Madison Square Garden Sports Corp

NYSE:MSGS

Earnings Call Transcript 2019-Q4

[Operator]

Good morning. My name is Christy, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Madison Square Garden Company Fiscal 2019 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Ari Danes, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations for the Madison Square Garden Company. Please go ahead, sir.

[Ari Danes, executive]

Thanks, Christy. Good morning, and welcome to the Madison Square Garden Company's Fiscal 2019 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Our President, Andy Lustgarten, will begin this morning's call with an update on the company's operations. This will be followed by a review of our financial results with Victoria Mink, our EVP and Chief Financial Officer. After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions.

If you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, it is available in the Investors section of our corporate website.

Please take note of the following: Today's discussion may contain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties and that actual results, developments and events may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. These include financial community perceptions of the company and its business, operations, financial condition and the industry in which it operates as well as the factors described in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the sections entitled risk factors and management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations contained therein. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be discussed during this call.

On Pages 5 and 6 of today's earnings release, we provide consolidated statements of operations and a reconciliation of operating income to adjusted operating income or AOI, a non-GAAP financial measure. Lastly, on Pages 8 and 9 of the release, we present a reconciliation of AOI to AOI excluding the impact of ASC Topic 606, the new accounting standard for revenue recognition.

And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Andy.

[Andrew Lustgarten, executive]

Thank you, Ari. Before I turn to our core business, I'd like to talk about where we stand with the company's key strategic initiatives. We've made significant progress on our plan to grow beyond our existing portfolio of assets by pioneering the next generation of entertainment with MSG Sphere. And as we execute on our vision for these state-of-the-art venues, we continue to actively pursue the proposed spin-off of our Sports business, a transaction we believe would strengthen our financial flexibility and help drive long-term value creation for our shareholders.

You've heard us talk previously about the merits of the proposed spin-off. We remain confident that this separation would better highlight the unique value of the Knicks and Rangers franchises. We continue to expect that the Entertainment company would retain an approximate 1/3 equity interest in the Sports company. This equity stake would be used to help fund our growth plans and for other corporate purposes and would also be available for a potential tax-free exchange for Entertainment company's shares.

While we know this is taking longer than expected, we remain firmly committed to completing this important transaction, which we now anticipate will happen in the first quarter of calendar 2020. The spin-off is, of course, still subject to various closing conditions, including league and final MSG Board approvals. As I mentioned earlier, this transaction would strengthen our ability to execute on our plans for MSG Sphere, an initiative we continue to make meaningful progress on.

In June, we announced that we engaged AECOM as our general contractor for MSG Sphere in Las Vegas. AECOM is known as a leading builder of stadium and entertainment facilities, and we believe their experiences make them the ideal partner. In Las Vegas, we've reached significant milestones over the past several months. We completed grading, mass excavation and drilling deep foundations and have now begun to work on shallow foundations and installation of below-grade infrastructure. We've also started the building of basement walls and stair and elevator cores and columns.

Our goal remains to open Las Vegas venue during calendar 2021, and we are increasingly excited about the transformative nature of MSG Sphere. Las Vegas is one of the world's top entertainment destinations, with over 40 million visitors annually, many of whom are looking for new experiences. We're going to give it to them. MSG Sphere will be an entirely new platform unlike anything we've ever seen. Of course, we expect that it'll attract the type of events you see at any world-class venue, concerts, award shows, select sporting events, et cetera. However, we believe it will enable us to create entirely new forms of entertainment, some unexpected. For instance, with an interior display the size of 3 football fields, we believe MSG Sphere will completely redefine how companies think about product launches. And when you add that we're directly connected to Sands Expo Center, we see this as a very compelling opportunity.

Moreover, we do not intend to just rely on traditional content to drive the venue's utilization. We plan to take a page out of Christmas Spectacular playbook, with the goal of creating original attractions that showcase the venue's state-of-the-art technology and run multiple times a day, year around. From an event talent perspective, we believe these attractions will result in MSG Sphere being the most highly utilized venue in our portfolio, and also serve as content that we can leverage across future MSG Spheres.

In addition to events, MSG Sphere's groundbreaking platform will create unprecedented opportunities for companies to engage with very valuable audience, which we anticipate translating into meaningful high-margin sponsorship revenue for the company. And we've said from the beginning, we believe MSG Sphere will reimagine the live experience, redefine the venue model and become a valuable long-term asset for our company.

Turning to our operations. For fiscal 2019, we generated a 5% increase in total company revenue. While overall AOI was lower on a year-over-year basis, if we take a deeper dive into the results, we see a far more compelling story. Let's start with MSG Entertainment. Our booking business had another record-setting year, with a 10% increase in the number of events held at our venues, which translated into a high single-digit percentage revenue growth on an underlying basis. And while bookings results for the fiscal fourth quarter were lower year-over-year, as we look out at our start to fiscal 2020, we are currently pacing ahead of last year at this time in terms of the number of confirmed events, plus shows that have already taken place. The Christmas Spectacular had an equally impressive year, with highlights that include over 1 million tickets sold for the show's 8-week run, mid-single-digit percentage growth in both paid attendance and average ticket prices and a double-digit percentage increase in revenues. Rounding out the success at Entertainment was ongoing revenue growth across both sponsorship and suites during fiscal 2019, a continued reflection of the value we bring to our partners.

There were, however, items that offset these achievements, a few of which I'll touch on now. First, as we've discussed previously, TAO Group had lower results year-over-year in the first half of fiscal 2019. A portion of the decrease was preopening expenses related to the popular TAO restaurant in Chicago. Since the first half, we have seen improvement as the business was essentially flat year-over-year on our third quarter and returned to modest growth in our fourth quarter. TAO Group has also continued to execute on its venue expansion plans, which in addition to TAO Chicago, include opening a new venue in New York and Singapore. TAO Group had been a terrific strategic partner for our company, both here at the Garden, where they'll play a larger role this coming season in our food and hospitality offerings as well as in Las Vegas, where they're helping to create a world-class guest experience for MSG Sphere.

With regard to Obscura and Boston Calling, while AOI for both of these businesses were lower this year, as we've previously discussed, we are winding down Obscura's third-party business so we could focus those resources on MSG Sphere. And for Boston Calling, we've reworked our strategy, which we will believe will return investable to profitability.

Now turning to MSG Sports. For fiscal 2019, we saw growth across a number of categories, including league distributions, local media rights and suite license fees. We also saw solid growth in our sports booking business as we had a particularly successful year in attracting marquee sporting events to our venues. However, there are items that offset this growth in Sports. The team performance of the Knicks and Rangers weighed on our per-game revenue for tickets, food, beverage and merch sales. We were also impacted by higher team personnel costs, including a player waiver earlier this year as well as higher marketing costs as we spend more to support our in-game sales.

Looking ahead, we continue to strengthen both teams with long-term goal of building championship-caliber franchises. The Rangers head into next season with several key additions, including the #2 overall pick, Kaapo Kakko, elite forward Artemi Panarin, and defenseman Jacob Trouba. Meanwhile, the Knicks have continued to build on their young core with a number of additions, including the #3 overall draft pick, Duke star RJ Barrett, along with free agents such as Julius Randle, Marcus Morris and Bobby Portis. We look forward to the new season for both teams.

With respect to sponsorships, we've another year of growth with an increase in Entertainment, while Sports revenue was flat with the prior year, which we again contribute to the team performance.

There were a number of new partnerships that contributed to our growth, including ones with Montefiore Health System, Verizon and Hulu. This year also marked the start of our multiyear marketing partnership with PepsiCo. And as we recently shared, we completed a multiyear renewal with long-standing partner Ticketmaster on both the sponsorship and ticketing fronts.

In addition to everything we've talked about with regard to our segments, on a total company basis, we were also impacted by higher SG&A expenses, including ongoing investment in personnel as we moved forward with our growth plans as well as costs associated with the proposed Sports spin-off.

So in summary, while fiscal 2019 had many moving parts, there was much to be excited about in terms of the underlying results of our business and our long-term prospects. At Entertainment, we see an opportunity to continue growing important areas such as booking and productions. While at Sports, we see broad-based upside potential, especially as both the Knicks and Rangers improve their performance over time.

We've have also made significant progress in readying our company for its next chapter, and expect fiscal 2020 to be an important year as we work to complete our Sports spin-off and as our MSG Sphere in Las Vegas begins to take shape.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Victoria.

[Victoria Mink, executive]

Thank you, Andy, and good morning, everyone. Before I discuss our fourth quarter financial performance, I'd like to take a moment to discuss the update we've provided on costs for our Las Vegas venue in this morning's earnings release.

We disclosed that in May, our Board of Directors approved a preliminary construction budget of $1.2 billion. In addition, as part of the contractual process of setting the incentive benchmark for establishing AECOM's fees, AECOM has provided us with an initial proposal that, together with additional core technology and soft costs, result in a project cost estimate of $1.7 billion. We think AECOM's estimate is too high and as part of the contractual process, we are reviewing and challenging our contractor's estimates and assumptions. We believe as a result of this process that we will be successful in achieving significant cost reductions.

Now turning to our fourth quarter results. On a reported basis, MSG generated total revenues of $263.6 million and an adjusted operating loss of $34.9 million. Excluding the impact of the new revenue recognition accounting standard, we would have generated total revenues of $326.2 million, an increase of 3%, and AOI of positive $3.7 million, an increase of $5 million, both as compared with the prior year quarter.

At MSG Entertainment, revenues of $174 million decreased 6%. The largest driver of the decrease was lower event-related revenues from concerts with a decrease at the Garden and Forum partially offset by growth at the Beacon and Chicago theaters. In addition, we had a decrease in revenues for the Boston Calling Festival, along with lower suite license fees due to the new revenue accounting standard, while segment revenues were also impacted by the wind-down of Obscura's third-party business. These decreases were partially offset by higher TAO Group revenues and higher sponsorship and signage revenues.

Fourth quarter AOI of $1.1 million decreased by $7.1 million primarily due to the decrease in revenues, partially offset by lower direct operating expenses. The decrease in direct operating expenses was primarily due to lower event-related expenses from concerts and to a lesser extent, lower venue operating costs as well as lower expenses for Obscura Digital and the Boston Calling Festival. This was partially offset by higher TAO Group expenses.

Excluding the impact of the new accounting standard, Entertainment revenues for the fourth quarter would have been $180.9 million, a decrease of 3%, and AOI would have been $3.6 million, a decrease of $4.6 million, both as compared to the prior year quarter.

At MSG Sports, revenues of $90 million decreased 32%. This was primarily due to the new revenue recognition standard which significantly impacted most of our revenue lines. This was partially offset by higher event-related revenues from other live sporting events. While fourth quarter revenues at MSG Sports were impacted by ASC Topic 606, on a full year basis, the impact of the new accounting standard was negligible. MSG Sports AOI in the fourth quarter decreased by $16.5 million to a loss of $5.7 million, which primarily reflects the decrease in revenues, partially offset by lower direct operating expenses.

The decrease in direct operating expenses was primarily due to lower net provisions for certain team personnel transactions as we recorded significant expense in the prior year quarter. In addition, we had lower team personnel compensation costs with the overall decrease in expenses partially offset by higher event-related expenses from other live sporting events. Excluding the impact of the new accounting standard, MSG Sports revenues for the fourth quarter would have been $145.7 million, an increase of 10%, and AOI would have been $30.4 million, an increase of $19.6 million, both as compared to the prior year quarter.

Corporate and other adjusted operating loss of $30.3 million increased $10.1 million year-over-year, primarily due to higher professional fees and higher employee compensation and related benefits.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2020, we expect to see increased expenses in our corporate and other line. This reflects additional investment in personnel, content and technology to help drive our MSG Sphere initiatives.

Now turning to our balance sheet. As of June 30, total unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments were approximately $1.2 billion. In addition, there have been no borrowings made under either our $150 million New York Rangers revolving credit facility or our $215 million New York Knicks credit facilities.

In May, we refinanced TAO Group's debt to a 40 -- a new $40 million term loan and a new revolving credit facility, $15 million of which was drawn down as part of the refinancing. In addition, we put into place a $49 million subordinated loan with MSG as the lender to TAO Group. The original $110 million term loan was put in place at the time of our acquisition of a 62.5% equity interest in TAO Group. This refinancing provides for significantly lower annual interest expense and principal payments, giving TAO Group enhanced flexibility to pursue its expansion plans.

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

[Ari Danes, executive]

Thanks, Victoria. Christy, can we open up the call for questions?

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And your first question is from Bryan Goldberg of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

[Bryan Goldberg, analyst]

Thanks for the extra color on the Las Vegas Sphere opportunity. I was wondering if we could dig a little into earnings power implications. Historically, it's been our observation that you've been able to generate double-digit cash on cash returns on capital projects, like the transformation of The Garden and The Forum. And I'm just wondering, given the size of the Las Vegas budget, do you see a similar path towards double-digit returns on this level of spend or is there a different return profile we should have in mind? And then I have a quick follow-up.

[Andrew Lustgarten, executive]

Bryan, thanks for the question. So let's -- I talked about it before, but I'll talk about it again in a little more detail. We believe this project is going to revolutionize live entertainment. We think that like any other venue, it has the base levels of revenue. It has the ability to book concerts, it has the ability to book some sporting events just like any other venue. But then it has the ability to book a whole host of new types of performances, those that we create to our attraction business that we're going to run multiple times a day and for the corporate events. It's going to be the host of anybody looking to launch a product or hopefully, anybody looking to launch a product. And this will be the place to tell your story. And it'll be a place where sponsors need to reach these multimillion number of fans coming to experience the story that's being told. The attractions business is something that doesn't exist, we're going to be taking people places where they've never gone before, both experiencing it visually as well as feeling it, smelling it and hearing it. And we think that this is going to create a whole new host of revenue that no other venue and no other -- no one else has. And we really think this is going to be killer.

[Bryan Goldberg, analyst]

Okay. And then I guess it is kind of like a housekeeping item. With respect to the incentive benchmark that you disclosed that you're negotiating with AECOM, when do you expect to land on a final benchmark figure? And is this an item you intend to disclose going forward?

[Victoria Mink, executive]

Bryan, it's Victoria. So the incentive benchmark has a tremendous amount of detail and information, a lot of estimates and assumptions. So at this point, we're in the middle of the contractually mandated period over which we can negotiate this incentive benchmark. So at this point, we think it could run into the fall, it also could be extended further. And of course, we will see when that's resolved, what the appropriate disclosure would be at that time.

[Operator]

Your next question is coming from Brandon Ross.

[Brandon Ross, analyst]

First, there's a pretty wide gulf between your $1.2 billion Sphere's estimate and AECOM's $1.7 billion. Maybe you could tell us what gives you the confidence that the project will come in closer to your projection than theirs? Are there maybe specific cost areas that their projections seem too high? And then I have a follow-up.

[Victoria Mink, executive]

Yes. Sure, Brandon. So as I had just been answering Bryan's question and indicating that there's a tremendous amount of detail in estimates and assumptions, but let me just take a step back. The $1.2 billion cost estimate was for budgeting and forecasting purposes and it was based on schematic designs at that time. The $1.7 billion is based on an estimate from the contractor for fee-setting purposes, and it's part of the cost-plus contract, where the contractor, of course, is incentivized to propose a higher cost estimate as it gives them a more favorable benchmark. But as we've stated, we think the estimate is too high and we're in this process of reviewing and challenging those assumptions. We also plan to value engineer aspects of the project to further reduce costs. So we do believe as a result of both of these efforts that we'll be successful in achieving significant cost reductions. And as an aside, there are number of other benefits to a cost-plus contract. For example, we pay the cost of the actual materials and labor, plus a negotiated percentage fee, which means we don't pay an estimated or fixed amount that typically includes a substantial cushion for the contractor. We're also able to negotiate a more -- play a more vigilant role in the negotiation process, which we believe will maximize the quality of the work and help manage the project's costs. This includes having full transparency into the selection of -- the negotiation with all of the labor and materials utilized by the subcontractors. So we think this is -- it's going to be a very detailed process and that's why we are -- we believe there will be some significant savings.

[Brandon Ross, analyst]

Great. And then just earlier in the call, you said that the -- I think you said the timing of the spin would be pushed to calendar Q1 of '20. Is there a specific reason or any more color that you could give for that?

[Andrew Lustgarten, executive]

Brandon, so look, we acknowledge it's taken a little longer than we would've liked. We're fully committed to moving it forward. And it's just a process and we're working our way through it. But don't read into anything further than we're working our way through this process, and we're anticipating to have it done first quarter.

[Operator]

Your next question is from Dave Karnovsky of JP Morgan.

[David Karnovsky, analyst]

Just following up on the Sphere. The numbers you've given of $1.2 billion to $1.7 billion, can we assume that range is also appropriate to apply to London Sphere? And assuming that is the case, can you just update us on the financing for the projects?

[Andrew Lustgarten, executive]

Well, for the London Sphere, we -- it will be largely similar to the Vegas Sphere, but not identical. We are very focused, as we've talked about, to have the internal [ bowl ] be replicable so that we can share content across venues and leverage that part of the business so that we can drive utilization of both venues. But we're also very early in our design, it's a smaller piece of land and there will be things that are not identical, and so we don't have a lot further in terms of cost estimates for London at this time.

[Victoria Mink, executive]

Yes. And David, on sort of the second part of your question, the Entertainment company is going to start with over $1 billion of cash on hand, which we have just about $1.1 billion on our balance sheet now, plus another GBP 100 million or so. So with the proposed spin-off, we will also have the approximate 1/3 equity interest in the Sports company, so we believe that's going to provide the company with significant financial flexibility to pursue these growth plans. And as we said before, we'll always explore additional ways to further strengthen our financial flexibility, if we believe it makes sense for the company.

[David Karnovsky, analyst]

Okay. And then just on TAO, you called out higher revenues versus, I think flat last quarter. Can you just break down that performance a little bit? How much of this is driven by new venues relative to your existing locations? And then I think last quarter you had mentioned working with TAO management to operate the business more efficiently. Can you just update where you are on that process?

[Victoria Mink, executive]

Sure, yes. So we're pleased. I mean the TAO Group returned to overall growth in the fourth quarter. We don't break out the profitability of the various businesses, but I can tell you that TAO generated a revenue increase of $4.6 million on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter. And just as a reminder, we report TAO Group's results on a 3-month lag. But when we think about the different mix on an overall basis, a lot of the revenue driver of the $4.6 million was due to the opening of the TAO Chicago in September. So we've been really pleased with that venue, which has been somewhat offset by the impact of closing one venue after a 15-year run and another venue in New York area that was underperforming. So a bit of a mix there. But I think overall we have been working closely with the TAO Management Group, and I think that they're really focused and it's certainly starting to show in their results, which are certainly trending better than they were early this fiscal year.

[Operator]

Your next question is from David Miller of Imperial Capital.

[David Miller, analyst]

Couple questions. Andy, once the spin happens for Q1 of next year, what are your personal plans in terms of which side you expect to lead? And then I have a couple of follow-ups.

[Andrew Lustgarten, executive]

We're still working through management structures of both entities. Jim will be Chairman and CEO, and we're working through the rest right now.

[David Miller, analyst]

Okay. And then, Victoria, I'm just still trying to parse out whether the miss on the SportsLine is due to Topic 606 or just lower suite revenue for the teams. The narrative with you guys for a long time had been that just with the loyalty of the fan base, the suites were always sold out irregardless (sic) [ regardless ] of team performance, but it feels like that that's shifted a bit. I'm wondering if you agree with that? Or if this is all due to Topic 606?

[Victoria Mink, executive]

Sure. So David, yes, I mean Topic 606 has just been a theme throughout this entire year unfortunately on a quarter-over-quarter basis. It's just created so much noise, and we're fortunate that this will be the last quarter of that noise. But I will say, if you exclude 606 and you look at the suites in Q4, they were basically flat and you think some of the product loads impacted by team performance a little bit. But on a full year basis, we did mid-single-digit increases in our total suite revenue across the company. So I think we continue to be pleased with that, but obviously, we look forward to an improving teams in fiscal '20.

[Operator]

Your next question is from David Joyce of Evercore ISI.

[David Joyce, analyst]

Couple of questions related to the Spheres. Can you help us think about the phasing of the construction costs for Las Vegas? And assuming London's cost is going to be in the same range, where are you on the process of getting final approvals and really coming up with the budget there?

[Victoria Mink, executive]

Sure. Let me take the first part of that question, David. So as we disclosed in the earnings release inception to date, we spent $109 million on these core construction costs, and we expect to see those costs ramping up and our cash outflow ramping over the next few years until the opening in calendar 2021.

[Andrew Lustgarten, executive]

In terms of timing with London, so we're in the middle of our planning application process, we've submitted it in March. We expect to hear a determination by the end of calendar 2019, but that could continue and become subject to further discussions with the planning authority. And once we assume we will receive planning permission, we will then get further into design and eventually construction as quickly as we can, but there is clearly some work to be done.

[David Joyce, analyst]

Okay. And on the funding options for the Spheres, do you have any more tangible sense of the structure of monetizing that 1/3 of the stake in the teams?

[Andrew Lustgarten, executive]

So it's just -- we're -- we have nothing more to report at this time on that. Look, I'm sorry I can't give you more but...

[Operator]

Your next question -- your final question is from Brett Harriss of G. Research.

[Brett Harriss, analyst]

Just first a quick one. Any update on the filing of the Form 10 for the separation? I guess what are the gating factors for that document at this point? And then just secondly, anything more you can say on the timing on the finalization of the construction cost for the Vegas Sphere? I guess given the project's already started, when do you expect to have a final cost estimate?

[Victoria Mink, executive]

Sure, Brett. We continue to work on the Form 10 and the various appropriate SEC filings as we move towards the proposed spin-off. I mean now with our filing of our 10-K for the Madison Square Garden Company later today, we would expect to be doing our confidential filing in the next coming few months, but -- in accordance with our timeline. And then as far as the overall Sphere cost, I don't think there's much to add beyond what I previously addressed in the call.

[Operator]

We have no further questions at this time. I would now turn the call over to Ari Danes for any additional or closing remarks.

[Ari Danes, executive]

Thank you all for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you on our next earnings call. Have a good day.

[Operator]

Goodbye. Thank you. This does conclude today's conference call. You may now disconnect.