenty more was written, so be sure to take a look. And if you enjoy the Journal, why not bookmark 411wrestling.com and make it your home page? You can do that by clicking here.
This concludes Issue #131 (Volume 2) of THE HAMILTON AVE JOURNAL. Join us next week as we get ready to ring the bell again.
Till then!
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