TKO exec defends reduced WWE live event schedule, sees ‘tremendous upside’ in ticket pricing

Any hope WWE fans might have of ticket prices coming down any time soon will have to wait. During his annual appearance at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications conference in Boston, TKO president & chief operating officer Mark Shapiro (pictured above) spoke about both WWE and UFC business which included the upside he sees in both brands. One of those is ticket pricing which he says has “tremendous upside” in addition to site fees, dynamic pricing (a growing trend with concerts where prices are driven by demand), and yield management (a broader strategy that aims to maximize revenue by controlling inventory availability and pricing). Shapiro also defended TKO’s decision to reduce yearly WWE live events to around 200 a year, a cut of 75% off the 300 WWE used to do. He said that decision wasn’t just to improve margins as WWE already had a strong following. He added he feels 200 events is a good place to be, but they will continue to prune the schedule as time goes on. Shapiro said they