TNA at a Crossroads

[TNABaddboi 0]

According to several well placed sources within TNA, It appears that the company's braintrust is at the crossroads, trying to make some major decisions about the short and long-term future of the promotion. There are three major points that sources indicate are being currently discussed. I have heard from some sources that the decisions have already been made, although other sources insist the discussions haven't been finalized. The three points are:

 

Pulling out of Nashville for Orlando. There is a lot of discussion internally that TNA management will finally make the big leap and pull out of their Nashville, TN home this September. The discussed plan is to move the company's events to Orlando, Florida, which may also include moving the offices, which are currently based in Nashville. TNA, which has been taping Impact! out of Universal Studios in Orlando for the last several months, has been discussing this idea off and on for several weeks. There are positives to both sides of the argument. Obviously, Universal has the better resources as well as the synergy of being in a major amusement park and TNA can tap the parkgoers for fans. There are some in the company who don't want to leave behind the Nashville audience, although the majority of those fans are attending with free tickets anyway.

 

Ending the Weekly PPV events Concept. There is also talk about throwing the weekly PPV concept out the window, and in its place, running monthly Sunday evening PPV events instead. When TNA was first launched in June 2002, the idea was to run PPVs only as a way to get around not having TV. The PPV only concept didn't work, was never profitable, and instead was a money drain from day one. Now, with TNA paying for a weekly series on the Fox Sports Network as well, that money drain worsens. The idea that is being discussed it designed to plug that drain, so to speak. The plan would be to kill the weekly PPVs and instead use Impact! to build towards monthly PPVs. I am under the impression that of all the things being discussed, this is the one they want to be most cautious about before making a final decision, as they don't want to upset the wrestlers they have signed to deals if they cut back on dates.

 

TNA has flirted with the idea of Sunday night PPVs in the past including plans for a November 2003 event titled "Bound For Glory."  That PPV would have been headlined by Jeff Jarrett vs. Hulk Hogan for the NWA championship, but was shelved once Hogan opted not to come into the promotion after running an angle in Japan to build to the match. Now, with national television behind them, TNA may be willing to shirk their original business plan and follow the traditional PPV pattern.

 

TNA House Shows. TNA sources indicate that the promotion may finally move forward with house shows starting this October. I have heard, however, that certain members of management (Jerry Jarrett among them) aren't completely sold on the idea yet, feeling it is too soon to chance doing house show tours. They are still trying to make a decision about house shows, and of the three points, this is the least likely to happen right away. We've reported in the past that TNA has looked at Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Dayton, Ohio as possible house show markets, utilizing local promoters to help get the word out for the shows. If TNA is going to pull out of Nashville, I am sure they will want to run house shows there as well. Although TNA is cautious about doing house shows, they may need to go forward with them as a way to make up for any lost dates the talent may face once the PPV situation is decided upon.

 

Obviously, it's an interesting time for TNA and I am curious to see how everything plays out. It's very possible that by the time the summer ends, we'll be looking at a completely different promotion in concept. We'll have more on the story here on PWInsider.com as it continues to develop.

 

This is from PWInsider.com. Thoughts?....

[Guest MikeSC]

New ideas are good --- but leaving Nashville for Universal Studios reeks of horrible idea. Theme parks seldom do good business outside of the summer.

-=Mike

[TNABaddboi 0]

I'm in favor of 2/3. I think they should ditch the weekly PPVs at this point and go monthly and I do think they need to start looking at hitting the road, but unless they go ahead with the elimination of the weekly PPVs, they should in no way move all the operations to Orlando, because 2 shows a week is waaaaay past overkill. Ideally, IMO, they should do Impact in Orlando and travel with the PPVs around the southeast, maybe doing the first one in Nashville to reward the original fanbase (even though most of them got in free for 2 years).

[Steviekick 0]

I'm not necessarily sure I think they'll do good business with house shows yet.

[Guest whitemilesdavis]

Theme parks seldom do good business outside of the summer.

 

The few times I've been to Universal in December, it was packed. Fl weather is nice year round, so , though the theme park business dips somewhat, there are still plenty of park goers to fill up this show.

 

I don't like the idea of two weekly shows at Universal, though. That is huge overkill. Taking away the weekly PPV is a must.

 

I also like the idea of house shows, but they shouldn't book them as throwaway shows like WWE does. They should really make them the core of their business like the old territories used to do.

[slimm44 0]

Well I disagree with the free ticket audience part. Yes a lot of people come to the show with a comped ticket. But most ringside people continue to come on a regular basis.

[Twisted Intestine 0]

They should get Impact a better time slot/station before they pull the weekly PPVs. Maybe not from a business point of view, but from mine, because I don't get impact here :\

[Magus 0]

Touring is a good idea, but i think they should stay close to the South so as not to travel too far. the way Impact is right now, TNA would have to make MAJOR changes to it to make it seem less like Jobber TV. make it two hours long and it'll work. as for moving to Orlando... anything is better than Nashville's shitty audience.

 

so i guess these are pretty good moves to make (sensible, at least). but i was hoping that the big news was going to be "Jeff will retire", though.

[Astro101 0]

Well, I dunno what percentage of the audience is from the park itself or just fans of TNA wanting to watch. If a majority is from the latter group, I think they should just do the shows in Orlando, and maybe somewhere else in Florida, like Tampa maybe.

[Guest Joe_G]

Cancelling the weekly PPVs would be the first thing I would do. It's just a program that's never going to be profitable for the company. Granted, if they did one PPV per month they won't be rolling in dough, but they would cut down on their losses by running only 1 PPV per month.

 

Secondly, TNA should not tour for the immediate future. If the WWE is having trouble drawing more than 2,000 fans for a house show, how can TNA hope to do any better? Granted, a TNA house show is more of a novelty at this point than a WWE house show, but you have to figure it'd be a money loser at a time when the company really needs to keep losses to a minimum.

[syxx2001 0]

I live in Houston and if TNA ran shows at Astroworld every week, that doesnt mean I have to be at the park every week to see the show. Thats what freeways and cars are for, to drive places when you need to be there.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

See they could be on to something with house shows......if they do it smart. They could actually make the house shows worth something by either selling tapes of them(provided they do anything of value on house shows) or maybe doing a special PPV once a month that highlights their house shows stuff. If they are going to do them anyways.......they should capitalize on it and try and make as much as they can with it.