AEWs spending reminds me of that Richard Pryor movie ‘Brewsters Millions’, where the whole point is to spend a fortune as inefficient and unprofitable as possible.
Great film, but he had to spend millions too get 100s millions right, khan is not getting the same reward back, he's doing the 1st part correctly, but not the second part 😂😂😂
@@dynamic283not really. His dad isn’t going to live forever. He just doesn’t have to wait for him to die to have access to it. I imagine millions is a drop in the bucket. He could easily keep it going for 10 years and not impact the future.
LMAO if you think Billionaires get rich by having morals and not laundering money(and doing far worse) come on man... they could feed kids and shit but they rather hide their precious money from the world. Not good people.
After the Riho interview where she said she made over 400k a year for 8 matches in 2024 and Hikaru Shida being listed above several famous baseball players by Forbes Japan, these numbers are not surprising me at all.
Strange not only did CM Punk not get picked up after landing, but apparently that happened to Stephanie too. So is it just the Young Bucks that get picked up from the airport?
Those numbers don't look that far off indeed. AEW shows look expensive and we already know they pay their wrestlers ridiculous amounts of money. I would like to see WWE's numbers to compare.
At this pace Tony Khan will have went thru a billion dollars in a little under 5 years, how much money is he making? And how much longer can he keep this going?
I calculated based on the best speculated costs for AEW and if you assumed Khan made a $1 Billion war chest at the start of AEW he could keep going at this rate for another 10 years. People struggle to grasp just how much money a billion is, and TK has multiple Billions on his own name separate from his father. As for income, TK has two very profitable sports teams, he could afford AEW's losses just out of profits from his other endeavours
@DJACreative 1 billion would be spent in 250 weeks, i know he's making at least some money back, so 10 years seems like a good estimate. And if Shad is using AEW as a tax write off, it can keep AEW alive as long as the Khan family owns all of their sports teams.
Just further proof that AEW is just a billionaires version of fantasy booking. The version where they can use real venues and wrestlers. This was never about making money.
that game is fucking TRASH. I regret wasting my money SMH. Those marks made a damn game that could've came out on ps2! tried sooooo hard to make it seem like a 90's wrestling game. pathetic.
Punk is right, it's not a real business. I also feel sick loosing $20 million a year and it's nothing for Tooney Khan, I'd be happy with 1% of that even 0.5% just so I can go on holiday or have some breathing room.
If this is true, the long term sustainability and outlook of AEW is not good. AEW has yet to make a profit and from the looks of things they are running on a massive burn rate. Eventually at those losses, billionaire or not, the plug will be pulled. It is business 101, you cannot spend more money than you make.
How is he spending $400,000 on tech support for two days? If he having them build and tear down an entire wired network at every show? I'm no expert on a lot of things on that cost sheet, but as a IT professional, that seems pretty high to me.
@@higler. Oh it isn't my money? Oh I guess I shouldn't have any curiousity at all and never care about anything. Thank you so much, I genuinely thought I was being sent a bill.
@@moopert86 you can "care" about bullshit that doesn't affect all you want. Prob better to care about real shit that affects you and instead just be a fan and enjoy it or don't. But to care about the money, ratings and whatever is just silly. Like your financially invested lmao
@@higler. Just curious. And apparently a lot of other people are too, because people keep reporting on the financials of AEW which they wouldn't do if no one wanted to know. I also enjoy that apparently my curiousity on this one matter is important enough to you that you are commenting instead of just moving on with your life.
truth be told I don't know how much of that Tony could write off for tax purposes as sports owners have to sell their teams all the time mainly because they aren't pulling in the numbers to effectively keep putting on these events so even when they lose money I don't think they can write this off and get money back.
@donovanbradford8231 if AEW is operating at a loss and is unprofitable on paper, they can use those losses in their benefit against the jaguars and fullham. That's why most corporations aren't "profitable" on paper, because you don't pay taxes on debt. I doubt aew actually is profitable though.
@@angusmayte6754 AEW is definitely operating at a loss. Just based on the shitty attendance numbers and huge roster. It aint hard to tell. 1000% a tax shelter for the Khan family. and by the way @donavan, you NEVER get money back with writeoffs. Thats not how that works at all. The goal is put all the money your corporation makes into payroll and operating expenses so that the company operates at a loss or as close to a loss as possible so that you pay little to no taxes. Its how the taxcode is written and if you arent taking advantage of it as a business owner then your just an idiot.
It’s def a tax write off, but at some point his daddy is gonna get tired of it. You can only write off so much, and the Jaguars aren’t exactly a top ten team, they can’t be that profitable, but he does get revenue sharing with the other teams.
An arena concert can easily have 50+ stage hands, 25 up riggers, 10 down riggers. It requires a lot of bodies working in unison to move that quickly to get all of the gear loaded in, set up, torn down, loaded out. Union helps insure that those on the show should be working safely (not always the case, but I’d rather that than some random.) Last thing you need is a light or rigging to come crashing down because some unqualified crew member didn’t know what they were doing.
An arena will not have a proper sound system for the event. Sound systems pre-installed in arenas and stadiums are only there for extremely light background music and emergency announcements. Concert sound or sound to the Level of WWE or AEW would need to be supplied for each event they do.
AEW is Tony Khans pet project and for his dad, his sons dream. This is literally not something he cares to make money from, apart from the prestige that doing so would get him. I think Tonys gradually realised the brand of wrestling he and his Elite friends like is extremely niche and limited to a small portion of the audience, and hes okay with that. This is what he wants.
I agree with everything, except the part where Tony is realizing it and accepting it. He probably does not realize it, nor will he accept it if he does realize it. But the rest? Completely agreed.
If he is okay with that, he shouldn't be, as this affects all people under contracts's livehoods. And I'm not even talking about the wrestlers as a main focus, but cameramans, camera operators, people who do motion graphics for the shows and whoever more may be affected.
@@MechaTengu21 In this case, I think it doesn't actually hurt them - his father is a billionaire. So long as his dad and Tony want to keep paying, this project will go on. The real problem is that other increasing pay competition (which is good), Kahn is not necessarily a net positive in other areas.
The numbers are really crazy. I would describe myself as someone who is happy that AEW exists. I need competition, but you can't work like that. There are concerts that charge huge amounts for admission and which don't even cost a quarter of what AEW costs. Of course I support everyone involved getting a fair wage, but these numbers really do make it seem like they're just throwing money away. Unfortunately, that also explains why they pay talent to sit at home instead of using them. Tony needs to realise that he has to hand over work!
@@antonycuff4512 The time when NWA was really relevant was in the 80s. TNA never even came close to AEW's ratings, even at its peak. RoH wasn't put out of business by AEW, it was already out of business when AEW bought it. Having a choice between a product is always good for the consumer. The WWE product had to get better because AEW was getting such a following.
@@antonycuff4512 Even NJPW can`t compete with those salaries. Lower Mid Carders in AEW make as much as the absolute top guys in NJPW who are working 10+ dates every month excluding set training sessions at the dojo and media work. All that stuff an AEW performer never has to deal with. Heck, most of their roster doesn`t even work once a week because they are barely ever being used.
@@MrDCClassic you just called aew competition to wwe now you are saying it's only competition if the ratings are close . tna's peak was 2.9 mil they did 2.2 mil against raw but tna was more profitable because it didn't cost 2 mil per show . the carter family hardly invested any money and expected it to survive on it's own profits . roh went out of business because the elite left to start aew . tna and nwa are hurt because the talent that used to go to them now go to aew . coming back from covid re energized the wwe .
@@antonycuff4512 merely gave you arguments against your statements which you simply put out there. Now you're accusing me of relating this to ratings, while you're just throwing statements in there without any background information. TNA was pretty rubbish if you were a wrestling fan. And back then too I hoped that something would have to break the market leader because the WWE product was as interesting as an hourglass. You can try to downplay that, but one of the main reasons why people watch WWE is AEW. Because AEW is a competitor where money hardly plays a role. That gives good wrestlers jobs and even TV time, which is an alternative. RoH, TNA and also NWA were the first port of call for fired WWE stars. TNA's own stars, for example, were AJ Styles and Samoa Joe... both were with WWE and one of them is now with AEW. AEW is an important opponent for WWE because in the end it leads to both companies getting the best out of each other. Personally, as a fan, I criticize AEW a lot, but I criticize it because I want them to learn from their mistakes and those are mistakes they have to make. AEW needs to learn how to handle money, that's the most important factor, but from a fan's perspective you can see good talent, the best in the world, in both companies.
5:11 Stevie hit the nail on the head. This is play money for Tony. AEW will survive as long as Tony's money lasts, end of story. It almost doesn't even matter how much he's spending, does it? Probably the best thing to do is not to look at AEW as a classic wrestling promotion, and think of it more as an insane moment in time that we'll not likely see again.
There is no way in hell they are spending that much per week. This was a double taping with a PPV where they are bringing extra people in. The reason why these numbers got out is to get NV tax credits that they sell to the Casinos.
@@chriswalkden9013 thaf is not a lot if you figure how many ppl would be there. Catering for say, 150 talent, all the riggrrs/drivers/stagehands/etc conservatively about 225ppl all in it is not as bad as it sounds. About 200 to 225 per person for meals for 2 days at least 2 meals a day? About 56$ a meal for buffet style is not horrible. And that is on lower end of #ppl and meals per day.
When you have to feed the talent and crew, you've got hundreds of people there. And you know they're going to make a few sandwiches to take back to the hotels with them.
Not a tax specialist here, just a question, renting equipment for business use, wouldn’t that be a tax write off? So instead of buying and getting a one time tax write off, they rent and get a tax write off every time, could that be possible and if they are constantly losing money, isn’t there a tax loop in there also?
So what I know about some taxes for business at least small businesses is your paying taxes on your profits. In Tony's case there is enough evidence that shows they generate revenue but don't actually turn a profit. So I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't paying any taxes, but it's no different than say any Disney owned company most of which lose money now and eventually will go under, be absorbed, or sold off. In AEW's case I really don't know how it can keep going like this because the cost and lack of return will eventually catch it.
@@donovanbradford8231 Thanks, Can all 3 businesses (football, soccer, wrestling) be under the same LLC? So the wrestling side is losing money but the other 2 generate money, so they pay less taxes on the other 2 because of the loss?
Its better to OWN equipment than renting in this scenario of writing off. Why? Liquidation event. Eventually, Tony is gonna pay for every mistake of renting. Because then, when you shut down... What assets are you liquidating...? Where is all this stuff you rented. Eeek. I dunno. I think Tony is gonna be in real deep trouble eventually. When you do taxes, the government is gonna ask questions later - where's the equipment? Where's this? Where's that...?
@@SuperPrefandon't worry about that. Owners of companies found them as "X" Corp or "X" LLC or whatever. The reason why some companies do LLC's over Corps and vice versa. Is purely for taxes. I hate, I loathe "LLC" structure. Because it shares "responsibility" between "owners" (really they're members/officers). So, if YOU own part of that company, and comes tax day, YOU have to pay the "x" amount of tax. And you can split that "bill," hence that structure... but if your partner/members bail... YOU have to pay EVERYTHING. YOU. not them. YOU. HOWEVER, you can elect the company to look like a smaller, leaner company by designating it as a S-Corp. The government can see you differently. But you have to file it EARLY. You can do this as Corporation, which starts out as "C-corp." So, ya want that S-corp designation immediately. I would NEVER build a LLC because its hard and longer to convert into Corporation. Which means public offerings tomorrow.
Tony isn't paying Meltzer. Meltzer genuinely loves AEW and everything it stands for and is giving them all the glowing praise in the world and being their staunch defender because he genuinely wants them to succeed and prove he's been right about his view of wrestling all along.
Maybe they aren't getting overpaid? Maybe they've been under payed their entire careers before this? Maybe other company's need to pay more? Maybe AEW will actually help get pay for wrestlers all cross the board to increase. Maybe?
@@higler.Pretty much this. Wrestlers have always been underpaid in the modern era, so good on anyone in AEW getting that pay day, they absolutely deserve every cent
@@higler. AEW isn't making a profit. So whatever the talent is getting paid is more than their worth. If you make $100k you need to bring in $1million in order to justify being there.
@@jd9119 lmao oh you're one of those that still thinks it's real and "loves" wrestling but openly insults them while ignoring the risk they take to entertain, denying that they should get paid more, and trying to insult them by calling it trampoline gymnastics. Ding ding, fries are done, get back to work.
When people sometimes use the term "write-off" it's a pet peeve. A loss is still a LOSS. Losing money is still LOSING money. But Stevie is right about AEW being viewed as a vanity project by Tony's dad, money his dad can afford to lose between the seat cushions of his sofa.
This isn't a business for Tony. This is tony's fun where he gets to be booker and hang out with wrestlers and be there friend by giving them what they want when they want it because money isn't an issue for him it seems so he's throwing millions of dollars around to cater to these guys and it's why the company is having big losses every year. Something like 36 million dollars last year. Tony is happy to cater to this niche wrestling audience because he's one of them regardless if hes losing money. Vince lost 6 million dollars one year in the 90s and he was absolutely enraged about it. Tony lost 5 times that and is going round telling everyone how everything is so great all the time..
Stevie hit it, but underplayed it 3/4 of the way through the video, but costs for Union works is huge. And the venues each have different contracts with them. You can’t move a box of donuts from your car to the locker room at some arenas without having a union worker do it. And it has to be during their timeline. Truck and equipment arrives outside of that, and you need it still set up asap…2-3x that union fee.
Ummmm no often times the arena does NOT carry their own PA system and even if they do they will NOT let the touring production company use it. That is exclusively for the in house team only. so $40,000 is actually pretty reasonable for a whole audio sound system package.
I have to wonder if them renting equipment (if that is in fact the case of them spending this kind of money just to rent it all) comes down to them not having a warehouse to store all of it? Like their offices are just the excess of the Jacksonville Jaguars offices at the stadium, so it would end up being either paying to rent all the equipment or buying it outright and still paying to rent warehouse space to store it all. It still isn’t a wise way to invest the money considering how much it’s still costing them to do it all but that’s the only realistic justification I can think of for still doing it this way, unless they just never got around to outright buying this stuff once they got beyond the first year-ish of running that they would have rented just to make sure it didn’t go under immediately
Wow I’m so thankful that you got Stevie his own show on your network. You’re accruing quality voice WSI and the moderator is so much better than Conrad. But Stevie makes an amazing point I never thought of - it’s all a write off for Shad. Tony will never stop.
All I can think is that perhaps they're saving money on transportation by renting the rigging and equipment but if that's the case, then why not just bring equipment from the stadium? It can't be that they can't afford the trucks, the Jaguars have trucks to take them around the country.
I thought TNA's spending during the 2010s was ridiculous, but unlike AEW, TNA's owner back then finally got cut off by the parents, thus was forced to sell TNA
Trucks hauling gear cost alot of money, you do rent in PA, Lighting ,Video, SFX + operators for those on every show, that shit is not cheap to begin with.
Keep in mind taxes, If you buy the equipment you have to depreciate it over a few years but if you rent or lease it it comes off of profit as it’s spent.
@@higler. Also, DB already has money. But now he has a little creepy man child that will bother him for the rest of his life because he's too nice. Not worth it, not even close.
It almost seems slush fundy. Disappear the money in various operating expenses. It’s not like somebody hasn’t pulled that exact grift on the Kahn’s before.
Would the WWE have “house show” trucks and “TV/PPV trucks” I used to set up for house shows, but I can only imagine the cargo a PPV stage like an Armageddon would have, vs a small 4500 seat area for a house show.
I think alot of times in movies/tv a car company will loan a car to be used once for a discount..Anyways the Young Bucks were driving 1 of those recalled Teslas at the Dynasty ppv or do they really own it?
TBF it's money well spent cos before AEW, WWE was in a rut as it had no real competition in the US. Made them up their game, now wrestling's probably at the best it's been since the attitude era. Kudos to Tony and his wreckless spending... propping up the entire wrestling scene just to make it more entertaining for the fans.
Yep. I dunno why fans are upset that wrestlers are making good money. Peeps be working at burger king saying dumb shit about how TK or AEW spends their money. Fries are done😆
If Tony Khan is spending $2 million a week on talent. I hope the talent are spending it on things that will generate them income after they can't wrestle anymore. It's a lot easier to retire if you have say a bunch of rental properties earning you a decent living.
This could absolutely be real as some unions are so strong you have to pay their people and yours regardless, New York is a great example of that. When you look at film and television many of these numbers for catering pop up. I know during the pandemic there was money being spent on PPE and regular testing for workers, hence the infamous Rust set shooting being so under staffed because money was going else where. Also there is absolutely people taking advantage of current situations in the country because film and television absolutely have random companies that collect money as some type of consultant but add zero to the product. If you look at many Disney studios and how backwards their day to day process is when compared to others there's extra cost there and uf Tony doesn't have a well oiled machine for certain things he could be spending more than he needs too.
First, I am happy with the content TK puts out, and what he does, but I think that AEW is basically ran as a tax break for the Khan's. Edit: Damnit Stevie, you said it 5 minutes in, so I guess I copied you lol, but that was and has been my thoughts. Also, PPV is no one longer happening since they are moving to max, they came to a deal a few days ago. They are trying to reach their international audience.
The crew that sets up the arena and you know they're probably going to have people there that are doing things like tailoring. There are a lot of people that are never seen on TV that are needed .
yep Stevie and James' are just riding the AEW troll train. Sad, they talked this channel up so much, and we just get more of the same clickbait that has already poisoned the youtube wrestling space. Not like WWE and other companies don't also have tons of flaws. Hell WWE has been around longer than any and had a monopoly on the business before AEW, surely they have some negatives to talk about? Lawsuits and such... bad booking, bad contracts(1099 my ass), but ya know.. AEW, TK, The Young Bucks... ruined wrestling forever 😄
@@DundaMifflin I just enjoy wrestling. We're in a boom, so many promotions are putting on great matches. I don't care about petty bs that doesn't affect me as a fan unless I'm some obsessive weirdo. Ratings? Expenses? Why should any fan give a single shit about that? Just lame crap for obsessive "fans" who wanna play insider and act like they aren't just another fan. Find something you like and enjoy it, it's better that way.
I don't see these numbers bothering Shahid Khan. Not for a long time at least. People say that Tony is the only one in the family that would spend like this...not so, daddy also took a $33.4M USD loss on Fulham last year. AEW could go 30 years before losing a billion, which is anywhere from 20% (high end) to 12% (low end) of the revenue Flex-N-Gate generates in a given *year*.
is it bad that a company hires enough(maybe even too much) security to protect the fans and wrestlers? Isn't a safe environment considered a good thing?
@@higler.i work security in an NFL stadium. every venue will have their own security via a private contractor or in-house with the former being more common than the later. and while i can't speak for other places we also have on-site state troopers & EMS on standby.
This is wild. If they are willing to spend that much money, it’s no wonder they have no self-criticism of themselves. As a result, they are not trying to make money. I don’t know what business that is, but if they have that much money, they can probably keep these mistakes alive for decades. Essentially creating wrestlers with really bad habits for decades.
This is bullshit. Wrestlers with bad habits? LOL. Don’t worry about them. If they can’t unlearn that shit than AEW is actually doing the world a favor by keeping these ppl off the welfare system as they meander through the indies.
AEWs spending reminds me of that Richard Pryor movie ‘Brewsters Millions’, where the whole point is to spend a fortune as inefficient and unprofitable as possible.
Tony Khan’s coke habit reminds me of Richard Pryor.
@@wilcee238 does it though?
Great film, but he had to spend millions too get 100s millions right, khan is not getting the same reward back, he's doing the 1st part correctly, but not the second part 😂😂😂
@drunkplaylists1829 No. Pryor had a better handle on his. With the exception of the fire incident.
@@wilcee238 Darby Allin almost set Tony on fire like Richard Pryor a few months ago on the PPV
AEW literally exists just so Tony Kahn can hang out in a wrestling locker room😂
the hugs are a big part of it too
Tony’s dad is funding his sons hobby of playing with his expensive dolls
If I had that much money to burn, that’s not a bad way to go about it. Seems like a dream to me.
@@dynamic283not really. His dad isn’t going to live forever. He just doesn’t have to wait for him to die to have access to it. I imagine millions is a drop in the bucket. He could easily keep it going for 10 years and not impact the future.
@@cantgetright742Tony Khan is a terrible booker ya mook😒
Looking at those numbers, Stevie you need to do a Run-In, give somebody the Stevie kick, and make an easy million.
I wonder how much Raven get paid to simply sit in the audience?
😄
@@higler.Wonder how much Sabu got paid for the couple shots he made for them last year. Because I bet it was 50-100k😂
@@theboxingboy7422 I hope so! Sabu deserves it all
Watching this before Tony gets it taken down
I doubt $30K goes to rental cars going by CM Punk and Stephanie Vaquer's accounts. 😂
The bucks wanted lambos for their rentals
If Khan’s dad wasn't a Billionaire, you would think AEW is some kind of money laundering scheme 😂
To be fair, many billionaires need to launder money.
LMAO if you think Billionaires get rich by having morals and not laundering money(and doing far worse) come on man... they could feed kids and shit but they rather hide their precious money from the world. Not good people.
Khan is one of the elites money is not a factor to them. They have unlimited supply. @@ordo_draigo_assault_ham
If I could go burn up 100mil, my own wrestling company and show would be fantastic.
I’d be happy just to have my own ring.
@@joshuam4921 it kind of is. Look up Tax shelter.
AEW - So what job are you interested in?
Me - Yes
After the Riho interview where she said she made over 400k a year for 8 matches in 2024 and Hikaru Shida being listed above several famous baseball players by Forbes Japan, these numbers are not surprising me at all.
Strange not only did CM Punk not get picked up after landing, but apparently that happened to Stephanie too. So is it just the Young Bucks that get picked up from the airport?
yep, only two guys from the entire roster get picked up! 🤡
@@higler. Damn I figured as much. Wild.
They probably get a driver with a Rolls Royce or a high-end suburban lmfao
I would take the vaquer one with a grain of salt because it's coming from konnan and he's had issues with TK for a bit
I hate the young bucks but why would you pick up Punk? he isnt interesting. Show is better without him
That talent payroll is definitely over $100,000,000.
Kenny Omega and other talent should have been on Twitch/YT every night playing/promoting Fight Forever with all the money AEW had invested.
They didn’t want to expose what it was 🗑️
Money mark. that’s why it won’t ever change. just a boy with his action figures.
This is pure lies from Tony. 4M for what exactly? The show production look like its made by amateur
$4m/week to get 1k people into a 15k seat arena is lunacy 😂😂😂😂
its more like 4-6k, but keep being an idiot
That thumbnail picture is somethin else
Yep. I really don't like those type of thumbnails. Annoying as hell.
Ai annoying. Just as bad as Mr Beast's thumbnail.
Ridiculous, cringy and just a reason for me to stop watching
@ItaAndyOfficial I unsubscribed from a few channels already just cus of those type of thumbnails. Petty yes but whatever. 🤣🥰
Even the great Stevie Richards must job to the algorithm lol.
Tony Khan is a terrible booker ya mook😒
TONY! Give me a job, bro. I'll rig the lights, set up sound, and film at ringside. 5Gs a week, what a deal!
nice try Vince Russo
Yeah, but he wants it done good. You're just going to show up with a string of Christmas tree lights.
@@jd9119what’s the difference
Who knew a circus had such high expenses
All wrestling came from the circus. So, if that's some sort of insult it's just the truth. WWE, NJPW, AAA, TNA, AEW.. all circus acts.
@@higler. yes duh obviously I'm calling tony a 🤡. Try harder
To be fair wrestling is a circus all of it even the mighty WWE
Those numbers don't look that far off indeed. AEW shows look expensive and we already know they pay their wrestlers ridiculous amounts of money. I would like to see WWE's numbers to compare.
At this pace Tony Khan will have went thru a billion dollars in a little under 5 years, how much money is he making? And how much longer can he keep this going?
Shad can afford it.
I calculated based on the best speculated costs for AEW and if you assumed Khan made a $1 Billion war chest at the start of AEW he could keep going at this rate for another 10 years. People struggle to grasp just how much money a billion is, and TK has multiple Billions on his own name separate from his father.
As for income, TK has two very profitable sports teams, he could afford AEW's losses just out of profits from his other endeavours
@DJACreative 1 billion would be spent in 250 weeks, i know he's making at least some money back, so 10 years seems like a good estimate. And if Shad is using AEW as a tax write off, it can keep AEW alive as long as the Khan family owns all of their sports teams.
@@AcidicCreed44 Honestly funding AEW is basically a rounding error given how rich the Khan's are.
AEW isn't making money. So Tony is losing money. His dad is making money though lol
Just further proof that AEW is just a billionaires version of fantasy booking. The version where they can use real venues and wrestlers. This was never about making money.
I’m not keen on the clickbaity thumbnails - you’ve got enough great stuff to say without making thumbnails like every UA-camr out there.
They spent a heck of a lot more on that game than 20-30M. They built a whole new engine from the ground up...that is not cheap.
that game is fucking TRASH. I regret wasting my money SMH. Those marks made a damn game that could've came out on ps2! tried sooooo hard to make it seem like a 90's wrestling game. pathetic.
Punk is right, it's not a real business. I also feel sick loosing $20 million a year and it's nothing for Tooney Khan, I'd be happy with 1% of that even 0.5% just so I can go on holiday or have some breathing room.
If this is true, the long term sustainability and outlook of AEW is not good. AEW has yet to make a profit and from the looks of things they are running on a massive burn rate. Eventually at those losses, billionaire or not, the plug will be pulled. It is business 101, you cannot spend more money than you make.
If you want to make a small fortune in the wrestling business, start off with a large one.
How is he spending $400,000 on tech support for two days? If he having them build and tear down an entire wired network at every show? I'm no expert on a lot of things on that cost sheet, but as a IT professional, that seems pretty high to me.
@zachsabbath1 Didn't say it was... notice how I asked if they were building and tearing down a network for every show?
@@moopert86 would it make you happy if they were? Because either way, it's not your money to spend or save.. so.. who really cares?
@@higler. Oh it isn't my money? Oh I guess I shouldn't have any curiousity at all and never care about anything. Thank you so much, I genuinely thought I was being sent a bill.
@@moopert86 you can "care" about bullshit that doesn't affect all you want. Prob better to care about real shit that affects you and instead just be a fan and enjoy it or don't. But to care about the money, ratings and whatever is just silly. Like your financially invested lmao
@@higler. Just curious. And apparently a lot of other people are too, because people keep reporting on the financials of AEW which they wouldn't do if no one wanted to know. I also enjoy that apparently my curiousity on this one matter is important enough to you that you are commenting instead of just moving on with your life.
Stop the creepy AI thumbnails, James. You’re above this childishness
Feels like
Legal Tax evasion to me. If you can write that much off it helps with overall taxes for the Khan family empire.
truth be told I don't know how much of that Tony could write off for tax purposes as sports owners have to sell their teams all the time mainly because they aren't pulling in the numbers to effectively keep putting on these events so even when they lose money I don't think they can write this off and get money back.
@donovanbradford8231 if AEW is operating at a loss and is unprofitable on paper, they can use those losses in their benefit against the jaguars and fullham. That's why most corporations aren't "profitable" on paper, because you don't pay taxes on debt.
I doubt aew actually is profitable though.
@@angusmayte6754well the elites have unlimited supply of money. Most of their "businesses" are to just provide jobs and push and agenda.
@@angusmayte6754 AEW is definitely operating at a loss. Just based on the shitty attendance numbers and huge roster. It aint hard to tell. 1000% a tax shelter for the Khan family. and by the way @donavan, you NEVER get money back with writeoffs. Thats not how that works at all. The goal is put all the money your corporation makes into payroll and operating expenses so that the company operates at a loss or as close to a loss as possible so that you pay little to no taxes. Its how the taxcode is written and if you arent taking advantage of it as a business owner then your just an idiot.
Tax evasion is avoiding taxes but write offs aren't evasion or illegal
250,000 in hotel expenses and 50,000 in catering. Weekly. In what world does that make any possible sense lol.
It’s def a tax write off, but at some point his daddy is gonna get tired of it. You can only write off so much, and the Jaguars aren’t exactly a top ten team, they can’t be that profitable, but he does get revenue sharing with the other teams.
An arena concert can easily have 50+ stage hands, 25 up riggers, 10 down riggers. It requires a lot of bodies working in unison to move that quickly to get all of the gear loaded in, set up, torn down, loaded out. Union helps insure that those on the show should be working safely (not always the case, but I’d rather that than some random.) Last thing you need is a light or rigging to come crashing down because some unqualified crew member didn’t know what they were doing.
Just work harder 🤷♀️Like don’t slack init
No Worries. It's Shahid Kahn's Money. Gotta keep Baby Boy Tony happy. 😂
An arena will not have a proper sound system for the event. Sound systems pre-installed in arenas and stadiums are only there for extremely light background music and emergency announcements. Concert sound or sound to the Level of WWE or AEW would need to be supplied for each event they do.
To be fair, 3/4 of the catering budget is due to Jericho, Keith Lee and Eddie Kingston.
If Tony gave them a buyout he’d save money.
Jericho's HGH budget alone must cost a fortune
😂😂
😂
Don't forget the bubbly
That's not much. 16 million a month. Not bad. That's only 152 million a year.
How did they spend so much fucking money on that game???? Its TERRIBLE!
I played it like twice. It was definitely a waste of money lol
AEW is Tony Khans pet project and for his dad, his sons dream. This is literally not something he cares to make money from, apart from the prestige that doing so would get him. I think Tonys gradually realised the brand of wrestling he and his Elite friends like is extremely niche and limited to a small portion of the audience, and hes okay with that. This is what he wants.
I agree with everything, except the part where Tony is realizing it and accepting it.
He probably does not realize it, nor will he accept it if he does realize it.
But the rest? Completely agreed.
Dad will cut him off at some point. The losses are nuts. His dad didn’t get rich being this irresponsible with money
If he is okay with that, he shouldn't be, as this affects all people under contracts's livehoods. And I'm not even talking about the wrestlers as a main focus, but cameramans, camera operators, people who do motion graphics for the shows and whoever more may be affected.
"Cocaine isn't cheap, it's expensive"
-Dana White
@@MechaTengu21 In this case, I think it doesn't actually hurt them - his father is a billionaire.
So long as his dad and Tony want to keep paying, this project will go on.
The real problem is that other increasing pay competition (which is good), Kahn is not necessarily a net positive in other areas.
I could've swore they said Turner was proving everything they need for tv production wise.
If it's airing on TNT or TBS, yes.... Pay-Per-View and non-WBD sources, nope
You look like a Nord from Skyrim in the thumbnail lol
Love that you Soyjaked Stevie's face for UA-cam Thumbnails lol
The numbers are really crazy. I would describe myself as someone who is happy that AEW exists. I need competition, but you can't work like that. There are concerts that charge huge amounts for admission and which don't even cost a quarter of what AEW costs. Of course I support everyone involved getting a fair wage, but these numbers really do make it seem like they're just throwing money away. Unfortunately, that also explains why they pay talent to sit at home instead of using them. Tony needs to realise that he has to hand over work!
aew isn't competition to wwe they are competition to nwa , tna and they put roh out of business because they can't compete with aew's salaries .
@@antonycuff4512 The time when NWA was really relevant was in the 80s. TNA never even came close to AEW's ratings, even at its peak. RoH wasn't put out of business by AEW, it was already out of business when AEW bought it. Having a choice between a product is always good for the consumer. The WWE product had to get better because AEW was getting such a following.
@@antonycuff4512 Even NJPW can`t compete with those salaries. Lower Mid Carders in AEW make as much as the absolute top guys in NJPW who are working 10+ dates every month excluding set training sessions at the dojo and media work. All that stuff an AEW performer never has to deal with. Heck, most of their roster doesn`t even work once a week because they are barely ever being used.
@@MrDCClassic you just called aew competition to wwe now you are saying it's only competition if the ratings are close . tna's peak was 2.9 mil they did 2.2 mil against raw but tna was more profitable because it didn't cost 2 mil per show . the carter family hardly invested any money and expected it to survive on it's own profits . roh went out of business because the elite left to start aew . tna and nwa are hurt because the talent that used to go to them now go to aew . coming back from covid re energized the wwe .
@@antonycuff4512 merely gave you arguments against your statements which you simply put out there. Now you're accusing me of relating this to ratings, while you're just throwing statements in there without any background information. TNA was pretty rubbish if you were a wrestling fan. And back then too I hoped that something would have to break the market leader because the WWE product was as interesting as an hourglass. You can try to downplay that, but one of the main reasons why people watch WWE is AEW. Because AEW is a competitor where money hardly plays a role. That gives good wrestlers jobs and even TV time, which is an alternative. RoH, TNA and also NWA were the first port of call for fired WWE stars. TNA's own stars, for example, were AJ Styles and Samoa Joe... both were with WWE and one of them is now with AEW. AEW is an important opponent for WWE because in the end it leads to both companies getting the best out of each other. Personally, as a fan, I criticize AEW a lot, but I criticize it because I want them to learn from their mistakes and those are mistakes they have to make. AEW needs to learn how to handle money, that's the most important factor, but from a fan's perspective you can see good talent, the best in the world, in both companies.
5:11 Stevie hit the nail on the head. This is play money for Tony. AEW will survive as long as Tony's money lasts, end of story. It almost doesn't even matter how much he's spending, does it? Probably the best thing to do is not to look at AEW as a classic wrestling promotion, and think of it more as an insane moment in time that we'll not likely see again.
Pretty much it's not everyday we get to watch a company perpetually stuck in WCWs '00 death spiral 😂
There is no way in hell they are spending that much per week. This was a double taping with a PPV where they are bringing extra people in. The reason why these numbers got out is to get NV tax credits that they sell to the Casinos.
$50,000 for catering 😳 What the hell are they eating?
@@chriswalkden9013 thaf is not a lot if you figure how many ppl would be there. Catering for say, 150 talent, all the riggrrs/drivers/stagehands/etc conservatively about 225ppl all in it is not as bad as it sounds. About 200 to 225 per person for meals for 2 days at least 2 meals a day? About 56$ a meal for buffet style is not horrible. And that is on lower end of #ppl and meals per day.
When you have to feed the talent and crew, you've got hundreds of people there. And you know they're going to make a few sandwiches to take back to the hotels with them.
Been enjoying the content Stevie
Not a tax specialist here, just a question, renting equipment for business use, wouldn’t that be a tax write off? So instead of buying and getting a one time tax write off, they rent and get a tax write off every time, could that be possible and if they are constantly losing money, isn’t there a tax loop in there also?
So what I know about some taxes for business at least small businesses is your paying taxes on your profits. In Tony's case there is enough evidence that shows they generate revenue but don't actually turn a profit. So I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't paying any taxes, but it's no different than say any Disney owned company most of which lose money now and eventually will go under, be absorbed, or sold off. In AEW's case I really don't know how it can keep going like this because the cost and lack of return will eventually catch it.
@@donovanbradford8231 Thanks, Can all 3 businesses (football, soccer, wrestling) be under the same LLC? So the wrestling side is losing money but the other 2 generate money, so they pay less taxes on the other 2 because of the loss?
U also have to remember that any write-offs have no bearing on the money made from Fulham as that (huge) tax bill is paid to the English government.
Its better to OWN equipment than renting in this scenario of writing off. Why? Liquidation event. Eventually, Tony is gonna pay for every mistake of renting. Because then, when you shut down... What assets are you liquidating...? Where is all this stuff you rented. Eeek.
I dunno. I think Tony is gonna be in real deep trouble eventually.
When you do taxes, the government is gonna ask questions later - where's the equipment? Where's this? Where's that...?
@@SuperPrefandon't worry about that. Owners of companies found them as "X" Corp or "X" LLC or whatever. The reason why some companies do LLC's over Corps and vice versa. Is purely for taxes.
I hate, I loathe "LLC" structure. Because it shares "responsibility" between "owners" (really they're members/officers). So, if YOU own part of that company, and comes tax day, YOU have to pay the "x" amount of tax. And you can split that "bill," hence that structure... but if your partner/members bail... YOU have to pay EVERYTHING. YOU. not them. YOU.
HOWEVER, you can elect the company to look like a smaller, leaner company by designating it as a S-Corp. The government can see you differently. But you have to file it EARLY.
You can do this as Corporation, which starts out as "C-corp." So, ya want that S-corp designation immediately.
I would NEVER build a LLC because its hard and longer to convert into Corporation. Which means public offerings tomorrow.
I really like hearing the logistics from Stevie, digging the new shows.
Tony isn't paying Meltzer. Meltzer genuinely loves AEW and everything it stands for and is giving them all the glowing praise in the world and being their staunch defender because he genuinely wants them to succeed and prove he's been right about his view of wrestling all along.
Well I think it’s safe to say this ain’t happening.
“Let them get overpaid!” “ Just save your money!” Hell yeah Stevie! Preach. 😎
Maybe they aren't getting overpaid? Maybe they've been under payed their entire careers before this? Maybe other company's need to pay more? Maybe AEW will actually help get pay for wrestlers all cross the board to increase. Maybe?
@@higler.Pretty much this. Wrestlers have always been underpaid in the modern era, so good on anyone in AEW getting that pay day, they absolutely deserve every cent
@@higler. AEW isn't making a profit. So whatever the talent is getting paid is more than their worth. If you make $100k you need to bring in $1million in order to justify being there.
@@DJACreative They're being way overpaid to do awful trampoline wrestling and making wrestling look like a phony joke.
@@jd9119 lmao oh you're one of those that still thinks it's real and "loves" wrestling but openly insults them while ignoring the risk they take to entertain, denying that they should get paid more, and trying to insult them by calling it trampoline gymnastics.
Ding ding, fries are done, get back to work.
"Astonished Thumbnail face Stevie RIchards isn't real, he can't hurt you"
13:33 Astonished Thumbnail face Stevie RIchards: 😲
The audio in person is pretty bad.
I've been to a few shows and the only time the audio was kind of bad was at the cow palace in California
@@isaaclikesturtles7282 it was bad in little Rock
These thumbnails are so dumb, it's a wrestling podcast not a Mr Beast video or a 20 something year old influencer react video.
When people sometimes use the term "write-off" it's a pet peeve. A loss is still a LOSS. Losing money is still LOSING money. But Stevie is right about AEW being viewed as a vanity project by Tony's dad, money his dad can afford to lose between the seat cushions of his sofa.
I don't know about this. $3.8 million a week is a little less than $200 million a year. Are they even bringing that much in a year?
AEW doesn't actually make a profit, so no. Or, it hasn't yet at least.
This isn't a business for Tony. This is tony's fun where he gets to be booker and hang out with wrestlers and be there friend by giving them what they want when they want it because money isn't an issue for him it seems so he's throwing millions of dollars around to cater to these guys and it's why the company is having big losses every year. Something like 36 million dollars last year. Tony is happy to cater to this niche wrestling audience because he's one of them regardless if hes losing money. Vince lost 6 million dollars one year in the 90s and he was absolutely enraged about it. Tony lost 5 times that and is going round telling everyone how everything is so great all the time..
Stevie hit it, but underplayed it 3/4 of the way through the video, but costs for Union works is huge. And the venues each have different contracts with them. You can’t move a box of donuts from your car to the locker room at some arenas without having a union worker do it. And it has to be during their timeline. Truck and equipment arrives outside of that, and you need it still set up asap…2-3x that union fee.
Ummmm no often times the arena does NOT carry their own PA system and even if they do they will NOT let the touring production company use it. That is exclusively for the in house team only. so $40,000 is actually pretty reasonable for a whole audio sound system package.
Do you realise how you sound when you start with "Ummmm no" lmfao
I have to wonder if them renting equipment (if that is in fact the case of them spending this kind of money just to rent it all) comes down to them not having a warehouse to store all of it? Like their offices are just the excess of the Jacksonville Jaguars offices at the stadium, so it would end up being either paying to rent all the equipment or buying it outright and still paying to rent warehouse space to store it all. It still isn’t a wise way to invest the money considering how much it’s still costing them to do it all but that’s the only realistic justification I can think of for still doing it this way, unless they just never got around to outright buying this stuff once they got beyond the first year-ish of running that they would have rented just to make sure it didn’t go under immediately
Wow I’m so thankful that you got Stevie his own show on your network. You’re accruing quality voice WSI and the moderator is so much better than Conrad. But Stevie makes an amazing point I never thought of - it’s all a write off for Shad. Tony will never stop.
Aew: the most over scrutinized wrestling promotion ever.
Yea if you neglect every other promotion ever.
All I can think is that perhaps they're saving money on transportation by renting the rigging and equipment but if that's the case, then why not just bring equipment from the stadium? It can't be that they can't afford the trucks, the Jaguars have trucks to take them around the country.
I thought TNA's spending during the 2010s was ridiculous, but unlike AEW, TNA's owner back then finally got cut off by the parents, thus was forced to sell TNA
Trucks hauling gear cost alot of money, you do rent in PA, Lighting ,Video, SFX + operators for those on every show, that shit is not cheap to begin with.
Keep in mind taxes, If you buy the equipment you have to depreciate it over a few years but if you rent or lease it it comes off of profit as it’s spent.
We need more companies like this helping the economy
Bryan Danielson rent a friend 2 million per year
good for Bryan! He deserves it
@@higler.clap clap clapclapclap 😂
@@higler. 10 million wouldn't be enough to be pretend friends with Tony
@@DundaMifflin yeah surely your Burger King paycheck is more than good enough for you. Congrats
@@higler. Also, DB already has money. But now he has a little creepy man child that will bother him for the rest of his life because he's too nice. Not worth it, not even close.
AEW is a large, ongoing party for Tony Khan. He doesn't need it to make money.
Exactly. He is paying celebrities to hang out with him. Hence why Orange Cassidy is at soccer matches looking miserable.
more like daycare
I can only imagine what his cocaine budget is.
I don't care who you are. If you're in it for a billion dollars, that is A LOT of money. Tony might not care, but his dad does.
Let's be honest: these thumbnails are the best! I would love it if Dutch and Undertaker did the same kind of thumbnails!
LMAO Stevie not slick!! A "Wrestling Observer" lmao nice one
It almost seems slush fundy. Disappear the money in various operating expenses. It’s not like somebody hasn’t pulled that exact grift on the Kahn’s before.
Ed Coskey is the gentlemen`s name who ran the event booking operation, he started during the hogan days.
AEW serves two purposes tax savings through realised losses and TK's childhood dream. Shad is really hitting two birds with one stone.
Would the WWE have “house show” trucks and “TV/PPV trucks”
I used to set up for house shows, but I can only imagine the cargo a PPV stage like an Armageddon would have, vs a small 4500 seat area for a house show.
I honestly believe they lease everything. That's the best write-off for tax purposes, especially with like corporations
Tony Khan spending 4m in aew for a week? Its just a scratch for the Khans anyway. 😂
If I was AEW I would focus on become the best regional wrestling company, create hype, in house stars, PPVs, etc.
I think alot of times in movies/tv a car company will loan a car to be used once for a discount..Anyways the Young Bucks were driving 1 of those recalled Teslas at the Dynasty ppv or do they really own it?
TBF it's money well spent cos before AEW, WWE was in a rut as it had no real competition in the US. Made them up their game, now wrestling's probably at the best it's been since the attitude era. Kudos to Tony and his wreckless spending... propping up the entire wrestling scene just to make it more entertaining for the fans.
but now wwe knows they arent competition and are helping tna gain veiwers so aew has some real competition to go against
Yep. I dunno why fans are upset that wrestlers are making good money. Peeps be working at burger king saying dumb shit about how TK or AEW spends their money. Fries are done😆
TNA ratings were higher when they had a relationship with AEW compared to WWE now. This is a fact.
Tony needs to cut half his roster and get his weekly costs under what he makes on tv every week
Jeeze 4 M a wk ? That's 208M a yr. And their new deal is rumored around 110M a yr. What is going on.
Does it say anything about the confidence in AEW as a business that they're renting all their stuff instead of buying?
You can tell the wrestlers are taking Tony for a ride
If Tony Khan is spending $2 million a week on talent. I hope the talent are spending it on things that will generate them income after they can't wrestle anymore. It's a lot easier to retire if you have say a bunch of rental properties earning you a decent living.
This could absolutely be real as some unions are so strong you have to pay their people and yours regardless, New York is a great example of that. When you look at film and television many of these numbers for catering pop up. I know during the pandemic there was money being spent on PPE and regular testing for workers, hence the infamous Rust set shooting being so under staffed because money was going else where. Also there is absolutely people taking advantage of current situations in the country because film and television absolutely have random companies that collect money as some type of consultant but add zero to the product. If you look at many Disney studios and how backwards their day to day process is when compared to others there's extra cost there and uf Tony doesn't have a well oiled machine for certain things he could be spending more than he needs too.
Tldr: Scamming people is good and you should keep it going as long as you can.
Tony's burning his dad's cheddar 🧀
Say they have a 100 ppl. Thats 500 per peson for catering. What are they eating?
they try and spend like theyre wwe when really theyre a backyard promotion
If this was a real tax filing, I wouldn't doubt if there was a little shady business going on.
First, I am happy with the content TK puts out, and what he does, but I think that AEW is basically ran as a tax break for the Khan's.
Edit: Damnit Stevie, you said it 5 minutes in, so I guess I copied you lol, but that was and has been my thoughts.
Also, PPV is no one longer happening since they are moving to max, they came to a deal a few days ago. They are trying to reach their international audience.
I'm just hoping to see Taz get beat up during a Hook feud and see Stevie running down, do a superkick and cash that check.
Hey, if you're not a wrestler, you might make some good money being on the AV team, whether it be WWE, AEW, or other wrestling promotions.
70 000 for airfair for Non talent ? WHAT ? Someone please findout what that is about.
The crew that sets up the arena and you know they're probably going to have people there that are doing things like tailoring. There are a lot of people that are never seen on TV that are needed .
Stevie unretired? Bring back Steven "Right to Censor" Richards.
So is every other video going to be about AEW now? There isn't exactly a shortage of this kind of content.
yep Stevie and James' are just riding the AEW troll train. Sad, they talked this channel up so much, and we just get more of the same clickbait that has already poisoned the youtube wrestling space. Not like WWE and other companies don't also have tons of flaws. Hell WWE has been around longer than any and had a monopoly on the business before AEW, surely they have some negatives to talk about? Lawsuits and such... bad booking, bad contracts(1099 my ass), but ya know.. AEW, TK, The Young Bucks... ruined wrestling forever 😄
@@higler. you don't have to be a desperate AEW fan
@@DundaMifflin I just enjoy wrestling. We're in a boom, so many promotions are putting on great matches. I don't care about petty bs that doesn't affect me as a fan unless I'm some obsessive weirdo. Ratings? Expenses? Why should any fan give a single shit about that? Just lame crap for obsessive "fans" who wanna play insider and act like they aren't just another fan. Find something you like and enjoy it, it's better that way.
Wouldn't it be cheaper for Tony to just pay hunter to hang out at gorilla
I don't see these numbers bothering Shahid Khan. Not for a long time at least. People say that Tony is the only one in the family that would spend like this...not so, daddy also took a $33.4M USD loss on Fulham last year. AEW could go 30 years before losing a billion, which is anywhere from 20% (high end) to 12% (low end) of the revenue Flex-N-Gate generates in a given *year*.
The amount spent on security is absolutely insane considering the amount of people that actually attend the show
is it bad that a company hires enough(maybe even too much) security to protect the fans and wrestlers? Isn't a safe environment considered a good thing?
@@higler.i work security in an NFL stadium.
every venue will have their own security via a private contractor or in-house with the former being more common than the later. and while i can't speak for other places we also have on-site state troopers & EMS on standby.
They bought the stage from TNA
This is wild. If they are willing to spend that much money, it’s no wonder they have no self-criticism of themselves. As a result, they are not trying to make money. I don’t know what business that is, but if they have that much money, they can probably keep these mistakes alive for decades. Essentially creating wrestlers with really bad habits for decades.
This is bullshit. Wrestlers with bad habits? LOL. Don’t worry about them. If they can’t unlearn that shit than AEW is actually doing the world a favor by keeping these ppl off the welfare system as they meander through the indies.