@ITO
Business question.
Lance Storm brought up a point on his show last week.
He said something that annoyed him about traveling was having to pay full price for Hotel/Rental Cars. He said there was no reason WWE shouldn't have struck a deal with a chain of hotels/rental companies to become the "Official Hotel/Car Rental Company" of the WWE so that the talent could get some sort of corporate discount.
1. Why do you think they haven't? (Assuming they haven't)
2. Is this a realistic request from Lance Storm?
There’s going to be pros and cons to this, as an independent contractor you
SHOULD be able to write off most all hotels and rental cars as a means of the business, you’d get that back on your taxes. However the irritation would come from that fact alone, and I understand that. You’d also figure, being an independent contractor these guys lose freedom on rooms and cars of their choice due to WWE guidelines now being put in place, turning them into a regular FTE. Which is another path that doesn’t seem WWE is interested in.
I believe they haven’t because it’s not in their business model. As you look at it, who’s to say WWE shouldn't have their own plane like a football team does? I’m sure it would have paid for itself a few times by now. But that means WWE is responsible for it, pilots, maintenance, gas etc. Makes sense to do on paper, but financially maybe not.
Their business model has never shown them to front any bill really. Going into a national car rental or hotel chain association would require WWE to front the bill and become the middle man financially. In order to get the X% off WWE has to do funding on their end first, so in turn it pays for pricing early to the car/hotel companies on then they get paid their premium on the back end. Now you have to figure out what’s acceptable for all of the talent. Same cars, same rooms? Do I have free reign to pick whatever I want or as I would need to pick and choose from champion status to jobber the lump some changes (increases) with it? (I wouldn’t want my Champion driving in a Ford Taurus) WWE would in turn be the advertiser for those two contracts, but because they aren’t the supplier I’d imagine they don’t have a lot of leverage to say we are in control of negotiations. The upside solely lies with the car rental and hotel companies... free advertising, money up front, wrestler money, damages money, etc. That would all come from WWE first, then they would turn around and do whatever with the wrestler.
Seems they have been avoiding all the headaches that go along with it.
I’ve talked about these scenarios a long time ago. The request itself is realistic but it is a huge change to how WWE has and currently does business. Unless their business model changes or they get some crazy billion dollar deal again (not likely) where the hotel chain is paying into them, then I don’t see it happening.
@ a free throw being the only thing Shaq does here
in
