MSG Entertainment Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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May 6, 2025

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. Fiscal twenty twenty five Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session.

Operator

I would now like to turn the call over to Ari Daines, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to MSG Entertainment's fiscal twenty twenty five third quarter earnings conference call. On today's call, Lee Weinberg, our SVP, Business and Financial Operations, will provide an update on the company's operations. David Collins, our EVP and Chief Financial Officer, will then review the company's financial results for the period. After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions.

Speaker 1

If you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, it is available in the Investors section of our corporate website. Please take note of the following. Today's discussion may contain forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward looking statements. Please refer to the company's filings with the SEC for a discussion of risks and uncertainties.

Speaker 1

The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward looking statements that may be discussed during this call. On Pages five and six of today's earnings release, we provide consolidated statements of operations and a reconciliation of operating income to adjusted operating income, or AOI, a non GAAP financial measure. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Lee.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Ari, and good morning, everyone. As we near the end of our fiscal year, I'm pleased to say that we continue to see strong consumer and corporate demand for our live entertainment offerings, which is reflected in today's results. For the company's fiscal third quarter, we reported revenues of $242,000,000 and adjusted operating income of $58,000,000 both representing solid growth on a year over year basis. This reflected our success in attracting a wide variety of special events, family shows and marquee sports to our venues, robust ongoing demand for our premium hospitality offerings and the conclusion of this year's record setting Christmas Spectacular run-in January. And while our businesses experienced a year over year decline in the number of concerts at our venues this quarter, we remain on track to grow the overall number of bookings events this fiscal year.

Speaker 2

So putting it all together, I'm pleased to say that we continue to pace toward mid to high single digit AOI growth this year. In addition, we continue to deliver on one of our core capital allocation priorities, opportunistically returning capital to shareholders. We have repurchased approximately $40,000,000 of our Class A common stock to date this fiscal year, including $15,000,000 during the fiscal third quarter. David will share more details on our buyback activity shortly. Let's now take a look at operational highlights from the quarter.

Speaker 2

Across our portfolio of venues, we hosted more than 1,500,000 guests across 195 events held during the quarter. As I mentioned earlier, these results reflect our success in attracting a wide variety of live entertainment and sporting events to our venues. On the special events front, in February, we hosted Saturday Night Live's fiftieth anniversary special at Radio City Music Hall, which is also set to host the Tony Awards next month. In our family show category, we welcomed back the Westminster Dog Show to The Garden for the first time since 2020, and we are pleased to say the event will return next year for its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. And in our sports bookings business, The Garden had a busy quarter of college basketball, including St.

Speaker 2

John's as well as a sold out WWE event. With respect to our concerts, we saw a year over year decrease in the number of events at our venues during the quarter. This was driven by a lower number of concerts at our theaters as well as at The Garden, which includes the absence of three Billy Joel performances that took place in the prior year quarter. From a demand standpoint, the majority of concerts at our venues continued to sell out during the quarter. In addition, food and beverage per caps at concerts at the Garden were up, while per caps at our theaters were essentially unchanged as compared to the prior year quarter.

Speaker 2

Turning to the Christmas Spectacular. The show's ninety first holiday season concluded in January with a record setting run, generating over $170,000,000 in total revenues across 200 performances. 15 of those shows took place in the third quarter, with results reflecting year over year growth in per show attendance and average ticket prices. We are currently on sale for the 2025 holiday season. And following this year's success, we believe the production is well positioned to deliver continued growth next fiscal year.

Speaker 2

On the marketing partnerships and premium hospitality front, this year has been highlighted by several notable sponsorship announcements, which most recently included a multiyear renewal with Pepsi. And in terms of premium hospitality, we have also seen strong new sales and renewal activity for suites at the Garden this year, including our now sold out, expanded event level club space. I would now like to introduce David Collins, our new EVP and Chief Financial Officer, to take you through our financial results.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Lee, and good morning to everyone. I'd like to start by saying how pleased I am to be here today. MSG Entertainment is a world class organization with an incredible portfolio of assets, and I really look forward to working with the team to achieve our long term goals. Now let's review our fiscal third quarter financial results. For the fiscal twenty twenty five third quarter, we reported revenues of $242,500,000 an increase of $14,200,000 or 6% as compared to the prior year quarter.

Speaker 3

The majority of this growth came from a $14,000,000 or 10% increase in revenues from entertainment offerings. This primarily reflected growth in event related revenues from other live entertainment and sporting events due to higher per event revenues and an increase in the number of events year over year. We also saw strong growth in suite license fee revenue including amounts that are subject to the sharing of economics with MSG Sports. In addition, revenues from our Christmas Spectacular production increased year over year, primarily due to higher per show ticket revenue and to a lesser extent five additional performances in the quarter both as compared to the prior year period. Per show revenues for the Christmas Spectacular were up by double digit percentage year over year, mainly reflecting the increases in average attendance and ticket prices that Lee had mentioned earlier.

Speaker 3

The overall increase in revenues from entertainment offerings was partially offset by a decrease in event related revenues from concerts. This mainly reflected lower per concert revenues primarily due to a mix shift at the Garden from promoted events to rentals and a decrease in the number of concerts at our venues. Aside from revenues from entertainment offerings, we also saw a modest increase in food, beverage and merchandise revenues for the quarter, which primarily reflected higher food and beverage sales at other live entertainment and sporting events, mostly offset by lower food and beverage sales at concerts. In addition, Arena license fees and other leasing revenues were modestly lower year over year, primarily due to the Knicks and Rangers playing two fewer home games during the fiscal third quarter, mostly offset by higher other leasing revenues. Third quarter adjusted operating income of $57,900,000 increased $19,300,000 or 50% as compared to the prior year quarter.

Speaker 3

The increase in AOI primarily reflects the increase in revenues as well as lower direct operating expenses and selling, general and administrative expenses. I would also note that third quarter operating income results include a non cash impairment charge of $9,700,000 related to the company's operating lease at 2 Penn Plaza. Now turning to our balance sheet. As of March 31, we had approximately $89,000,000 of unrestricted cash and our debt balance was approximately $613,000,000 As Lee mentioned earlier, fiscal year to date we have repurchased approximately 1,100,000.0 shares of our Class A common stock for $40,000,000 That includes approximately 436,000 shares repurchased in March at an average price of $33.7 per share for approximately $15,000,000 Following these most recent repurchases, we now have $70,000,000 remaining under our current buyback authorization. Going forward, we will continue to explore ways to opportunistically return capital to shareholders.

Speaker 3

With that, I will now turn the call back over to Ari.

Speaker 1

Thank you, David. Operator, can we open up the call for questions, please?

Operator

Yes. Thank you. Your first question comes from David Karnovsky with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Speaker 4

So you reported AOI growth through the first nine months of the year at 13. Just with the guide maintaining that mid to high range that does imply I think a decline in AOI in the fourth quarter. So wanted to see if you can walk through the puts and takes in the revenue and cost side for the fiscal fourth. Thank you.

Speaker 3

Sure, David. Thanks for the question. This is, David Collins. There are definitely several factors impacting our fourth quarter. First of all, the overall New York Arena concert market is down this quarter compared to last year.

Speaker 3

And at The Garden, we do have a tough comparison as last year included three Billy Joel shows, a number of first time headliners and some late adds to the calendar. In addition, The Garden hosted 15 playoff games last year. This year, the Rangers did not qualify for the playoffs, while the Knicks have played three home playoff games so far. In terms of our theaters, we continue to pace ahead in concerts for the June and expect a strong fourth quarter in special events with the Tony Awards at Radio City. We also continue to monitor how each individual event plays off as we have seen improving per event trends this year and that could be another area of upside for us.

Speaker 3

So while there are a number of puts and takes as we close out the year, we remain on track for solid AOI growth for fiscal twenty twenty five.

Speaker 4

Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Cameron Mancin Perrone with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Speaker 3

Hi, good morning. I just wanted to follow-up on those concert bookings comments. Particularly looking kind of beyond this year, as we look ahead to 2026, how is that and I know it's early again, we're still a bit a ways from there, but how is the early booking activity shaping up looking ahead to next year? Thanks.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Cameron. This is Lee Weinberg. So for bookings pacing, we continue to see a number of positive signs for fiscal 'twenty six. At this stage, we have substantial visibility into the September, and we're pacing ahead of both The Garden and our theaters. In fact, we're likely to set a new record for concerts in a single quarter at The Garden.

Speaker 2

Looking ahead to the December, we're again pacing ahead at our theaters, but we're behind at The Garden. However, we are encouraged by the conversations we're having at the arena, and we're actively narrowing that gap. So with Flynn, we're pleased with how concert bookings are pacing so far for fiscal twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3

Very helpful. Thanks.

Operator

The next question comes from Peter Cipino with Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

Speaker 2

Thank you. This is Jack Stead on for Peter with two questions. First, with the Penn Station project now in federal hands, have your conversations with public officials or private developers shifted? And do you believe the odds of selling the theater at MSG have increased the result? And then secondly, is there anything you can share on Christmas Spectacular's exposure to domestic or international tourism?

Speaker 2

Thank you. Thanks. I'll take the Penn Station question first. So as invested members of our community, we remain committed to improving Penn Station and the surrounding area. And as we've said before, we and our guests are already seeing the benefits of some of the recent improvements that have taken place in the surrounding area of the Garden.

Speaker 2

As redevelopment of the area continues, we're committed to collaborating closely with all stakeholders. In terms of the theater specifically, we'd always consider options that make strategic and financial sense, But we have nothing further to report at this time.

Speaker 3

And this is David Collins, Jack. I'll take your question on the international tourism across the company. So let's start with Christmas. We sold approximately 1,100,000.0 tickets this past holiday season and we estimate that international tourists accounted for approximately 10% of those tickets sold. In terms of concerts, let's look at The Garden, which is our most economically significant venue.

Speaker 3

We believe international tourists accounted for a low to mid single digit percentage of concert ticket sales last year. So for both Christmas and concerts, we estimate that international ticket sales are the smallest geographic segment by far with Canada and The U. K. Being the main international feeder markets for both. So vast majority of ticket sales for both businesses come from The U.

Speaker 3

S. Both local residents and domestic tourists.

Speaker 2

That's helpful. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Steven Lacyczak with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Hey, thanks for taking the questions. Just a follow-up on Christmas Spectacular. I'd be curious if you could talk perhaps a little bit more about how you're thinking about the upcoming season for Christmas and what you see as the main drivers of that continued growth that you called out in your prepared remarks. And then perhaps related to that, is there anything you can say around advanced ticket sales for Christmas this year Or any maybe high level comments you could give on demand just given the macro backdrop? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Steven. We see growth potential for next year's Christmas Spectacular through both more shows and higher average ticket yields. We're currently on sale with two eleven shows for the twenty twenty five season, which is up from 200 shows last year. And depending upon demand, we have the ability to further increase this year's show count beyond the current two eleven. We're also focused on improving our average ticket yield.

Speaker 2

We're still priced below comparable live entertainment options on Broadway, and we'll continue to manage our ticket inventory to maximize revenue. In terms of advanced ticket sales, we went on sale about a month earlier this year, which allows us to capture some incremental business for people that are already making Christmas plans. So while the earlier on sale impacts the year over year comparison, advanced ticket sales are currently pacing up over 60% in terms of gross ticket revenue. That reflects improvements across both volume and ticket yield, and it also reflects growth in both group sales and individual ticket sales. So while it's still early, we're confident in the growth opportunity for the 2025 holiday season.

Speaker 2

That's great. Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Stephen. Operator, we have time for one last caller.

Operator

Thank you. Your last question comes from Peter Henderson with Bank of America. Your line is open.

Speaker 6

Good morning and thank you for taking the question. So I don't believe there are any material capital projects in the horizon. Net leverage is now at 2.5 times and that should continue to naturally delever over time due to organic growth. So I'm just wondering how we should think about capital returns moving forward? And if you can provide any specificity sort of around how you think about opportunistically?

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Speaker 3

Sure, Peter. Thanks. It's David Collins. As you've heard the company discuss before, we have three main priorities in terms of capital allocation. The first is ensuring that we continue to have a strong balance sheet.

Speaker 3

And as you mentioned, our net debt leverage was approximately 2.5 times at quarter end and we should continue to delever as the business grows. The second part of our policy is to ensure that we have flexibility to invest in our core business when we see compelling opportunities arise. While we're still early stage in our budgeting process for fiscal twenty twenty six, looking over the near term horizon there aren't any material capital projects to flag. Our third priority is to opportunistically return capital to our shareholders. We've now repurchased $40,000,000 of stock this fiscal year including $15,000,000 this past quarter and we have $70,000,000 remaining under our current buyback authorization.

Speaker 3

So going forward, we will continue to explore ways to opportunistically return capital to our shareholders.

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Operator

This concludes the question and answer session. I'll turn the call to Ari Dane for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

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 joining. You may now disconnect.

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Earnings Conference Call
MSG Entertainment Q3 2025
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