The Hollywood Reporter published part 2 of its interview with AEW President Tony Khan today ahead of Sunday’s All In 2023 pay-per-view event, where he talked about the financial state of the promotion and more.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
If for some reason, you couldn’t book an upcoming show, who would you trust to put together that show? “He hasn’t been around as much lately, because he’s been recovering from an injury. But if I got hit by a bus, or if I was ever incapacitated for some reason, the person I told my father that he should turn to is Bryan Danielson.”
Have you set any target for when you want AEW to turn profitable or anything you can say on that topic? “I typically talk about how I reinvest a lot of money. I have reinvested a lot of the money we gross in this business. Last year, we grossed over $100 million. This year, we’ll gross far more than $100 million – we’ll see where it ends up. But last year was $100 million, this year is going to be a lot more with video game revenue [for AEW Fight Forever, released this summer], Wembley revenue and the addition and [weekly TNT show, launched in June on TNT,] Collision. So our grosses will be far higher this year, and I’ve reinvested much of the money we’ve grossed back into the business. I’m still working off the original investment into the business, but have not had to put in more. And then we are reinvesting money to grow it as an international business. We’ve launched the video game, expanded the TV calendar, expanded the pay-per-view calendar and the merchandising. We have a valuation of, well people have approached me with billion-dollar offers. So the business has grown. I’m not turning over huge cash profits. But as we approach the new media rights renewal, that is really the key not only to weekly profitability and cash flow, but also another large multiplier on top of the business valuation.”
