31 replies to this topic

[Wild]

Hulk Hogan says TNA is "still trying" to upgrade their TV setting or move Impact out of the Impact Zone in Orlando because of the perception that it looks minor-league. Hogan had the following conversation on Twitter Sunday...

Twitter follower to Hogan: "You guys have really stepped up your game. Great job. Only problem is the small 'arena' comes off as minor league. Major turnoff."

Hogan replied: "Yo brother you hit the nail on the head ,that is always the main topic when we talk to Dixie or Spike TV,still trying. HH"

Source

Edited by WILDMVS, 01 July 2012 - 09:32 PM.

[EnigmaMinded]

Interesting. There's hope of moving to more places besides the Impact Zone.

[CrimsonCross!]

It's been a real slow process with this company, but moving out of the Studio is a move that needs to happen and I'd love to see different crowds each week...

[Incognito]

At least they should set up the Impact Zone to hold more people, unless they have problems filling it.

[Jackanape]

I'd rather them just stick with 2,000 seaters and fill them rather than them going to 20,000 seaters with 75% of it taped off. Looks much more bush league in my opinion.

[TNAmarkFromIndia]

It costs half a million dollars to run a show from an arena. That's a huge financial risk considering their attendances have always been underwhelming and eventually have to comp the place.

[hitman007]

In my opinion hogan needs to shut it, tna is putting on really good shows right know but their ratings are not reflecting this moving back by an hour has not worked in my opinion so thats the first thing switch it back and try to capture that audience back,

[BillyJack]

Hogan I right. When he first joined TNA, he made an interesting observation. When he joined WCW and turned it into a national power house. It was being filmed on a soundstage at an Orlando theme park. TNA - same thing.

[markbyrn]

Typical of Hogan to deflect the blame for TNA's production to it's location. They are minor league because of low ratings, low PPV buys, poor creative, poor marketing, poor use of highly paid/overpaid talent, and acquisition/mis-use of low paid inexperienced talent (Silva, Hendrix, G. Bischoff, Crimson, etc.). Solve those real problems and the ratings will improve, and they'll be assured of having sufficient audience when they spend the extra money to go on the
road. WCW was doing it's shows on the road and it didn't save them from tanking, and getting bought out by WWE.

[Zeppelin4]

Right now I think the best route TNA should go is try to take all of their PPVs out on the road. This way they only do it 12 times a year instead of 52 and they can mark which markets they're are the strongest in so if they do go on the road for IW eventually they know exactly where to stop off.

 Jackanape, on 02 July 2012 - 01:18 AM, said:

I'd rather them just stick with 2,000 seaters and fill them rather than them going to 20,000 seaters with 75% of it taped off.

That would most likely be the second best option if they do want to go on the road for IW, however they should be prepared not to rely on gate sales.

[Derrville]

Just redesign it. I dont think the impact zone always looked minor league. Go back to the look a few years ago.

[Dizzy]

Re-design it and take the PPVs on the road first.

[Zeppelin4]

 Derrville, on 02 July 2012 - 05:19 AM, said:

Go back to the look a few years ago.

What? The Tunnels? That look always made the Impact Zone look even more minor league.

[iMPACTalk]

 Incognito, on 01 July 2012 - 10:49 PM, said:

At least they should set up the Impact Zone to hold more people, unless they have problems filling it.

They can't fit anymore people in the iMPACT Zone. Building can only hold "xx" amount of people due to the safety.

[EnigmaMinded]

Live PPV's is a great idea! The crowd is definitely into it seems.

[iMPACTalk]

 markbyrn, on 02 July 2012 - 04:18 AM, said:

Typical of Hogan to deflect the blame for TNA's production to it's location. They are minor league because of low ratings, low PPV buys, poor creative, poor marketing, poor use of highly paid/overpaid talent, and acquisition/mis-use of low paid inexperienced talent (Silva, Hendrix, G. Bischoff, Crimson, etc.). Solve those real problems and the ratings will improve, and they'll be assured of having sufficient audience when they spend the extra money to go on the
road. WCW was doing it's shows on the road and it didn't save them from tanking, and getting bought out by WWE.

EVERYTHING costs money, TNA doesn't have that money and because of this are having to take small babysteps forward/sideways just to survive and put on a product now.

Everybody would love to see iMPACT taped live in front of 5,000 different fans every week but they just don't have the budget so have to look at alternative ways in order to improve the product they are putting out now.

WCW was a totally different company in a totally different time, and even then they had to give tickets away to fans in order to fill venues.

[iMPACTalk]

 EnigmaMinded, on 02 July 2012 - 09:04 AM, said:

Live PPV's is a great idea! The crowd is definitely into it seems.

First of all they need to reduce the number of shows, until then they will continue to tape the "Big 3" on the road, and iMPACT in Orlando.

[Stung]

The only thing that pisses me off in the IZ's layout is the fact that they have 3-4 rows at ringside (with half of the first row being female plants), a 10 foot gap, an 8 foot wall and then the rest and then the rest of the audience. No matter what they do with it, the arena will look empty as fuck because of that.

Other than that, I think the set looks fine. Just get rid of the pyrotechnics and replace them with lasers and smoke machines (there, some more money saved).

---
And regarding ratings: TNA is fishing for viewers in a pond (WWE is fishing for fans in a lake) and are failing to expand the pond or connecting it to the Lake McMahon. One day they may catch 90 fish, the other day they may catch 100 , but the main problem is that both fishermen are catching the same fish over and over again (with the only thing changing is the amount of fish they're catching).

The bad news is that the fish population is slowly declining in both bodies of water.

What I'm trying to say is that professional wrestling is slowly dying out and isn't receiving an influx of new fans other than the children of older fans (and even then it's not a given fact that they'll turn into proper fans). There's no magical formula that will suddenly teleport some new fans to the pond (or better yet, teleport them over from the lake). There's no formula that will make the ratings rise through the roof.

TNA could come up with the best, most intriguing storyline with the most stellar wrestling the business has ever seen. They could market the storyline in such a way that every living soul on the planet knows about and ratings would barely move in either direction.


Also, TNA's marketing blows WWE's marketing out of the water. The E -still- cruises on its legacy. TNA is doing a ton more to gain publicity (and it does help, just not in the US) and people never speak bad about a TNA house show (which also counts as valuable marketing).

[CrimsonCross!]

I've got to agree with Stung on that the Wrestling fanbase is not gaining any true new fans and right now Pro Wrestling is going into a down time. Anyway, I do like the pay-per-views being on the road concept and maybe a few IMPΛCT's on the road will be a decent concept...

[Frieza]

 Jackanape, on 02 July 2012 - 01:18 AM, said:

I'd rather them just stick with 2,000 seaters and fill them rather than them going to 20,000 seaters with 75% of it taped off. Looks much more bush league in my opinion.

Does your sig have to be so big?