Tons of notes from Rafael Morffi interview on Talk is Jericho (Arthur Ashe idea, Toronto venue the first time around, matches that move tickets)

The Vice President of Live Events and Touring for AEW Rafael Morffi was on Talk is Jericho in what turned out to be a pretty noteworthy/interesting interview. Here are the key notes from it:

• Rafael was working with the Mets when he met Michael Cole & Steve Austin who were in town to throw the first pitch at the Mets game. Austin enjoyed his experience with Rafael and put in a good word for him with WWE.
• He said the presale is essential. "It's the end all, be all. Data is king right now. Having databases, having emails, harvesting that data from previous ticket sales through other partners you have and you can sell a lot of tickets through the presale mechanism."
• "I would say now you have 70-80% of your sales on the presale. It depends but a strong, acute interest in a sale you will see that 70-80%." He mentioned Forbidden Door as a recent example of that for them.
• On average he says 60% off the gate (after presale) and another 20-30% during the go-home period (last few weeks). Different markets vary. Some markets may not have incremental cash and you may see bigger walk ups.
• Jericho brought up how walk-ups have diminished because of how easy it is to buy tickets with your phone. Rafael agreed but mentioned LA and Winnipeg having great walk-ups for them. It being so accessible to buy tickets with your phone has changed it a lot.
• When asked if a match can move tickets Rafael cited the Darby vs Jeff Hardy match added to the UBS Arena show last year moved a lot.
• Rafael, when working with WWE, told Vince McMahon his idea about running Arthur Ashe Stadium (before it had a roof). Vince was reluctant because of the open air aspect of it.
• Arthur Ashe Stadium was very early in AEW's plans for a big show. He mentioned it was supposed to be around the pandemic date in early 2020.
• Comp ratio is 40-50% of people that actually show up. More often they do not. He mentioned VetTix (the source we used to get numbers from (from a reader) for comps for Veterans) as a reliable group to use.
• Ideally they want to be in a town that has professional sports. A town that is within Top 25 in DMA. A good facility. "We have to look at other facilities for reasons where we're not able to get dates." Jericho mentioned they use a lot of University arenas instead of the main arena in the area because they can fill it up.
• "The pandemic really, really helped us out on a lot of levels." Coming out of the pandemic, venues were starving for programming. Some were apprehensive to book them before the pandemic but were thrilled to hear from them after it.
• He left WWE in 2013. He worked with Major League Soccer after that. Jeff Jarrett and Bruce Prichard reached out to him and brought him back to the business. He also helped Tommy Dreamer, Court Bauer (MLW), Impact and others with their shows. Barry Bloom reached out to him about what was happening with AEW. Jim Ross, who he is very close with, also clued him in.
• Cody Rhodes contacted him and they needed someone to help with upcoming shows. He did a presentation in front of Cody and the Bucks. Eventually Tony got involved with Keith Mitchell and others. His first show was the first show, Double or Nothing.
• His time after WWE, working with smaller promotions, helped him examine and fine tune finances and P&L's (profit and loss). He credits that time period of getting him ready for this role in AEW.
• At the start, he would book venues in locations that was production friendly (keeping things close geographically). He mentioned the production crew was growing at the time.
• He said Tony Khan has great analytical resources to lean on that allow him to examine their fans, their trends and also set up "variables and metrics." He mentioned using the software to help them (not entirely) make decisions.
• He spoke of the risk of running a show on the west coast (pre-pandemic) at 4PM when they were still new. "Can we sustain that?"
• He brought up fans bringing up Chicago in jest. "There's not 1 city in America that can have 2 $1 million dollar gates in the same summer in 2 different venues like we did in Chicago. There's a reason we go there a lot."
• He mentioned negotiating the best deals with venues that allow a certain percentage of their net back from ticket sales. "There's a reason why WWE didn't have many TV shows at MSG for a decade."
• "It's costly to move 11 to 12 trucks, 13 trucks. For us when we were back on the road last year and gas prices were extremely high, that all played into it. We took calculated risks to stay in the Northeast last Fall. We didn't fair as well the initial times but we didn't know that. We didn't know that would be the result. The first few times we faired very well."
• What cities can sustain 3 big shows within 5 days? "New York, maybe. You'd have to spread out the venues. Chicago. We have a great partner in Hoffman Estates. Hoffman Estates gives us a great deal. There's a reason why we did 3 shows there last year; we came back with a lot of revenue. After stage hands, and stage hands and labor costs at venues, that is the lion share of costs on event day. Because of the novelty of it, possibly LA still. And special events like Double or Nothing."
• Jericho asks about opening certain sections. "That's something I have to monitor every day. Adjusting pricing. That's something a new hire here, Michael Mansury and I are going to hone in on in terms of monitoring those sales. On the other hand if you're selling briskly, flexing pricing so you can take home more money at the end of the day."
• "You don't want to relocate folks the day of the show. I've been there, done that. I pride myself on not putting that onus on the venues. It's a pain in the ass for the venues. And the fans. Most importantly the fans. Even though you can upgrade them to a certain location in camera view, they don't understand that when you try to explain it to them."
• "As we grow our structure and our process here, we're lean and mean to start. I'll be working with Mike on that and a lot of things.  We're lean and mean but we're improving and we're getting personnel. We have a great asset coming here, from WWE, Adam Hopkins." Rafael clarified he's a PR guy who will help get the word out in local markets. Adam was with WWE for 25 years.
• Anywhere between 15 and 20 shows at once he has to keep an eye on. He mentioned WWE's approach of seasonal releases (30-40 shows at once).
• "Right now here it's just me in our department." Jericho joked he needs some assistance at some point. "Sooner or later" Rafael quickly said. He mentioned learning a lot from Michael Hayes about adjusting on the fly with promo material.
• In his career, 4 people have always asked him for attendance numbers: Stone Cold Steve Austin, CM Punk, John Cena, and Chris Jericho. They wanted to know the numbers for every show they were on.
• Jericho asked if WWE tries to block them from running certain venues. He said most venues are really good about it.
• He said Detroit went from a 4 arena town to 1. He said WWE plays that market 3 times a year so it took them time to find a little slice of time to get in.
• "Our production team has grown. We do many same day load-ins for shows. WWE has been doing that forever, and they had to do it for Raw & Smackdown but they're a bigger and they have more resources and more people working for them compared to us. The load in date was key for our production team in the beginning."
• "And Tony loves being at these sports venues (NBA/NHL arenas) and I don't blame him, great resources backstage, great from a production standpoint and you said from Blood & Guts where we can rig it. And also the same day load-in helps us out from the labor standpoint. We're paying unions 1 day as opposed to 2."
• Jericho brings up doing the "smaller room" in Toronto the first time. Rafael said Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment runs the Coca-Cola Coliseum and Scotiabank Arena. Rafael said they needed to have a commitment to TSN, who was pressuring them to come to Canada. "In terms of avails, I think WWE had a show in Scota in August. There's some exclusivity windows and we have to adhere to them. And so do venues. We wanted to accommodate our rights holder in TSN to be there before the year ended. Quite frankly the only venue in Toronto they could give us was Coca-Cola Coliseum so instead of a 1 night show, we did 2 nights. The place holds 8,000 and we sold out both which is great but they told us they would give us an opportunity to play the big room when it fits." He said they wanted to see how AEW would do in that venue first. Rafael and Jericho joked they could've done a lot more.
• Rafael mentioned when speaking to venues, it helps having a professional sports owner present or speaking on his behalf. They respect that.

I'd recommend giving this a listen. Search for the Talk is Jericho podcast in the Apple Podcast app and look for the most recent episode. They recorded this when in St. Louis on 3/29/2023.