WWE Hall of Famer Issues Major Warning to TKO
Since TKO Group Holdings took over WWE in September 2023, ticket prices for live WWE events have increased significantly, leading to mixed reactions from fans.
At the annual Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference, TKO president Mark Shapiro explained that under Vince McMahon, WWE priced tickets to be affordable for families, aiming for wide accessibility rather than maximum profit. However, TKO’s approach now focuses on increasing “ticket yield,” meaning raising average revenue per ticket through dynamic pricing and limiting supply.
Shapiro also mentioned WWE will increasingly target the markets where fans are more willing and able to pay higher prices, shifting away from traditional family-oriented pricing.
Eric Bischoff Explains Why TKO Increasing WWE’s Ticket Prices Will Have Negative Impact on the Revenue
WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff recently shared his thoughts on Shapiro’s comments while talking to Jonathan Coachman. He stated that while the new pricing strategy has boosted WWE’s overall revenue, fan loyalty risks being damaged due to affordability issues. WWE’s move toward urban markets may sustain higher prices initially, but could alienate core fans from smaller cities or families who were the backbone of its live audience for decades in the long run.
I was pretty surprised, and one of the reasons professional wrestling has endured as long as it has as a television property is because of the touring component, because it’s a family event, and because the audience is a generational audience.
Wrestling is one of the only forms of entertainment that travels to your town and performs live in front of you and it’s something that kids, that families can enjoy together. That creates a connection, a psychological connection. And then that 8-year-old kid turns into an 18-year-old, and he and his buddies are watching, turn into a 22-year-old in a frat house.
Now they’re throwing parties and bringing their girlfriends over, and they’re watching, and then they end up having a kid and the cycle starts all over again. When you take that component, that live connection component, out of the equation, in the short term you’re fine. You’re going to make more money. But in the long term, are you losing potentially a generation of fans that 15 years from now you’re going to wish you had?
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