When Ring of Honor was bought by Sinclair Broadcast Group, I was one of few ROH fans that seemed to be optimistic about the purchase. Having supported ROH since their inception in 2002 and for the most part been loyal, perhaps to a fault, to the brand I felt that this could be another step in the right direction. I’m not here to stir any hyperbole. This is not the death knell of ROH nor is it the end of the world. However, the current situation that ROH has placed themselves in is one that I think needs to be prodded, questioned, and discussed. I work for a major corporation and am pursuing my higher education in corporate law. While I am by no means an expert, this tends to skew my view on how the wrestling world does business. I’m a numbers gym so when it was put out tlate yesterday that ROH was forcing its talents to close up their One Hour Tees shops, it logistically made no sense instantly to my brain. Here was the tweet that caught the attention of many:
It was later reported by ProWrestling.net that, “According to one source, the wrestlers were told to take down their shirts or ROH would stop selling their merchandise on the ROH website and at ROH events” but that the talent could still sell their merch individually or via ROH but that this was not limited to One Hour Tees. [post edit] I have been informed by a source that, “ROH highly suggested to talent to shut down their stores on ProWrestlingTees.com. They can still order shirts from One Hour Tees and sell them on their own websites, at their own indy shows but just not online at ProWrestlingTees.com.”
Let’s be clear. It was also as of this writing still unclear if contractual obligations played into this decision. Any discussion pertaining to contracts would be conjecture as far as I am concerned.
Let’s say contractual obligations didn’t play into this this. In fact for the purposes of my argument, I am going to assume it’s not given that One Hour Tees prints ROH’s shirts (anyone wonder why their banner was on ROHwrestling.com?) I would have assumed they had a working relationship with ROH. Feel free ROH to prove me wrong.
I am all for adhering to contracts, for better or worse, if someone signs on that dotted linem then that is the lay of the land. All the same, if there is no language in the contract instructing the employee that they cannot sell merchandise on any outside platform other than the governed website of the employer, then I am at a loss. If there are any MMA fans reading this, I am comparing this to the UFC situation where a sponsor not only has to pay the fighter to be worn on their shorts during the fights, they also have to pay a fee to UFC. Lets be clear, I think THAT is slightly fair given that UFC is a huge platform based on their numbers, growth, and relationships with major television channels. ROH is not there, and even though ROH is backed by a huge multi-billion dollar corporation that is publicly traded (you can search their financial statements here) ROH has to survive on its own. At least that is the impression I’m given when ROH is stating that talent cannot sell their merchandise through the same third party that creates the merchandise because if that multi-billion dollar entity that has ad revenue that is doing fine was actually financing this company in any way, I don’t believe they would be worried about a few hundred tee shirts being sold on the side, if even that many. Unless it was causing a loss (look no further than Panda Energy and TNA to understand that relationship) but as far as I know, ROH doesn’t have any overhead that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. At least given their production, I can’t assume that is the case.
I understand that ROH want’s a cut. That’s just smart business. But what does that tell us, the fans that support ROH? Us fans have a unique bond to the professional wrestlers we want to support because we are more than willing to spend our hard earned money on them and follow them to whatever promotions they work for. In that, we also get to decide what and where we spend our money. I find this recent action by ROH to be akin to TNA’s ruling that talent cannot be used on indie dvds or even back when TNA first pulled talent from ROH shows when ROH first started on traditional PPVs and used G-Funk to sell DVDs nation wide. I felt then as I feel right now, I’m questioning whether I want to support a company that is restricting its talent from various revenue streams when those talents are trying to make a living. But I’m a numbers guy, so let’s break this down.
ROH
A $20 shirt probably nets the talent I would hope at least a %10 royalty from the purchase (generally it is between 2% – 20% as reported by Forbes when it comes to sports athletes). That is $2.
One Hour Tees
I have no inside knowledge of how much they get per tee but let’s say it’s double what ROH gives them at $4 to keep numbers simple.
[post edit] I was also told that the wrestlers, on average make $9 per shirt.
When looking up making bulk shirts (around 100 in volume) it would cost roughly not including tax about $6 to make per shirt. Meaning that a $20 shirt minus the $6 to make and then maybe $2 to the talent makes ROH $12. If I was to buy the shirt directly from One Hour Tees, that would make OHT $16 minus the shipping and cost to make the shirt whatever that is. It is almost equal when it comes to profit and, at least for me, in the end the talents are financially supported. While I have no stats to support this claim, I would assume that more fans are aware of ROHwrestling.com than ProWrestlingTees.com based on social media figures including twitter followers. If that is the case, then more than likely the ones that buy from ROH are statistically going to continue to return to ROHwrestling.com just based on what I’ve been taught in every single business/marketing class I’ve ever taken. Basic business 101 as far as I’m concerned.
Why couldn’t ROH have just had exclusive shirts created for their store for the talents and the talents could have shirts that they sold individually through OHT? Two simple solutions to the problem that arises here if SBG believes that fans would buy from OHT more than ROH.
1. Realize you’re on TV reaching a much LARGER audience (I hope) that OHT does on any given day and you own the stations that ROH is running on, so you are in full control of what advertisements the audience sees when viewing the TV which should be leading them to the website.
2. Perhaps raise the percentage of the royalties paid to the talents so that in closing out this source of revenue, it becomes financially beneficial for them to go through ROHwrestling.com
It’s not rocket science. It is actions that restrict the talent that force fans like myself and others to wonder if we really care to support the talents through the company that seemingly is not helping them make a living, or if we would rather support them through their outside projects such as Highspots.com and other promotions they work for. I end by asking this question. What is the value of goodwill with those customers who have supported ROH and the talents for years when they read that a corporate entity is doing something that can be seen as hurting the talents those customers want to support?
Feel free to leave a comment, email me at cgstong@pwponderings.com or tweet at me your thoughts on twitter at http://twitter.com/cgstong