TKO COO Mark Shapiro Says WWE Cut Live Events By 75 Percent, Will ‘Continue to Prune’

WWE has significantly cut back the number of live events it runs, and TKO COO Mark Shapiro recently suggested it will continue to do so. While at the JP Morgan 53rd Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference (via Fightful), Shapiro said that the company will ‘continue to prune’ after cutting 75% of their live events.

He said: We cut those house shows down to where now we’re doing 200 events a year. We cut them 75%, the number of house shows that we do. We feel that’s a good place to be and we’ll continue to prune as we go through. WWE has tremendous upside on global partnerships. Tremendous upside on ticket pricing. Tremendous upside on site fees, dynamic pricing, yield management. All areas we’re really focusing and pushing in on as it related to live events. As you saw on our first quarter, our margins significantly expanded as it relates to WWE live events.