Sphere Entertainment Co. (NYSE:SPHR) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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James Dolan: Well, let’s see. Look, the operational performance affects everything. So, before we get to what we do with the retained interest, right, that’s obviously going to be our focus and we will adjust the business depending upon how that operational performance turns out, right? We won’t be making our decisions on the first show that we sell, right? But I think that over a fairly short period of time, we’ll get a good sense of where the right balances are for the business. We will adjust say to make sure that we have a profitable business and that it builds value for our shareholders. You want to take the second part?

Gautam Ranji : Sure. No final decisions have been made with regard to what we’re going to do with the retained stake. We continue to have the three options for the retained stake: monetization, exchange offer and a follow on spinoff. And to the extent we sell some or all of the retained stake, we’re going to be deliberate in our approach around that.

Ari Danes: Operator, we have time for one last caller.

Operator: And our final question comes from a line of David Joyce from Seaport Research Partners.

David Joyce: Two questions, kind of building on some other discussions here. But first, could you please walk us through the different event types and their respective or relative margin profiles, be it the proprietary content versus residencies versus corporate branding events versus other things you might do? And then secondly, kind of further on that MSG Networks, that question. Could you kind of explain how the ramp up in Sphere cash flows can offset the challenges that MSGN is facing as they look to bring to refinance? Thank you.

James Dolan: All right. Let me take the first part of that one. So, let’s start with our own original content, which really is sort of the backbone of the business. That is basically a high margin business because you’ve already invested your capital. You’ve made your show, you’ve built your attraction, and now your running costs are basically things like ushers, security, merch, those kinds of things. So the return on that is pretty strong. Residencies are basically the traditional model, right, that you’re following with the acts. At the same time to say, they come in, you rent the building to them, right, and it has less risk on the sale of tickets but less upside too. And residencies really should be looked at as also a bit of a — it’s not a loss leader but it does improve the profile of products and of the building, that gets a lot of people in and those turn into customers for your own content.

The final piece is basically like what we call sort of corporate rentals and F1 is a good example of this. That is extremely low risk, right? And there’s really not a lot of — I don’t even know if a margin discussion is appropriate for that. Basically you have a rental fee and then everything — all the other expenses that are incurred with the operating of the building or building content, become the responsibility of the renter. So there’s a guaranteed top-line to it, for the business. And those are basically the three streams of usage, other than of course then there’s sponsorship and advertisement sales, which…

Ari Danes: Which is not insignificant.

Gautam Ranji : And then with regard to your second question. There are a number of important factors related to the refinancing. Obviously Sphere’s performance and ramp up in year one is a large one and important to that. And as we think about it going forward, we’re going to monitor the situation, as Jim mentioned, and all options are on the table as we move forward.

Operator: And this concludes our question-and-answer session. Mr. Ari Danes, I turn the call back over to you for some final closing remarks.

Ari Danes: Thank you all for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you on our next earnings call. Have a good day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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