All right, great. Let's get started with our next session. Thank you, everyone, for taking the time to join us today. My name is Stephen Laszczyk, and I'm the lead entertainment analyst here at Goldman Sachs. We are excited to welcome to the Communicopian & Technology Conference, Mark Shapiro, the President and COO of TKO Group.
Thank you, Stephen.
So Mark, tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of TKO becoming a publicly traded company. So to start out, I thought it'd be great, just if you could update us on the confidence behind the thesis of bringing both the UFC and WWE together, some of the things you're most proud about over the last year, and what opportunities, looking ahead, you're still most excited about.
We've got a major company note going out tomorrow morning, and I'll make sure you get a copy of it with all of our highlights. But yes, it is the one-year anniversary tomorrow, so very exciting for the company. And I would tell you that to say that we're pleased with the transaction would be a major understatement. I think our conviction grows daily when it comes to the industrial logic behind putting these two assets together. Both assets are extremely complementary, and I'd remind you that roughly eight years ago, when Endeavor bought UFC, similar situation, so we know this playbook. And for the UFC, how it turned out was, at least the last five years, we've had record top line, record EBITDA. ESPN deal speaks for itself, incredibly strong.
There's a real demand for premium sports content right now, and we think that when it comes to the WWE, we can follow that same roadmap, that same playbook that we can talk about, and it will continue to bear fruit for us. I think break it down, and really the way we look at it is, you know, financially, we're in a strong position. We have a strong balance sheet, just two times levered. We're coming off record earnings in 2023 for us, and even the first half of this year has been a record for us. At the same time, we're highly cash flow generative. Now move to the side of that and look at the event economy right now, which is hot.
Experiences, events, hot, and sports are at the top of that food chain, so we're sitting in a good place. And the KPIs that make up what we do, everything from ticket sales to sponsorship and global partnerships to premium experiences to site fees, they're all trending in the direction, showing that materially, the event economy is strong, and we're seeing material results. And then finally, I would just say on the integration of it all, which is so important, right? We're, we're a year in here, but we still have so much more to do, top line and the cost structure. But we've, we've guided the market to, on an annualized basis, that we would reap $100 million in, in net cost synergies, and we've blown through that, and we still see there's more to do. We have a lot of work to do there.
But we've meshed our teams together, best in class, and that's resulted in an amazing media deal with Netflix for Raw, and obviously a lot of international content. NXT moving over to CW at a record price there and a big increase. And of course, SmackDown moving back to NBC, but NBC Comcast has been our home for a long time when it comes to WWE. So the media deals have turned out great, and that's because you're taking best-in-class people and putting them together. You've got Ari Emanuel working on the deal. You've got Nick Khan working on the deal on WWE, Lawrence Epstein working on the deal, Andrew Schleimer, who's our CFO, all with deep experience in cutting media deals. And then you've got IMG behind it for all the market intelligence. That's been really strong.
When you look over to some of the other big revenue drivers, on the global partnerships front, we have Grant Norris-Jones, whose huge success in what we've built at UFC, largely because of his strategy and his execution, now running it for both, and Peter Dropick, who's also the best in class, running live events and ticket sales for both properties. You sit in a good place, and I, and every night I go to bed knowing that those two guys are thinking about global partnerships, which is so high margin, and ticket sales, which is such a big part of our business when you do 300 events a year combined. You feel like you're in a better place. Of course, I can mention their names a lot because they're both under long-term contracts.
That's a great overview. I wanna touch on a lot of what you just mentioned, but maybe first starting with the sports media rights market.
Yeah.
Mark, you've been in sports media longer than just about anyone. On your most recent earnings call, you said something that I thought was interesting, which is that the market is as hot as you've ever seen it. I was curious if you could just talk a little bit more about what you're seeing in the market today, maybe perhaps the headlines around the NBA?
Yeah
... yeah, the French Open, but what types of conversations are you having that give you that confidence?
Yeah, good question, and I think a very salient point. I would say that, first off, I've been doing this for 20 years, as you just said. I would say half of that, I was a buyer on the ESPN, ABC, Disney side, spending a lot of money to get sports rights. And the last 10 years, I've been more of a seller, if you will, running Dick Clark Productions, which is more music than sports, but then also at TKO, obviously, UFC and WWE, and of course, IMG. So you get a look around every corner. I mean, we're involved in kind of every deal. And what you have right now that we've never had before, never to this extent, is a long, deep list of bidders.
The reason why we have that is because you still have linear trudging along and these traditional media companies that need big, powerful premium sports rights to power their platform and reduce the cord-cutting. And then, of course, on the flip side, you've got the direct-to-consumer or the streaming where they need something powerful to put their name on the map. And we were joking last night, but every day there's a new direct-to-consumer being launched. I think two days ago, Hallmark+ just got launched, and it doesn't stop. So when you have that, the result is really that the demand is outstripping supply when it comes to premium sports. So to your point, we've seen it in the CFP, which is obviously college football, huge increases there.
You saw the record NBA deal that Adam Silver cut, which is, you know, insane, frankly. NFL, you see it everywhere, whether it was a wild card game on Peacock or it's the holiday games now on Netflix. NFL is just kind of strong everywhere. French Open, I think tells the best story because it's so small, and it doesn't mean as much here as it does in France, let's just say.
But when you have a property, which, by the way, IMG negotiated the deal, that's getting $12 million a year on NBC, and NBC is losing money on the deal, and Warner Bros. comes in, really not getting too much extra content, and pays $65 million a year for 10 years for something that was losing money at $12 million, it speaks to the fact they're buying it for another reason, which of course, is subscriber acquisition and retention. And I think even YouTube... Let's go there for a second. I mean, look at YouTube Live and just the momentum they have right now. They went out when everyone was wondering, "What's going to happen with Sunday Ticket in the NFL?" DIRECTV was paying $1.5 billion a year, and nobody really thought the NFL could get anything above that. DIRECTV was the only bidder.
YouTube TV steps into the scene, cuts a seven-year deal for $2 billion a year, and I would argue they have one of the most comprehensive NFL platforms now, and the NFL is powering the growth of YouTube TV. So YouTube TV is now in eight million homes. They're the fourth biggest U.S. paid TV service. Forecasts show that by 2026, they will be the number one paid TV service above Charter, Comcast, and DIRECTV. What's all consistent here is it's all being powered by sports. So that plays to our benefit, specifically because when you look at the UFC and WWE, they're both unicorns. They're both unicorns in the sense that they're year-round. We own, we control, we're the commissioner all-in-one. We make the schedule, we determine who fights who, when they're going to fight, on what platform, in what country.
Like, we're as nimble, as flexible as you can get. So if you're sitting back here and you're a media company today, and you need to power linear, but also get that direct-to-consumer going in a strong way, you're going to look for sports and entertainment content like we have that can be flexible and nimble, with huge engagement and good demos and year-round, to not just reduce churn, but be that shiny object in the window when you, the subscriber, are shopping, you're shopping for that platform, and that's what they're looking for.
Your domestic media rights on the UFC side are up with ESPN in about four months. You mentioned in the past, ESPN's been a fantastic partner of yours. That said, it wouldn't be a surprise if others came in and were interested in the rights as well. Just curious how you're thinking about your approach to that media rights negotiation with ESPN and others?
That's right.
and how you're thinking about maximizing the value of the UFC media rights through this next round of negotiations.
Our window to negotiate is exclusive with ESPN/Disney, from January 15th to April 15th. No, no formal conversations have started as of yet, and let us be clear that it is our intention to re-sign with ESPN and Disney because they- they've shown that they do it best. They understand synergy, they understand marketing, they do a great job technologically with developing their platforms, engaging their consumers, and of course, ESPN flagship, which is their direct to consumer, is on the way. So we're anxious to see what that's all about and where we can fit in there. I would also tell you that, you know, it's rare when you have a CEO of a major media company that gets so granularly involved, if you will, on all levels of content, and that's what Bob Iger does.
At the end of the day, he's a sports freak. He now owns a women's soccer team in the NWSL with his wife, Willow. He came up through ABC Sports, huge boxing fan, and when I worked at ESPN, you know, there wasn't a Monday morning I didn't get notes on sports content for the weekend while he's running Disney. Those are the kind of champions you want to be with, and I think folks underestimate how much money ESPN and Disney spend on a weekly basis promoting our UFC fights. So we're not looking past them. The conversation starts there. Having said that, given our earlier conversation, there's so many other platforms that are looking for premium sports content, and again, the demand is outstripping supply.
If we get out of that window and we don't have a deal, we will immediately take up with two or three platforms, specifically, that have told us they're anxious to have those conversations. I think what stands out for us, again, is not just the fact that we have so much flexibility and control, ownership, commissioner all-in-one. We're year-round, we're the antidote for churn, but also when it comes to the UFC, it's premium and not so much volume. That's a big play there, where if you want to get volume and premium, the WWE might be the play for you because there's so many events. When it comes to the UFC, you've got your twelve pay-per-views a year...
And you've got your, you know, depending on where we end up here, you know, your 30-40 fights, which is every single week, and you can use them on whatever platform you want. We've been the driver of ESPN+, and we will continue to be flexible for our partners as long as they are interested in the three things we focus on, on a daily basis, all the way down to the manager level at our company, which is, one, revenue growth and profitability. Two, margin expansion. Three, audience and brand growth. And that is something we tutor, we mentor, and we educate all the way down to the manager level. So folks are thinking about that as their mission when they go about their daily chores.
The pay-per-view aspect of the UFC deal is highly unique. I think in the past, Mark, you may have mentioned that one of the reasons you originally sold the pay-per-view deals to ESPN at the time when Endeavor was coming public was the quarterly volatility in the pay-per-view buys. A lot's changed since then. Your investor base is different today than what it was back when Endeavor came public.
Sure.
I'm curious if you're approaching that pay-per-view portion of the UFC contract in a different light, to the extent you wanna bring more of that risk onto your balance sheet or onto your P&L, what that could look like, and how you would manage pay-per-view-
Yeah
if it was brought in-house?
I would just tell you this. I think this question really plays on both sides of the fence at TKO, because, as you know, our premium live events, which are also one a month for WWE, that deal is coming up in 2026 with Peacock. And I would just tell you that we remain highly flexible. I would tell you, when we did the pay-per-view deal with ESPN, Dana White wasn't completely on board with that. He loves being a promoter. He loves being the barker that he is on fights. You've, I'm sure, heard yesterday, the way he's talking about 306 at the Sphere this weekend. I mean, there's no better promoter, there's no better megaphone, and he's so passionate, and he's so authentic about it.
And the idea of losing control of the pay-per-view, if you will, 'cause it was on On Demand and DIRECTV, wasn't something he was really up for, but he went along because he's a great teammate, and you know what? It worked out. It worked out really well, but the idea of us taking that back in-house or splitting the package, half package, and selling to somebody else, we're up for all of it. And that, that's the biggest message that I can give, you know, all the bidders or, or potential suitors, and I think IMG has been phenomenal, though, of course, they sell our international rights on the UFC, in getting that message out. We're here to play.
You have a platform to build, you have a platform where you have to increase penetration, you have a platform where you're looking to take up price, well, take it up by using the UFC or the WWE, because we have a history of delivering.
You mentioned the PLEs on the WWE side, up at the beginning of 2026 . Just curious how you're thinking about the uniqueness of that content within the sports media market today, and how you're feeling generally going into those negotiations?
Incredible. I mean, that's one. It's first of all, it's beautiful that we have our Raw, SmackDown, NXT deals in place behind us, locked in for, you know, several years, depending on the platform. That Netflix, who could prove to be our best partner yet, is the real engine behind Raw, and by the way, much of what we're doing internationally. I've seen their promotion plans, their marketing plans, the way they're getting behind us, the way they're using the NFL holiday games to promote WWE Raw, moving to Netflix. They are going to be a battleship when it comes to helping us grow our brand and grow our audience. I would just tell you that, you know, as it relates across the board, these PLEs are really...
They're exciting, and there's one a month. People know them. Bash in Berlin, SummerSlam, obviously WrestleMania. I mean, these are major events that draw in a base that is much larger than a sports fan base. It's a real casual sports fan. It's an entertainment fan. It's a lot of women. It's young, very, very young. And the engagement numbers and their social digital numbers for WWE are absolutely sky high. So we know, given that it's so premium and there's only 12 of them, and we've seen the success they've had for Peacock—on Peacock, in terms of who's signing up and who's staying because of these PLEs, we know we're in a really strong place.
We're going to be patient, we're going to be prudent, we're going to listen, do a lot of listening to all the potential suitors, but we feel really good about where we are. And I would just say that, you know, there's nobody better in the business creatively than Dana White and Paul Levesque on the WWE side of it. They live and breathe the content. They're super creative. And Paul, he approves line by line, every story or script, you know, WWE is scripted, right? For every single show we have, he's hands-on. He's traveling to the sites. And so we are incredibly flexible and nimble about what we can do for our media partners there.
Dana, as you've read, has been incredibly hands-on with the creative storytelling around what we're doing at 306 in the Sphere this weekend. When you have those two kinds of partners, it's the flip side to what I was talking about with Bob Iger, right? These media platforms are really appreciative to have two individuals in Paul and Dana that are so hands-on and so flexible, and truthfully, so concerned about the success of the platforms that our content is on. They want ESPN to succeed. They want Netflix to succeed, not just because of a renewal five years down the road, but mostly because they wanna grow the brand, and they wanna grow the audience. The only way they're gonna do that is a healthy relationship between the media companies, the platforms, and us.
... Last question on sports media, thinking longer term. We have conversations with investors, and I think there's a debate longer term on the future of sports media, right? And the valuation step-ups, and if we continue to see more or less what we've seen for the last decade or two. We've seen some carriage disputes over the last year-
Yeah
TVs, the most recent one. So I'm curious from your angle, what's the argument or the pitch long term for why sports media rights can step up, not just through this next round of negotiations, but thinking-
Yeah
- five, 10, 15 years into the future?
Yeah, I mean, obviously, we covered the state of play today and how hot things are. What I would just caution everybody, you know, in my two decades of doing this on both sides. First of all, everybody talks about the ceiling and the bubble. Frankly, that's just BS. I'm happy about that. I wasn't happy when I was at ESPN and I was the buyer, but I'm happy about that now as a seller. But we're just not hitting the ceiling. That bubble burst, it's not happening. And let's remember, sports is truly the last unifying experience we have today. That's what makes sports so great, the rooting interest, the rivalries, shared experience, communal, teaching your kids to be a Jets or a Yankees or a Mets fan, or I'm from Chicago, it goes that way. It's in your DNA, right?
It brings families together. It's some of the greatest memories you're ever going to have, and it's not something you want to get in a pint-sized highlight later on if it's your favorite team or player. You want to see it live. There is such an emphasis today and such a premium, not just on sports, but in live sports. You are at the moment, no different than last night, the debate. Nobody wants to just see the highlights of the clips, at least the first debate, on CNN or wherever else they're going. They want to see it live. They want to reach their own conclusions. They want to be told a story. They want to be entertained, laugh, cry, frustration, whatever it might be. Sports brings all of that and more, and that's, that's just not going to end anytime soon.
In fact, sports that weren't big here domestically, like soccer, are now at all-time highs. You know, who knew that NBC would pay what they're paying for the Premier League or LaLiga, the way they've taken off, or Serie A, or just, you know, across the board, World Cup, the Euros on Fox, off the charts good. And so you're just building more following, more generations of fans, and frankly, when you go into those dips, right, where whatever your hot show is has finished the season, The Bear is over on Hulu. Well, I can just go cut it, and I'll sign back up when the next season comes on. When it's sports, and especially with our sports/entertainment properties, and they're year-round, and they're every week, and they don't take a break, there's no stopping.
So I'm obviously very bullish, but I'm not blind to it. My cautionary part is that there are times when it's just warm, when sports rights increases are warm. Sometimes they're hot like today, but other times they're just warm. They're never cool, but you're kind of going back and forth on the hot versus warm, and some of that obviously depends on the state of the economy and consumers and how much they're willing to pay for different options and apps and platforms and inflation and you name it. But you're kind of riding that wave. So we're hot now, but when we get to negotiating these deals, as you mentioned, those windows, we'll see what temperature it is at that time. You can't just assume it's gonna stay this much in demand all year round, every year.
That's just not the case.
Let's pivot over and talk about sponsorship. On the UFC side, it's been a fantastic success story. I think you're up to over $200 million in revenue at the moment. What's the opportunity from here? How much more inventory can you create? How many more verticals can you tap into? Existing sponsorships, stepping them up into the broader packages?
Yeah. Well, this is one of our, as we've talked before, one of our key KPIs, right? I mean, ticket sales, global partnerships and sponsorships, site fees, which has been incredible for us, and we're just getting going, and premium experiences. I mean, everyone wants that VIP experience, that make it more memorable, more personalized, more customer customized. So we're benefiting from that. But I would tell you, there is no TAM here. Let's remember, the UFC and WWE are just babies. Think of how long the NFL's gone, right? Back to Lombardi and George Halas. I mean, talking about a 100-year property, right? Major League Baseball, the NBA. The UFC is roughly 30 years old, and the WWE, in its current state, is 20 years old.
I mean, yes, it's gone back to the fifties and different machinations, but that's what it is. So we're just getting going. We have the youngest audience, we have the most diverse audience, and we have one of the best global audiences because these properties travel. And so with that comes huge opportunity. UFC, when we bought the UFC at Endeavor eight years ago, they were doing $30 million-$40 million in global partnerships and sponsorship, and they weren't mainstream. Now they're mainstream, now they're one of the majors, and to your point, they're doing roughly $200 million. Well, WWE is the same way. When we bought the WWE, they were also low, and by the way, they didn't really sell a lot of inventory. If you go to their events, the mat isn't sponsored, the LED boards aren't taken, there's no outside activation.
Like, the arena wasn't turned on in a commercial way, which, by the way, fans are now showing through feedback and the way they're embracing sports content, they have no problem with naming rights, uniforms, kits, sleeves, the field, the twenty-yard line sponsored. I mean, it's getting pretty broad now. They have no issue with that, and when you start talking about that and bringing that kind of strategy, opening up those kinds of categories with that kind of inventory, both digital content, social content, the arena itself, the sky's the limit on these two sports. But I would tell you, I'm pretty pleased that right now we're knocking on the door of $300 million with these two properties, including the social content and including the digital media. That's a good place to be, but we're just getting started. It is very early.
I can't say it enough. The integration, you know, is still going. We're one year in. Talk about being a baby. So, we got a lot of pressure on our teams, and we're creative, and we're going out on these pitches. I mean, Nick Khan's getting on the road and going out to sell WWE with Grant Norris-Jones, and Lawrence Epstein's doing it on the UFC side. Dana White, very, very hands-on involved in the Monster Energy renewal, and also, you have to work with Paul and Dana to determine, hey, what inventory can we create inside the arena that doesn't get in the way of the competition or the storytelling? So they need to be hands-on, and they both also happen to be great salesmen.
On the live event side, nice opportunity as well. Thinking ahead here across both UFC, WWE, what's the opportunity? There's maybe some room on the event mix side, perhaps on capacity, pricing, you've talked about in the past, site fees, of course.
Yeah. These are, you know, it brings us back to our KPIs. Look, let's just talk margin here for a second on a consolidated basis, right? Last year, TKO was at 42%, and this year, if you take the midpoint of our guidance, we'll bump up 300 basis points to 45%. What's driving margin expansion, which I just told you all the way down to the manager level, the troops are very focused on and incentivized, I would tell you, very incentivized. Ticket sales, where we're significantly underpriced on the WWE, and we're selling out right and left for both these events. So, you know, when Ari and I are looking at those results each week, we're yelling at our team in a very positive reinforcement way that they're pricing too low if you're selling out that fast.
There's a lot of room to go in WWE because frankly, there was no dynamic pricing tools for these events. Keep in mind, they had 300 events. What we're also doing is we'll gain on the ticket price, the yield optimization. But what we're also doing is we're cutting events at WWE. So we're taking our low margin, marginally profitable events, untelevised events that Vince had put in place to grow the brand, right? You're taking the show on the road, and we got to go to every city we can get to, to grow the WWE brand. The WWE brand, while we still have to grow it, it's on fire right now, so we don't need to carry these marginally profitable events.
Andrew Schleimer, our CFO, and Nick Khan at the WWE, have been hands-on involved with cutting back those events, trimming those events. What was 300 will be roughly 250 this year, and next year, we'll be close to 200. That alone is gonna give us margin expansion. The global partnerships growth, very high margin, is going to give us expansion. Premium experiences, VIP, we work directly with On Location on every single event. In fact, this week's event at the Sphere will be the highest premium experiences event in the history of WWE, and that includes in the history of UFC, and that includes some of our record events dating all the way back to 2005, which was Conor McGregor at Madison Square Garden.
So we're feeling, you know, really, really strong there, and then, of course, the site fees. We have an entire team. All they do is, "You want us to bring Raw, SmackDown, PLE, a pay-per-view to your city, to your country, Middle East, Canada, Australia, Europe, whatever it might be, you have to pay to have it there." It's no different than the success Liberty's had with F1. And, the, the TAM there is pretty significant, and we're seeing terrific results as, headlined by our move to WrestleMania this year for, or excuse me, next year for Las Vegas and the WWE, and of course, an amazing multi-event deal we did with the city of Minneapolis. So a lot of opportunity. UFC's coming off, a terrific site fee deal they did to go to Saudi Arabia.
They also get paid to go to Abu Dhabi, and from a U.S. standpoint, when you have a fight every week, you would be surprised how many municipalities and local governments and tourism boards can open up the wallet so that you bring the show to town.
Maybe switching to the expense structure and cost synergies have been a big part of the thesis. You opened by mentioning the $100 million in cost synergies; you're guiding to above and beyond that. At this point, maybe looking from here, where in the cost structure do you think there's perhaps the most opportunity to get more efficient? You mentioned just operating leverage in the business naturally, and the WWE side, by becoming more efficient in the events. You know, where could margins get to for this business over the long term?
Yeah, look, I'll punt on that for the time being in terms of long term, but, you know, just keep in mind, generally, UFC is on its own standalone, you know, what? 60%, and WWE is, you know, 40%, and so we have a lot of room to bridge there to get to where we wanna be, which is over 50% for the two combined. How quick we'll get there is another story, but there's a lot of levers to get there. And on the cost side, just think about production, right? Think about how much we have, and, you know, I tend to default here because that's my background at ESPN, but it comes to satellites, and it comes to, you know-...
cloud, and it comes to trucks, and it comes to equipment, and it comes to labor on the road, and it comes to instant replay positions and cameras. I mean, this is, this is what we did every event at ESPN. Do you really need that many cameras for Sunday Night Football? You know, or do you really need that many cameras for Sunday Night Baseball? Does it get in the way of telling your story if you trim by five or six? We're looking at the complement for every single event across the board and determining not just where we can cut, but where we can schedule events in the same city on the same weekend for two different properties, and that's where you really get economies of scale and operating leverage.
I wanna touch on the class action settlement back in July.
Shoot! Three, three minutes and forty-five seconds left. I thought we were gonna escape, Seth.
Back in July, TKO previously reached a settlement with two classes of UFC fighters. It was rejected by a district judge. One of the trials is set for February of 2025 . If you just spend a minute or two addressing the settlement, how you think it plays out from here? And one of the questions we get from investors is, why should we be confident that the economic risk to your business won't exceed the original deal or perhaps even result in some change to the way UFC fighters are compensated?
Look, I try not to get, you know, too high on the highs and too low on the lows and be emotional about the business, but I think anyone that is a student of our business, has closely followed the story, knows that what's going on is just ridiculous. I mean, we ultimately cut a deal to settle these cases, you know, both suits, where the plaintiffs, you know, the fighters, if you will, I mean, near unanimity, that this is good for them. And by the way, we spent a lot more than anybody thought we were going to spend, our board wanted us to spend, or we even thought was frankly appropriate when it came to the two cases before us. But nonetheless, to take it off the table, we reached a deal, and we're on our way.
And then the judge doesn't even grant preliminary approval. Now, keep in mind, Stephen, if you grant preliminary approval, then that gives a window for anybody to come forward, fighters who don't agree, or there isn't unanimity, and wait a second, you know, this isn't fair, to step up and be heard. Well, he shut this down before they even had a chance to be heard. That's somewhat unprecedented, I'd have to say, in the sense that, a hell of a payout. And the Johnson case, which is the second case, just taking the testimony of, you know, in court with the judge, we're very clear to say, "We don't think on our own we have a case. We can't find a lawyer to take our case. It's very difficult here.
This is why we want this deal." So you had both plaintiffs totally aligned with the UFC and our lawyers that this settlement was fair, and we're going to move on, and we're looking for your approval. He saw it another way. He asked us to get back together and talk about another way to skin the cat, and we are having those conversations because that's the direction. But I would tell you, this is a difficult one because we're not going to just be writing a bigger check. This is, you know, frankly, at the top of where we wanted to ever be or ever thought we would be. So we will. We feel very strongly in the merits of both cases.
We are going to pursue this and chase this and defend ourselves, in a, you know, very intense way, let's put it that way. And if there is an adverse outcome, we will go all the way. I wanna make that clear. We will appeal, and we will appeal, and we will appeal, and we will appeal, just like the NFL said they were going to do with their Sunday Ticket DIRECTV situation. And this is kind of absurd what's happened. Nobody is on board with it. The plaintiffs want the money, and the sport and competition will be better for it. All this is doing is lining the pockets of more lawyers.
Very clear. With a few seconds left, I wanna get your take going into this weekend, UFC 306 at the Sphere. What could we expect?
I think, you know, Dana said it's going to transform live sports events. I can tell you the entire thing is predicated around Mexican Independence Day and the history of Mexico and the incredible history they have with fighters and combat and truly stars that have come out of there to participate in combat sports, MMA, boxing, et cetera. So this is an ode to Mexico on their Independence Day. It's gonna be... Look, if you're there, as Dana says, "It'll be like nothing you've ever seen before or could have imagined." Not sure yet how that's gonna play on TV, and that's one of our challenges, but we're really thrilled about where we are. Our ticket sales are in line with our plans.
This will be the highest grossing event in the history, I'm talking, the highest grossing gate in the history of the UFC. And it'll also be the highest grossing global partnerships or sponsorship single event that we've ever had. And we have a title sponsor for the first time, and, you know, Riyadh Season, they'll be the sponsor of Noche, as we're calling it, 306. So, you know, great competition. We've got O'Malley as the headline fight, and it should be breathtaking.
Great. Mark, thank you so much. Always great having you.
Thanks for the time.