Ari Danes
Analyst · JP Morgan
Thanks Christy, good morning and welcome to the Madison Square Garden Company’s fiscal 2018 first quarter earnings conference call. Our President and CEO, Doc O’Connor will begin this morning’s call with a discussion of the Company’s operations. This will be followed by a review of our financial results with Donna Coleman, our EVP and Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions. 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 statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties. And that actual results, developments and events may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. These include financial community perceptions of the Company and its business, operations, financial condition and the industry in which it operates, as well as the factors described in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the sections entitled Risk Factors and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, contained therein. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be discussed during this call. Lastly, on pages four and five of today’s earnings release, we provide consolidated statements of operations and a reconciliation of operating income to adjusted operating incomes, non-GAAP financial measure. I would like now introduce Doc O’Connor, President and CEO of the Madison Square Garden Company.
Doc O’Connor: Thank you, Ari, and good morning everyone. We’re pleased with our start to fiscal 2018 and remain confidence that our company’s singular focus on providing the very best and live experiences uniquely positions us to drive long-term growth and value creation for our shareholders. In fiscal 2017, our commitment to efficiently and effectively harness the strength of our assets and brands led to a number of successes across the company from increased venue utilization to a record revenue for the Christmas Spectacular and for sponsorship and signage and we plan to continue building on those games. Another priority for our company has been growing our portfolio of premium live experience. And since July 2016, we’ve added world-class companies in festivals, hospitality and esports. We are now focused on supporting the growth of these business and on leveraging our combined assets and expertise to drive additional value. At the same time we are continuing to pursue opportunities to meaningfully expand our business via acquisition and development and see the expansion of our portfolio of venues as the centerpiece of our growth strategy going forward. So far this year we have made real progress on these stated priorities, starting with our continued success in increasing the utilization of our venues. A vibrant, live entertainment industry combined with our ongoing efforts to drive multi night and multi venue engagements, as well as a diverse array of family shows and marquee events have helped our bookings business generate record setting event numbers for the past two years. That momentum continued in the first quarter as our bookings business saw year-over-year increase in events held at our venues, putting us on a path for another strong year. A few of the memorable events from our first quarter included the Baker’s Dozen, an unprecedented 13-night run by Phish in Madison Square Garden, an equally impressive 16-show run by comedian Dave Chappelle at Radio City Music Hall and the MTV Video Music Awards which we hosted for the second consecutive year this time at the forum. The second quarter is providing to – is proving to be just as exciting with highlights that include multi-night shows from Guns N’ Roses and iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball, at the garden in the forum, multi-night runs by Bruno Mars at the forum, Bob Dylan at the Beacon, and Chris Rock at the The Theater at Madison Square Garden, as well as Phish who will return for the world – to the world’s most famous arena in December for four shows, including one on New Year’s Eve. We’ve also recently announced the Billy Joel’s record setting residency will continue into 2018. And in January, music’s biggest night will return to MSG and New York City for the first time in 15 years as the Garden hosts the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, while the Tony Awards have announced their return to the legendary stage at Radio City Music Hall for their 72nd Annual Awards Show in June. With regard to marquee sporting events tomorrow night the garden will welcome back to UFC for the second time in the last year while next month championship boxing returns to MSG as Miguel Cotto defences his junior middleweight title for the last time before ending his illustrious career. We’re pleased with the continued progress we’ve made in growing our bookings business and remain firm believers that we will only amplify these results as we expand our venue footprint. We see a unique opportunity to take what we’ve achieved with the form to new heights through the creation of large scale music and entertainment focus venues equipped with game changing technologies that will pioneer the next-generation of live experiences. In addition to our plans to bring a groundbreaking new venue to Las Vegas we continue to explore select markets where we think our differentiated approach can be successful, driving long-term value for shareholders. We look forward to sharing more in early calendar 2018. Venue’s expansion has also been a key component to TAO Group’s growth strategy. In July TAO Group successfully completed a five-venue Hollywood complex, creating LA’s biggest nightlife destination. This was followed in September by the opening of MOXY Times Square in New York, which now features a number of TAO Group entertainment dining and night life experiences throughout the hotel, including one of the city’s largest all season hotel rooftop lounges. Looking ahead we are nearing the opening of TAO Group’s second international venue, LAVO Singapore, which will be located on the iconic rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. With 25 venues now open and a robust pipeline, we expect TAO Group’s portfolio to grow significantly over the next several years. On our last earnings call we talked about the growth of TAO Group and noted that in addition to its venue expansion plans we are also increasingly optimistic about the ability to utilize premium assets and brands of both TAO Group and MSG, to drive incremental value. With TAO Group’s assets is part of our portfolio, our sales team is now able to provide companies with a full spectrum of premium hospitality offerings that can be tailored to meet their needs. We’ve had some terrific early success on this front and recently reached a first of its kind, comprehensive corporate hospitality agreement with the Fortune 500 company. This multiyear, multimillion dollar relationship, comparable in size to our signature marketing partnerships, create efficiencies and savings for this partner by allowing them to consolidate their entertainment spend with us across our portfolio of assets. This includes tickets suites and venue rentals as well as dining and private events at TAO Group’s venues. We’re pleased to have reached this agreement which has created a new hospitality partnership model for us to take to other potential corporate partners. In addition, last month we announced our first joint project Suite Sixteen and members-only lounge at Madison Square Garden, which will deliver Tao’s signature premium hospitality combined with the very best, in sports and entertainment. Early demand for memberships has been extremely robust and we believe this is just the beginning in terms of how we can work together with the TAO Group exploring additional opportunities to utilize the combined strength of our assets will continue to be a priority, particularly as we move forward with our venue expansion plans. Turning to productions, one of the ways we’re more effectively harnessing the strength of our brands is through thoughtful investments that help ensure we’re delivering the most innovative live experiences for our customers. Today people want and expect a more immersive experience which is why we are focused on employing next-generation technologies that will change the way we engage with our audiences. We’re starting with the Christmas Spectacular starring the Radio City Rockettes, which next Friday debuts for its 85th season. Utilizing the most advanced 4K digital mapping technology, available we will for the first time ever project imagery on all eight of the venues presidium arches. This large scale projection along with a backdrop that now includes one of the largest 8K resolution LED screens in the world, will visually transform the production completely immersing the entire audience in the show. We’re excited about these enhancements and look forward to a successful holiday season. Turning to Sports the 2017, 2018 Rangers and next season are underway. The Rangers who have made the playoffs the last seven years led by goalie Henrik Lundqvist, welcomed five new players this offseason. Meanwhile the Knicks under the leadership of President, Steve Mills and General Manager, Scott Perry, feature an exciting core group of young players led by Kristaps Porziņģis, and are focused on a long range plan to restore the pride and accountability that comes with playing in New York. With the start of the regular season we have seen some early impacts on Knicks’ ticket revenue. That said we believe in where the team is headed long-term and this new direction will lead to success. We also believe we have the right ticketing policy in place to capitalize on that success. As our strategy of reducing full season subscriptions and increasing sales of partial plans, along with group in individual tickets, creates lasting benefits for the company. These include helping us establish direct relationships with our customers and further broadening our fan base, both of which should positively impact revenues over the long-term. On the sponsorship and signage front last month we welcomed the brand new signature marketing partner Squarespace. In addition to becoming the Knicks first ever jersey sponsor through this multifaceted partnership, Squarespace will also have year-around exposure across our unrivalled portfolio of sports and entertainment assets, as well as on MSG Networks’ award winning regional sports networks. We’re extremely pleased to have reached this agreement and look forward to building this new partnership. Another excellent illustration of the meaningful value we provide our partners is the overall success we’ve had in renewing and expanding our marketing partnerships. As you know last fiscal year we kicked off the start of our renewal cycle with our signature partners by reaching new agreements with Anheuser Busch and Lexus. We’re pleased to report that we recently completed multi-year renewals with three additional signature partners, Delta Airlines, Charter Communications and Kiya, world-class companies that share our commitment to delivering exceptional experiences for customers. We look forward to continuing to provide all of our partners with the innovative platforms and unique and valuable exposure that come to expect from MSG. We also continue to make progress on new agreements for those Event, Lexus’ and Signature level suite products, up for renewal this year. We have reached new deals with solid built in annual escalators for nearly all of these suites and anticipate selling the remaining few in the near term. In summary, we’re pleased with our start to fiscal 2018 as we remain committed to pursuing opportunities to drive both organic and external growth. We continue to attract an increasing number of premium events to our venues and have had early successes that demonstrate the value of a combined MSG and TAO Group offering. Furthermore, we also continue to build our portfolio of live offerings and expect to make important strides on our venue expansion plans in the coming year. We remain confident that as a pure play company focused on premium live experiences, we are well-positioned to drive long term growth and value creation for our shareholders. With that I’ll now turn the call over to Donna who will take you through our financial results.