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| So it helps the artists and it helps us drive incremental growth |
| But that said, we continue to work with our artists where we have good relationships, strong relationships |
| We continued to benefit from strong demand for shared in-person experiences, most notably across our bookings business and the Christmas Spectacular Production |
| On the bookings front, we believe we're well positioned to achieve a low-double-digit percentage increase in events for fiscal '24 |
| But if you factor in these two items, we're actually expanding our margins |
| So with The Garden being our largest venue, we really believe that utilization increases are important and we're confident in our ability to continue to grow this utilization |
| We see the ability to drive higher ticket yield at the Christmas Spectacular |
| And as you saw this morning, we've raised our financial targets for the year that includes our expectation for pretty strong top line growth in the second half of the year |
| In addition, the strength of our business has also enabled us to make progress on our capital allocation priorities of opportunistically returning capital to shareholders and debt paydown |
| Our bookings business generated robust growth on a year-over-year basis, led by increases in the number of concerts and family shows held at our venues |
| Finally, in the summer, we're continuing to have success by increasing the number of concerts |
| These shows, along with numerous other multi-night performances, helped drive a double-digit percentage increase in total concerts versus the prior year's quarter |
| Furthermore, this robust supply of concerts across our venues was once again met by strong consumer demand, with the majority of concerts selling out during the quarter |
| But on top of that, ticket sales for Cirque du Soleil's holiday show came in well above our expectations, both here at The Theater at MSG and in Chicago -- at The Chicago Theatre |
| While family shows have lagged other categories such as concerts, coming out of the pandemic we were pleased to see strong demand for Cirque's holiday run, which led to results that meaningfully exceeded our expectations in both markets |
| So I guess just to start and just step back, I'd say we're really pleased with how this year is unfolding |
| So while it's still early with Oak View Group, we're excited about the opportunity of partnering together to drive additional sponsorship growth |
| We saw healthy demand across group and individual ticket sales, both of which benefited in part from the continued improvement in tourism to New York City |
| Groups were particularly strong with an over 40% increase in sales as compared to last year as this category bounced back post-pandemic |
| But that said, we've recently entered into a new relationship with Oak View Group who is handling our sponsorship sales efforts, and we think having them rep our sales is a good way to take our sponsorship level -- our sponsorship business to a new level and to grow the business in the future years |
| As you know, we have a long track record of success with wonderful results over the past several years and now we're exceeding pre-pandemic levels |
| All of these factors, the increase in shows, higher average ticket revenue, and higher ancillary spending led to the Christmas Spectacular generating nearly $150 million in revenues this year |
| A new record for the production and a testament to the show's enduring popularity |
| We're benefiting from strong suite renewals and even new sales, including our two new event-level suites that I mentioned we introduced in October |
| We also continue to make progress in transitioning our sponsorship sales efforts to Oak View Group's Crown Properties Collection and remain confident about the longer-term growth opportunity for this business |
| And we were very happy to see group sales return |
| In summary, our fiscal second quarter was a reflection of the strong demand we continue to see in our business, leaving us increasingly confident in our ability to deliver robust growth this fiscal year and to generate long-term value for our shareholders |
| And if we begin with suites and premium hospitality, we're seeing strong demand from corporate partners and this has poised us for growth in this area of our business |
| So in summary, we think we're very well-positioned to execute on these two priorities for capital allocation |
| So we're happy that we were able to deliver on that intention and pay down the revolver |
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| And I would add that this area of our business is coming on softer than originally expected |
| Phil D'Ambrosio So if you recall, Ben, on our earnings call last August, we noted that for fiscal '24 we faced some substantial headwinds with regard to AOI, and it was due to a number of factors |
| Stock was significantly lower than it is at this time |
| That said, I would say the more challenging periods during the year that we see as opportunities, are primarily addressing the NBA and the NHL playoff windows for the Knicks and the Rangers |
| A factor is that this category has been slower to recover coming out of the pandemic, but part of the reason is that we've prioritized booking concerts, which are generally more profitable |
| And that's notwithstanding the fact that our cash rent will not go up substantially for quite some time |
| Please refer to the company's filings with the SEC for a discussion of risks and uncertainties |
| I would note that as a result of this year's schedules, the Knicks and the Rangers played a combined nine fewer home games this past quarter as compared to the prior year's second quarter |
| So notwithstanding those headwinds, when you look at our margins, as Ari mentioned, given our new guidance, they seem like they're relatively flat, small growth |
| That said, there are a couple of items which we previously flagged to you all that will impact AOI and margins in the second half |
| Finally, with regard to leverage, we also want to point out that while we're not providing a specific leverage target, as our business grows and we're certainly anticipating growth and AOI improvement in the future, our leverage will come down |
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