Barnestormer's Cotg/Low Business Model System for Independent Promotions, Version 2.0

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BARNESTORMER'S COTG/LOW BUSINESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR INDEPENDENT PROMOTIONS, VERSION 2.0

Taking bits and pieces from Graymar and Brian Cahill's version of Graymar's CotG Business Model, I've developed my own business model system for use with independent promotions. (Graymar's COTG Business Model system is good for GWF cards because the GWF is comparable to the WWE in terms of fan base, but when you're running small indy promotions, the fan base is considerably less, and the subsequent talent pay got into ridiculous numbers to accurately represent the indy promotion. (No offense, Graymar.) Let's be brutally honest, wrestlers in indy promotions barely make enough money per show to put gas in the car they drove to get them to the show. Indy shows almost never sell out, no matter how many fans attend your show. So how does my system work? Simple

First, determine the seating capacity of the venue your show is scheduled to appear in. For this example, Let's say that Ring of Honor holds a show at “X” Arena, a small building that normally hosts bingo games once a week. The arena seats a maximum of 100 wrestling fans. Now that we have an arena, we need to know what the admission fee will be (In my COTG feds, I use units known as Federates. For simplicity's sake, let's just say that one Federate is equal to one US Dollar.) Look on the chart below to determine the Arena Rental Price and Admission Fee:

ARENA RENTAL CHART

SEATING ARENA ADMISSION CAPACITY RENTAL FEE FEE

0-100 $100 $10 101-200 $400 $10 201-300 $900 $15 301-400 $1,600 $15 401-500 $2,500 $20 501-1000 $10,000 $25

In the example above, “X” Arena would charge $10.00 per fan for admission, and would have to sell at least 10 seats just to pay the rental fee to the owners of the venue. So therefore, to determine the number of fans attending, roll on the base percentage chart below:

This financial model system was inspired by and created with the permission of Filsinger Games (www.filsingergames.com) for use with the Champions of the Galaxy and Legends of Wrestling card games by David Barnes. BARNESTORMER'S COTG/LOW BUSINESS MODEL SYSTEM FOR INDEPENDENT PROMOTIONS, VERSION 2.0

BASE PERCENTAGE DIE 1 DIE 2 OF SALES

1 1 0 1 2 5 1 3 10 1 4 15 1 5 20 1 6 25 2 2 30 2 3 35 2 4 40 2 5 45 2 6 50 3 3 55 3 4 60 3 5 65 3 6 70 4 4 75 4 5 80 4 6 85 5 5 90 5 6 95

6 6 100% – SOLD OUT!!

Now that the base percentage has been determined, roll both dice again and refer to the chart below to determine how many more percentage points, if any, will be added to the base percentage. (NOTE: If you rolled double 6's on the base percentage chart, do NOT roll on this chart, since the venue's been sold out.)

AMOUNT TO SECOND ADD TO BASE ROLL PERCENTAGE

2-4 0 5-6 1 7 2 8-9 3 10-12 4

So now, let's see in our example how many fans will be attending the show at the “X” Arena. When I rolled the dice to determine the base percentage, I rolled a 3 and a 5, which gives me a base percentage of 65. When I rolled the dice again on the second chart, I rolled an 8, which added another 3 percentage points, bringing my percent of seats filled to 68%, or 68 fans attending.

68 Fans x $10.00 = $650.00 Arena Rental Fee = -$100.00 Adjusted Gate Sales = $550.00

In the state of Ohio, the Ohio Athletic Commission charges all of the wrestling, boxing, and mixed martial arts promotions $100 every time they put on a show for a permit to hold the show. I've incorporated this into my financial model system. So therefore, before the wrestlers even get paid at the end of the night, $100 comes out of the Adjusted Gate Sales to pay for the permit. Therefore in the example above, we're now down to $450 Adjusted Gate Sales after paying for the permit. 1/16 of the Gate Sales is divided among all of the wrestlers and teams participating on the card as part of their “Community Pay” (in this case, $34.00), which leaves us $516.00 to put towards the next show.

If your promotion puts on a televised show for a local station, you may receive money from advertisers for promotional consideration. For this purpose, I'm using the recently created Neilson Ratings system developed by “Cernunnos”. (http://filsingergames.proboards.com/thread/13981/neilson-ratings-chart?page=1#scrollTo=172069) Let's apply this to our example above:

Our example ROH promotion holds a one hour show at the “X” Arena, which has four matches plus an interview segment (fulfilling Cernunnos' requirement that a one hour show customarily has 3-5 “slots”, consisting of either a match or a segment). I'm going to roll after each slot to determine the Neilson Rating for that slot. Five local business have agreed to sponsor the ROH wrestling show on the station, which will air every Sunday at noon. Those sponsors are:

1. A local pre-owned car dealership (average sales of $5,000) 2. A local restaurant (average sales of $2,000) 3. A local amusement park (average admissions sales of $300) 4. A local heating, venting and air conditioning repair service (average sales of $4,500) 5. And finally, a local brewery (average sales of $100)

(I'll leave it up to you to determine what sponsors you want to have for your show and what the average sales for each sponsor will be.)

The opening match pits ACH taking on Tadarius Thomas in a grudge match following Tadarius turning his back on ACH to join the Decade. Adam Page and Jimmy Jacobs accompany Thomas at ringside. This is a hot feud, and the match is considered exciting in the eyes of the fans, with several pin attempts by both ACH and Thomas, adding 2 to the charts. I rolled a 7 and added 2 to the roll. According to the Reception chart, the crowd was indifferent to the match overall, despite it being an exciting match. I rolled on Rating Chart 2, rolling a 3 and adding 2, resulting in the Neilson Rating for that segment to be a 2.0, or 200 viewers tuning in to see the match. An advertisement for the local amusement park appears during the commercial break, which those 200 viewers see. Rolling on the percentage charts above, I determined that 8% of those viewers (I rolled a 1 and a 3 on the base chart, giving me a base percentage of 5, and a 9 on the second chart, adding 3 to the base percentage), or 16 viewers, decided that after the show ended that they were going to visit the amusement park.

16 x $300 = $4,800. The television station receives 93.75% of that amount, or $4,500, as their fee for airing the commercial, and the remainder is paid to ROH, with $19 being paid to the talent.

In the next segment, the ROH Television champion Jay Lethal and his manager, Truth Martini, are interviewed in the ring by play-by-play announcer Kevin Kelly concerning the Romantic Touch's upcoming Proving Ground Match against Lethal. As Lethal puts himself over, the Romantic Touch comes down to the ring with former Television champion Matt Taven, who announces that ROH matchmaker Nigel McGuinness has declared that during the Romantic Touch's Proving Ground Match that Martini will be handcuffed to Taven in order to prevent him from interfering in the match. This announcement incenses both Martini and the Television champion. For this segment, I rolled a 2 and added 2 (Champion Appearance and a “Pushed Wrestler”, as Taven receives a push for his ongoing feud with both Lethal and Martini.) for a total of 4. Crowd reception for this segment was Unfavorable. Rolling on Rating Chart 1, I rolled another 2 and added 2 for a total of 4, meaning that 0.2 points would be subtracted from the rating rolled on Chart 2. On Chart 2, I rolled a 9 and added 2 for a total of 11 for a Neilson Rating of 4.0. I subtract the 0.2 points, giving me a Neilson Rating of 3.8 for the interview segment. A commercial for the local car dealership appears during the commercial break. Here are my rolls:

3.8= 380 viewers for this segment

1, 3 = 10% 7 = + 2%

380 x 12% = 45.6, rounded to 47 x $5,000 = $235,000. $220,312 paid to the TV station, and the $13,688 is paid to ROH, with $918 being paid to the talent.

Here are the rolls for slot #3, a tag match pitting ROH Tag Team champions reDRagon in a non-title match with the Forever Hooligans. (Champion Appearance and Pushed Wrestler, in this case, reDRagon. +2 to all rolls)

CROWD RECEPTION (4+2 = 6): Indifferent Neilson Rating (2+2 = 4): 1.0

Commercial Sponsor: Local Brewery ($100 Sales)

1.0= 100 viewers Percentage Chart 1 (1, 3): 10 Percentage Chart 2 (4): 0

10 viewers bought libations brewed by the local brewery

10 X $100 = $1,000. $437 is paid to the TV station, $63 is paid to ROH, and $4 being paid to the talent.

These are the rolls for slot #4, a match between the “Sicilian Psychopath” Tomasso Ciampa and “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin for the #1 contender's spot for the ROH Heavyweight title, currently held by Adam Cole.

CROWD RECEPTION (9): Indifferent Neilson Rating (4): 1.0

Commercial Sponsor: Local HVAC repair service ($4000 Sales)

100 viewers of commercial

Percentage Chart 1 (1, 2): 5 Percentage Chart 2 (6): 1

6% of 100 viewers purchased repair service, or 6 viewers

6 x $4000 = $24,000. $11,250 paid to the TV station, $750 paid to ROH, with $47 being paid to the talent.

These are the rolls for the final slot, a non-title match between the “Phenomenal” AJ Styles and the ROH Heavyweight Champion Adam Cole. “Iconic Champion” Matt Hardy interferes in the match on Adam's behalf, but Jay Briscoe comes down to the ring to even the odds by going after Hardy. (Champion Appearance – Adam Cole, +1; “Champion” Appearance – Matt Hardy, +1 [and that's being nice]; Pushed Wrestler – AJ Styles; Total to add to rolls: +3)

Commercial Sponsor: Local restaurant ($2000 Sales)

CROWD RECEPTION (7 + 3 = 10): Favorable Neilson Rating ([7 + 3 = 10 (0.8)] + [3 + 3 = 6 (2.0)]: 2.8

2.8= 280 viewers

Percentage Chart 1 (3, 4): 60% Percentage Chart 2 (8): 3%

280 x 63% = 176,4, rounded down to 176 viewers patronized the local restaurant

176 x 2000 = $352,000. $176,000 is paid to the TV station, $11,000 is paid to ROH, and $688 being paid to the talent.

Total promotional considerations: $425,900 / 2 = $212,950 is paid to the show's participants (regardless of whether or not they wrestled a match), the remainder is put toward the next show.

Next, determine what concession items will be sold. For out example, we'll sell boxes of popcorn for $1.50, hot dogs for $1.00 per frankfurter, and soda pop for $1.00 per cup. Calculate the percentage of units sold and then multiply that percentage times the number of fans attending the show, rounding to the nearest whole number. (See the example below, based on the 68 fans attending our example ROH show)

COST PERCENTAGE TALENT PAY PER SELLING BASE SECOND ADDED TO TOTAL TOTAL UNITS TOTAL UNIT FROM CONCESSION UNIT PRICE DIE 1 DIE 2 PERCENTAGE ROLL BASE PERCENTAGE SOLD SALES PROFIT/LOSS CONCESSIONS

Popcorn $0.75 $1.50 2 5 45 9 3 48 33 $49.50 $23.25 $1.50 Hot Dogs $0.50 $1.00 2 4 40 7 2 42 29 $29.00 $13.50 $1.00 Soda Pop $0.50 $1.00 1 5 20 10 4 24 16 $16.00 $7.50 $0.50

TOTAL CONSESSIONS $94.50 $44.25 $3.00

Just like Graymar's COTG Business Model System, every merchandise item must have a theme (Toys sold at the concession stand are the only exception). You cannot say that you're just going to sell Michael Elgin T-shirts. For this example, let's sell “Michael Elgin – Uncrowned ROH champion” T-shirts, reDRagon action figures, and Adam Cole - “Best In The World” DVDs. The profits from sales of these items are divided in two, with half going to ROH and the other half going to the individual or team whose merchandise is being sold. (See the example below:)

COST PERCENTAGE MERCHANDISE PER SELLING BASE SECOND ADDED TO TOTAL TOTAL UNITS TOTAL UNIT MERCHANDISE ITEM UNIT PRICE DIE 1 DIE 2 PERCENTAGE ROLL BASE PERCENTAGE SOLD SALES PROFIT/LOSS PAY

Michael Elgin T- Shirt $7.50 $15.00 5 6 95 9 3 98 67 $1,005.00 $502.50 $251.25 reDRagon Action Figures $5.00 $10.00 1 6 25 9 3 28 19 $190.00 $95.00 $47.50 Adam Cole DVD $7.50 $15.00 4 5 80 5 1 81 55 $825.00 $412.50 $206.25

TOTAL CONSESSIONS $2,020.00 $1,010.00 $505.00

Indy promotions also sell shirts with their logo (and sometimes their slogan) on them for $10, so let's add that to our merchandise calculations:

COST PERCENTAGE MERCHANDISE PER SELLING BASE SECOND ADDED TO TOTAL TOTAL UNITS TOTAL UNIT MERCHANDISE ITEM UNIT PRICE DIE 1 DIE 2 PERCENTAGE ROLL BASE PERCENTAGE SOLD SALES PROFIT/LOSS PAY

ROH Logo T- Shirts $5.00 $10.00 2 3 35 8 3 38 26 $260.00 $130.00 $8.13

In this case, the participants on the card divide up $130, while the other $130 is our profit, bringing out total profit for the night to $214,362 to go towards the next show.

If, after calculations, the number of items sold for any concession or merchandise is 0, that item is discontinued.

And unlike Graymar's Business Model System – Pay Per Appearance Version, in which the modifier of an item placed on or off the market only takes place at the beginning of the month and added after every show during the month, the sales percentages are re-rolled before every show. (This factors in “market fluctuations” during any given month. On some shows, you may sell more of one talent's T-shirts than another talent's DVDs, or you may sell more soda than hot dogs or boxes of popcorn. Maybe the fans won't buy as many logo T-shirts as they did at the last show. Re-calculating the sales percentages on every show reflects that.

So let's put all of the “community talent pay” together and see how much the participating talents on our example ROH show will be taking home:

TALENT GATE PAY $34.00

TALENT ADVERTISEMENT PAY $1,676.00

TALENT MERCHANDISE AND CONCESSION PAY $11.00

TOTAL TALENT PAY $1,721.00

NUMBER OF PARTICIPATING TALENT 17

AMOUNT PAID PER TALENT $101.24