Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp
NYSE:MSGE
If you don’t study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards.
Utilize notes to systematically review your investment decisions. By reflecting on past outcomes, you can discern effective strategies and identify those that underperformed. This continuous feedback loop enables you to adapt and refine your approach, optimizing for future success.
Each note serves as a learning point, offering insights into your decision-making processes. Over time, you'll accumulate a personalized database of knowledge, enhancing your ability to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.
With a comprehensive record of your investment history at your fingertips, you can compare current opportunities against past experiences. This not only bolsters your confidence but also ensures that each decision is grounded in a well-documented rationale.
Do you really want to delete this note?
This action cannot be undone.
| 52 Week Range |
30.03
43.75
|
| Price Target |
|
We'll email you a reminder when the closing price reaches USD.
Choose the stock you wish to monitor with a price alert.
This alert will be permanently deleted.
Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp
Earnings Call Analysis
Q4-2024 Analysis
Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp
Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp (MSG) wrapped up a successful fiscal year 2024 with impressive financial results, boasting revenues of $959 million and adjusted operating income (AOI) of $211.5 million. This outcome exceeded the expectations set at the beginning of the year. The strong operational performance was driven by robust demand for live entertainment, increased venue utilization, and a successful marketing approach to events, including the iconic Christmas Spectacular.
During fiscal 2024, MSG hosted about 6.3 million guests at over 960 live events, marking a significant increase compared to the previous year. This surge was primarily supported by a record number of concerts at both Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. High consumer demand has led to sold-out concerts and increased spending per capita on food, beverages, and merchandise, showcasing a flourishing entertainment scene at MSG venues.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2025, MSG anticipates a continued upward trend, with a guidance of a high single to low double-digit percentage increase in AOI. The company's strategy will focus on maximizing venue utilization and expanding its event portfolio, especially in concerts and family shows. The Christmas Spectacular production is expected to support revenue with its increased number of shows from 193 in 2023 to 197 in 2024, alongside a projected higher ticket yield.
The Christmas Spectacular has already seen early success, with an 18% increase in advanced ticket sales compared to last year’s sales at the same time. The production’s popularity continues to grow, driven by a mix of group sales and individual purchases. This enduring tradition in its 90th season not only enhances MSG's revenue but also serves as a vital component in the company's marketing strategy.
As of June 30, 2024, MSG reported $33 million in unrestricted cash and $626 million in debt. The company expects to generate substantial free cash flow in fiscal 2025, thereby allowing room for strategic capital allocation such as share buybacks and debt reduction. MSG still has approximately $110 million available under its current share repurchase authorization, indicating a continued commitment to returning capital to shareholders.
MSG's business structure showcases a strong focus on premium revenue streams, including entertainment offerings, food and beverage sales, and arena license fees. The company anticipates margin expansion in fiscal 2025, primarily fueled by increasing revenues from high-margin activities. Enhanced operational efficiencies and cost control measures are also in place to maximize profitability across all segments.
In fiscal 2025, bookings are pacing well with the potential for increased concerts and events. MSG has successfully positioned itself to attract new acts, contributing to the broader event growth across various categories. The post-season success of the Knicks and Rangers has reinforced revenue streams through shared food and beverage sales, further solidifying MSG's position within the entertainment market.
MSG’s marketing partnerships segment is poised for growth following a transition to the Oakview Group for sponsorship sales. The company is optimistic for fiscal 2025, anticipating substantial renewals and new partnerships, leveraging the strong demand for sponsorship within the live entertainment industry. This renewed focus is expected to result in increased revenue and engagement opportunities with partners.
You don't have any saved screeners yet
Good morning. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. Fiscal 2020 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to turn the call over to Ari Danes, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to MSG Entertainment's Fiscal 2024 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Earnings Conference Call. On today's call, Mike Grau, our EVP and Chief Financial Officer, will provide an update on the company's operations and review our financial results for the quarter. 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 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.
And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Mike.
Thank you, Ari, and good morning, everyone. Fiscal 2024 marked our first full year as a standalone live entertainment company, with our results reflecting strong performance across our businesses, including bookings, the Christmas Spectacular production and our premium hospitality offerings. In fact, the positive operating momentum we experienced throughout fiscal '24 led us to increase our guidance twice during the year. And with revenues of $959 million and adjusted operating income of $211.5 million, our full year results came in above the high end of our ranges. As we look ahead to fiscal '25, we remain focused on executing on our strategy of increasing venue utilization, growing per event profitability, building on the success of the Christmas Spectacular and expanding our sponsorship and premium hospitality businesses.
We believe that this strategy, along with robust ongoing demand for our live entertainment offerings positions us to deliver a high single to low double-digit percentage increase in adjusted operating income in fiscal '25. So with a strong year behind us and a positive outlook for the year ahead, we remain confident that our business is well positioned to generate long-term value for our shareholders. Let's now review some key operational highlights from our fiscal fourth quarter and full year.
Fiscal 2024 was another busy year of events for our venues as we hosted approximately 6.3 million guests at over 960 live events. The majority of these events were driven by our bookings business where we saw robust growth in the number of events held at our venues versus the prior year.
This growth was driven by the Concert and family show categories and included a record high for the number of concerts in the year at both the Garden and at Radio City Music Hall. The world's most famous arena ended the year on a particularly strong note, with robust year-over-year growth in the number of concepts in the fourth quarter. This reflects our efforts to increase venue utilization within the Knick and Rangers playoff window as well as our success in attracting acts that are headlining the Garden for the first time. Consumer demand also helped drive this growth as customers continue to demonstrate their willingness to spend on experiences.
Across our venues, the majority of concerts were once again sold out in the fourth quarter. We also saw higher overall per cap spending on food, beverage and merchandise at concerts in the fourth quarter as compared to the prior year period. Looking ahead, our bookings calendar continues to fill up, and we expect to again increase the number of events at our venues in fiscal '25, primarily driven by growth in concerts, family shows and special events. Turning now to the Christmas Spectacular production.
During fiscal '24, we sold over 1 million tickets across 193 performances and generated nearly $150 million in revenue, a new record for the beloved production in its 90th season. We are currently on sale with 197 shows for the 2024 holiday season and expect revenue growth for the production to be driven by the increased number of shows as well as by higher per show revenue.
This U.S. production will feature new technology and immersive elements as we continue to explore ways to enhance the experience for our guests. In our fiscal fourth quarter, both the mix and Rangers finished their exciting regular season and playoff run. In total, they played 11 additional home games at -- the Garden as compared to the prior year quarter. In terms of our agreements with MSG Sports, for fiscal '25, the cash component of the arena license fees that we receive will be approximately $44 million, and we'll continue to grow 3% each year through fiscal 2055.
Given the strong performance of both teams this past season, we expect to see positive tailwinds across our revenue and profit sharing arrangements with MSG Sports in fiscal '25. That included our share of food, beverage and merchandise suites and signage at Nick and Rangers home games.
Turning to our Marketing Partnerships business. As you know, last year, we transitioned our sponsorship sales effort to Oakview Group's Crown Properties collection. I'm pleased to say that we are off to a strong start to fiscal '25 in terms of new deals. We expect to have more to share in the coming weeks and believe this business is positioned for growth this year.
During fiscal '24, we saw strong demand for our premium hospitality offerings, including the 2 new suite products we introduced earlier in the fiscal year. An event level suite and our luxury event level club space. And given this demand, we are continuing to expand the capacity of the event level club space. Along those lines, we are also in the process of renovating a number of our events and [indiscernible] level suites, which we anticipate will drive incremental revenue this year.
So as we look to fiscal '25, I'm pleased to say we expect another year of growth in this area of our business as well. Before I discuss our fiscal fourth quarter financial results, I have a couple of points regarding presentation and comparability. First, I'd like to remind you that last quarter, we revised our definition of adjusted operating income as it relates to the arena license fees with MSG Sports. We are no longer removing the noncash portion of the arena license fees in our reconciliation of operating income to adjusted operating income, which is reflected in the financial results we reported today for all periods presented.
You may recall that the Arena license fees are recognized on a straight-line basis over the life of the 35-year agreements, which equates to approximately $68 million a year. For fiscal 2024, this $68 million was comprised of approximately $43 million of cash revenue and $25 million of noncash revenue. Second, the company completed its spin-off from Sphere Entertainment on April 20 of last year. As a result, our fiscal fourth quarter results are not fully comparable on a year-over-year basis. Results for the prior year quarter are based on carve-out accounting for the first 20 days of April, and therefore, last year's fourth quarter results do not reflect all of the SG&A expenses we would have incurred had we been a stand-alone public company for the entire period.
Turning now to our financial results. For the fiscal 2024, 4th quarter, we reported revenues of $186.1 million, an increase of 26% as compared to the prior year period. This reflected growth across our 3 revenue categories: entertainment offerings, food, beverage and merchandise and arena license fees. The increase in revenues from entertainment offerings primarily reflected more concerts at the garden in our fourth quarter compared to the prior year period.
The increase in food, beverage and merchandise revenues primarily reflected the impact of additional Knick and Rangers games at the Garden versus the prior year quarter as well as higher sales at concerts and other live entertainment and sporting events at our venues. Fourth quarter adjusted operating income of $13.1 million increased by $12.4 million as compared to the prior year quarter. These AOI results include $2.5 million of noncash arena license fees in the current year quarter, as compared to $1.5 million in the prior year period. The increase in AOI primarily reflects higher revenues, partially offset by an increase in direct operating expenses and, to a lesser extent, higher SG&A expenses.
And as I mentioned earlier, fourth quarter SG&A expenses are not fully comparable on a year-over-year basis. Turning to our balance sheet. As of June 30, we had approximately $33 million of unrestricted cash, while our debt balance was approximately $626 million. Looking ahead to fiscal '25, we currently expect our company to have another year of substantial free cash flow generation. This is underscored by the following expectations: a high single to low double-digit percentage increase in adjusted operating income, ongoing net interest payments related to our national properties debt which totaled $51 million in fiscal '24.
Our current status as a minimal cash taxpayer and capital expenditures, which will include both maintenance CapEx as well as some incremental spend related to Christmas Spectacular enhancements and suite renovations at the Garden, both of which I discussed earlier. In terms of capital allocation, we remain focused on our dual priorities of opportunistically returning capital to shareholders and paying down debt.
As a reminder, we continue to have approximately $110 million remaining under our current share repurchase authorization. In summary, fiscal 2024 reflected the strength of our business and the robust demand we saw for our assets. And as we look to fiscal '25, we believe we are well positioned to deliver robust AOI growth for the year.
With that, I will now turn the call back over to Ari.
Thank you, Mike. Operator, can we open up the call for questions?
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Peter Henderson from Bank of America.
Can you just provide us with an update on advanced ticket sales for the Christmas Spectacular? And just also discuss the overall growth opportunities for the production, including pricing, show count, et cetera.
Sure, Peter. Thanks for the question. So regarding advanced ticket sales pacing, we're currently on sale with 197 shows, that's versus 193 in last year's holiday season and the marketing around that kicked in, in late July. So it's early days. We're certainly very encouraged by what we're seeing to date versus the same point last year, we're up about 18% in terms of advanced ticket revenue, and I'd say that's half rate, half volume, reflects growth across group sales, of course, individual sales. I'd say we're a little more than 10% of the way towards our full year goal.
So again, early days, but the early signs are very encouraging. As for the second part of your question around growth opportunities, I mean, we talked about growth for the Christmas show really in 3 areas, and I think we see opportunity in all 3 of them. In terms of show count, we are growing the shows from 193 to 197. We certainly have room around the edges to add more shows dependent on demand. You may recall, we did do that last year, and we're certainly not at a peak show volume relative to years past.
So we have opportunity in show count. Pricing, we are seeing better ticket yields this year than we've seen in the prior year, but we remain pretty healthy discount to what I'd call comparable entertainment options on Broadway on average. We've been very successful with dynamic pricing. And so I think there's opportunity on ticket yield. And then in terms of sell-through, in last year, our sell-through for the show was right around 90%. That was up from, call it, mid-80s in the year prior, but still down from peak seasons in the past. We've had seasons with sell-through above that. And that includes seasons with considerably more show volume.
So I think over the longer haul and even for the current season, we could see growth across any and all of these -- any or all of these factors also on pricing or sell-through.
Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Lasz from Goldman Sachs.
For Mike, could you talk about what you see as the biggest drivers of margin expansion ahead for your business? And maybe the extent to which you think we could see some of that operating leverage flow through in 2025. And then on the post season, would you be able to unpack just how much of a benefit you saw from the Knicks and Rangers post-season runs this quarter and how we should think about any momentum that you called out, I think, in the prepared remarks on what that could mean for 2025?
Thank Sure, Stephen. Thanks for the question. In terms of margin, we certainly do anticipate some growth in AOI margins in '25. We've talked about the high single to low double-digit percentage growth in AOI overall. Some of that will be fueled by margin expansion. And over the longer haul, I think we see additional opportunities around margin expansion. There are a couple of puts and takes on this that I'd lay out upfront.
One, in the Bookings business, there is a mix between rentals and promotions for promotions, we will book all the ticket revenue as well as the artist costs, whereas in a straight rental that falls to the promoter, and we just booked a straight rent. The AOI for these events tends to be roughly the same, all else being equal, but the margin on a rental will be better than the margin on a promotion. So there's an element to that.
And then I would mention as well, we have a little bit of a headwind around the corporate rent, which we've called out in the past, the comps year-over-year based on our new office lease will create incremental SG&A expenses more so in the first half of the year as we start to anniversary that in the back half of the year.
Despite that, we definitely see margin expansion in fiscal '25 and beyond. If you think about our revenue streams, bookings, the Christmas Show, premium marketing partnerships, these are all high-margin revenue streams. -- and we see growth in all of these revenue streams in the coming year. And so I think that will create some margin expansion.
And then equally important, our overhead and infrastructure we think is adequate to support this growth and more growth going forward. In fact, in our recent budget process, we had a real concentrated effort on efficiency. We turned over a lot of rocks and identified some cost reduction opportunities. We started to execute on some of those and I think there's probably more fruit to bear in the future around that.
So all of these factors should drive margin expansion in fiscal '25 and beyond. In terms of your second question around the playoff, listen, playoff games are certainly beneficial to us. I'll remind you, we amortize Arena license fees across regular season home games. So there's really nothing incremental in terms of Arena license fees attaching to playoff games. But we do have shared revenue streams with MSG Sports, around food and beverage, around merchandise on single event suite revenues.
In fact, food and beverage. The food and beverage revenues from the playoff games is probably the largest driver of the overall increase you saw in food and beverage revenues in the fourth quarter year-over-year. So the playoff games are very profitable on a stand-alone basis.
The other point I would make is that it's pretty much all incremental. We've had a lot of success in booking concerts in playoff windows. So we're not preempting other events in that regard. You may have noted, I think we spoke about in our scripted comments. Look, fourth quarter, the Arena concerts were up double-digit percentages versus the prior year despite extended playoff runs from both the mix and the ranges. So this is all incremental profitability from these playoff games. To your last point, listen, it's harder to quantify, but I definitely do think the success of the mix of ranges creates a certain tailwind or momentum into fiscal '25 for the teams, and we'll benefit that from that by extension, again, to those same shared revenue streams.
Your next question comes from the line of Cameron Manson Perm from Morgan Stanley.
Two, if I can. First, on the Bookings business, could you just give us some additional color on how booking activity is pacing for fiscal '25 and how we should think about that in terms of the visibility you have sitting here today? And then Second, on venue utilization, you called out improvement in the earnings presentation. Could you just elaborate on that opportunity? How much runway for improvement do you see? And as we look across the venue portfolio, where or which venues do you see more or less opportunity to really push forward on the utilization front?
Sure, Cameron, and thank you for the questions. In terms of pacing of bookings, we're basically looking -- I would say we're pacing kind of flat to prior year at the same time. It's just one of the ways that we look at this. We do have a little bit of a tough comp this year relative to Billy Joel, who has entered his residency. So we're going from 12 shows to 1 show fiscal year over fiscal year.
Despite that, again, we are pacing essentially flat versus where we were at the same time last year. If I zoom in on the Garden, which is the biggest driver here. For the first quarter, we do expect to be up modestly versus the prior year in terms of number of events. That is against a tough comp. Last Summer, had some residencies from Fish and Dave Chappelle, as well as 3 [indiscernible] shows compared to 1 this year. Despite that, I think we will host a couple more events this year in the first quarter than we did last year.
For the next 2 quarters, second quarter and third quarter, we are on pace again with last year in terms of number of events booked at this time. And then the fourth quarter, we're probably slightly behind, but we do have a pretty strong pipeline. We're confident that we can fill that gap. So we're in pretty good shape. Yes, I would say this, we're coming off a record year. We talked about a record number of concerts at the Garden and at Radio City in fiscal '24. Despite that, we do expect to increase the number of events that we host this year across our venues, and we're very comfortable and happy with the manner in which we're pacing right now towards that goal.
In terms of your second question around utilization, listen, it's a good story about utilization in the sense that utilization is very strong. We continue to improve year-over-year. Yet at the same time, there's plenty of opportunity for growth. We're not up against a ceiling in any respect. There's no constraints in that regard. At the Garden, we hosted 250 events. That includes the Knicks and the Rangers. When you factor in load in a load out days, that translates to about 70 -- a little north of 70% utilization, up modestly from the prior year. At the theaters -- across all the theaters, we hosted 520 events in fiscal '24, plus all the Radio City Christmas showings. So there's plenty of ample opportunity here.
Right now, live entertainment is a growth industry right now, and we're very well positioned, I think, to continue to capitalize that and increase utilization. I mean we have these iconic venues. We have great relationships across the industry. We have really strong execution on our bookings team, and we've been able to have a couple of different things to continue to increase utilization year-over-year, whether that be residencies or multi-night runs, our marquee sports division continues to grow their reach special events, I think is an area where we could see some increased utilization this year.
We're also -- we talked about already doing well during playoff runs and I think that will continue going forward. The track record is very strong around utilization, and there's no reason to think that, that won't continue. And again, we're really not up against any ceilings at this point.
Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Ross from Liteshed.
On the MSDS call, they said they were entering a very strong sponsorship year and I guess you kind of hinted at the same in the prepared. Can you just help us understand how much is up for renewal this year and how to think about the renewal cadence for sponsorships or premium marketing opportunities going forward?
Sure, Brandon. Thanks for the question. I'd say this as a sponsorship revenue. I mean it is a stronger renewal year in fiscal '25. I'm not going to get into specifics around dollars, but there are some large renewals, which always create opportunities whether that being upselling the existing partner or perhaps freeing up the category for a different player. So that's always an opportunity for growth.
I mean taking a wider view of just sponsorship in general, we're feeling pretty bullish about it. We're 1 year into the partnership with Oakfield Group. So I think we're able to capitalize on some of the year 1 learnings as well as some of the investments that our partners made in people and infrastructure. I think we're pretty well positioned right now. I mean between the -- the success of the mix and the ranges, the success we've had and how many concepts we're showing at the Garden.
MSG is a pretty desirable partner right now for those who are looking to spend some money in this area both the access to tickets and to premium, the quality of the events we're hosting as well as just the general cachet and at the Garden, which probably has never been higher. We're actually anecdotally even seeing a couple of partners approach us to kind of proactively early renew arrangements that are expiring in the future.
So I think that we're off to a real good start. I don't have anything specific to offer, but we're hoping to be able to have something specific around that in the not-too-distant future. But all signs are pointing to what in this regard. And I think we'll probably have a strong year in this arena.
Sure. I mean, listen, I think demand, as I mentioned, I think right now, live experiences or the demand for shared experiences is very strong. And so iterate again, the difference in the accounting around promotions and rentals. And I mentioned this village old deal was a promoted deal and so we booked the ticket revenue and the artist costs. Those will more likely than not be replaced by straight rentals. So that creates a little bit of a revenue headwind but does not translate to profitability, as I discussed earlier.
But outside of that, just the sheer growth in number of events should fuel revenue growth in the Bookings business. Christmas Spectacular, we spoke to a little bit already. Still early, but seeing an 18% increase in advanced ticket sales versus the same point last year, we continue to project a continued return of tourism to New York City, higher average per store revenue. So we see revenue growth in the Christmas Show.
Premiums. Talked about this a little bit in our prepared comments. We are expanding the event-level club space that we added just last year to meet current demand. We're renovating a number of our events and Lexus level suites, which also drives incremental revenue. Talked about the tailwind around the mix and the range of success and our success in launching concerts, which will drive demand for premium products. So we're expecting to deliver another year of growth across Premium Hospitality business. And then I talked about the Sponsorship business in response to your first question.
And then lastly, just those shared revenue streams with Knicks and Rangers should also be positioned for growth given the success that those teams have had. So we're looking at broad-based growth across really all of our different revenue streams as we go into fiscal '25.
Your next question comes from the line of David Karnovsky from JPMorgan.
Just first, given the kind of volatile macro environment, I figured it's worth asking if you've seen any signs of consumer weakening either in current or forward bookings or in your per caps? And then separately on capital allocation, any update there on how you're thinking about the right conditions potentially for resuming buyback?
Sure, David. Thank you for the questions. So listen, the slowdown in consumer demand. We're very aware that, that narrative is out there, but we're not seeing it at all. And I know some of our peer companies confronted the same question and a pretty similar responses. It feels -- I don't see a slowdown in consumer demand for live entertainment experiences, most specifically.
We talked about the Radio City Christmas show and the growth we're seeing in advanced sales there, which I think speaks for itself. In terms of Bookings, we look at sell-through year-over-year. If I look at year-over-year sell-through in the fourth quarter, in the first quarter versus the same time last year, of course, all of our different venues. In almost every instance, we're either on par or better, and that's against some really tough comps.
I mean, look at fourth quarter overall, our sell-through was approaching or just a little north in fact, of 90%. So we're not seeing any lagging in consumer demand around bookings. We actually -- we have certain acts that will add shows after selling out the initially announced shows. You cited the per caps in your question. We're seeing higher per cap spending in the fourth quarter. We were up actually double digits in terms of combined per cap spending, across food, beverage and merchandise at our concerts.
So to date, we've not seen anything approaching a slowdown in consumer demand. We're very mindful of it, but really, everything has been pretty bullish so far. I would say, I think we're positioned well to the extent there was a slowdown in terms of resiliency in the New York marketplace, one of the iconic venues that we have. But to date, we're not even seeing anything along those lines.
And to your second question around capital allocation. We've talked historically and really not changing today about the dual priorities around opportunistically returning capital to shareholders and debt paydown. Just to set the stage, we ended the year with about $33 million of unrestricted cash. We do expect to generate substantial free cash flow in fiscal '25, our seasonally busiest quarters were in the fiscal and second and third quarter. So that's when I would anticipate the cash to start to build up to levels where we have to address this question a little more [indiscernible] . And once we get to that point, we'll evaluate returning capital to shareholders. We do -- we have bought back $140 million. We're about 10% of our Class A shares since becoming a stand-alone public company and to reiterate what we said in our prepared comments, we do have about $110 million of capacity left, what we have currently approved around share buybacks.
With respect to debt paydown, the current expectation is -- we'll continue to , of course, our mandatory quarterly principal payments on our debt, which is about $4 million per quarter. But I think the business should naturally delever, based on our expectations of AOI growth in the years ahead. So we're well positioned to continue to advance on both debt paydown and share repurchases.
The other thing I shouldn't short change just reinvestment in the business. We don't have any current plans for anything substantial in this regard. There's no M&A on the horizon. There's no major renovations that are needed on our venues. We will do some things around the edges, and we talked about most of this already. Really, I think, smaller but really smart and high-return capital investments, talking about expanding the event level club space at the Garden that we introduced last year, renovation of some of the event Lexus level suites and investments in the Christmas Spectacular to enhance the guest experience. These are all very smart and high ROI opportunities that we will take advantage of as well.
Operator, we have time for one last caller.
Your final question comes from the line of Peter Supino from Wolf Research.
I wanted to follow up on a prior question about
2025 revenue and dig into the event growth next year. And specifically, how you see the mix changing between concerts or theaters versus the Garden. If you could just help us think about those trends and what they might mean for margins in 2025?
Sure, Peter, and thank you for the question. When we talk about events, we kind of look at it across a couple of categories. We talk about in terms of concerts, family shows, special events and then marquee sports, which is what we internally use for any of the sporting events beyond the Knicks and Rangers.
For concerts, we do expect event growth this year against our record-setting year in fiscal '24. We've had some success in kind of introducing new acts or really, I call it, watching news acts up the latter to the point where they're ready to play the arena, and we have introduced some new acts to arena level shows with success. We've had some success around multi-night runs.
I talked a little bit about how we're pacing versus our goal this year, facing very well to increase the number of concerts. So I think we're well positioned there. In terms of the family show category, we recently announced 64 Anni holiday shows at the theater at MSG and Chicago Theater. That really gets us about 75% plus of our way as our annual goal for family shows and even more than that in terms of a profitability perspective.
I mentioned anecdotally as well. We're welcoming back the Westminster Dog show to the Garden. I think we last hosted that in February of '20 just before the pandemic. So we're excited to renew that partnership with them.
Special events. Look, a lot of that business takes place in the fiscal fourth quarter. It's a little early here. We are seeing some trends, some encouraging things, and we hope to have something to announce along those lines in the not-too-distant future. And then in Marquee Sports, we'll continue to do a lot of business in college sports. We have great relationships with St. John's with the Big East. I think we just announced Duke versus Illinois at the Garden, which is certainly a high-profile game.
And then some of the other sports that -- some of the other events that, that group books around boxing, the Darts Championship, the bull riding, all those events would anticipate returning and looking to explore really expanding the range of events in that category. So look, each one of those categories, as we look at it, we think we're positioned to be able to grow the event count in fiscal '25 versus a very, very strong year in fiscal '24.
That concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Ari Danes for closing remarks.
Thank you all for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you on our next earnings call. Have a good day.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.