Good morning. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. Fiscal 2025 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call over to Ari Danes, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to MSG Entertainment's fiscal 2025 third quarter earnings conference call. On today's call, Lee Weinberg, our SVP, Business and Financial Operations, will provide an update on the company's operations. David Collins, our EVP and Chief Financial Officer, will then review the company's financial results for the period. After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions. If you do not have a copy of today's earnings release, it is available in the Investor section of our corporate website. Please take note of the following. Today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Please refer to the company's filings with the SEC for a discussion of risks and uncertainties. The company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be discussed during this call. On pages 5 and 6 of today's earnings release, we provide consolidated statements of operations and a reconciliation of operating income to adjusted operating income, or AOI, a non-GAAP financial measure. And with that, I'll now turn the call over to Lee.

Thank you, Ari. And good morning, everyone. As we near the end of our fiscal year, I'm pleased to say that we continue to see strong consumer and corporate demand for our live entertainment offerings, which is reflected in today's results. For the company's fiscal third quarter, we reported revenues of $242 million and adjusted operating income of $58 million, both representing solid growth on a year-over-year basis. This reflected our success in attracting a wide variety of special events, family shows and marquee sports to our venues, robust ongoing demand for our premium hospitality offerings, and the conclusion of this year's record-setting Christmas Spectacular run in January. And while our businesses experience the year-over-year decline in the number of concerts at our venues this quarter, we remain on track to grow the overall number of bookings events this fiscal year. So, putting it all together, I'm pleased to say that we continue to pace toward mid-to-high single-digit AOI growth this year. In addition, we continue to deliver on one of our core capital allocation priorities, opportunistically returning capital to shareholders. We have repurchased approximately $40 million of our Class A common stock to date this fiscal year, including $15 million during the fiscal third quarter. David will share more details on our buyback activity shortly. Let's now take a look at operational highlights from the quarter. Across our portfolio of venues, we hosted more than 1.5 million guests across 195 events held during the quarter. As I mentioned earlier, these results reflect our success in attracting a wide variety of live entertainment and sporting events to our venues. On the special events front, in February, we hosted Saturday Night Live's 50th anniversary special at Radio City Music Hall, which is also set to host the Tony Awards next month.…

Thanks, Lee. And good morning to everyone. I'd like to start by saying how pleased I am to be here today. MSG Entertainment is a world-class organization with an incredible portfolio of assets, and I really look forward to working with the team to achieve our long-term goals. Now let's review our fiscal third quarter financial results. For the fiscal 2025 third quarter, we reported revenues of $242.5 million, an increase of $14.2 million, or 6% as compared to the prior year quarter. The majority of this growth came from a $14 million, or 10% increase in revenues from entertainment offerings. This primarily reflected growth in event-related revenues from other live entertainment and sporting events due to higher per-event revenues and an increase in the number of events year-over-year. We also saw strong growth in suite license fee revenue, including amounts that are subject to the sharing of economics with MSG Sports. In addition, revenues from our Christmas Spectacular production increased year-over-year primarily due to higher per ticket revenue and, to a lesser extent, five additional performances in the quarter, both as compared to the prior year period. Per-show revenues for the Christmas Spectacular were up by a double-digit percentage year-over-year, mainly reflecting the increases in average attendance and ticket prices that Lee had mentioned earlier. The overall increase in revenues from entertainment offerings was partially offset by a decrease in event-related revenues from concerts. This mainly reflected lower per-concert revenues primarily due to a mixed shift at the Garden from promoted events to rentals and a decrease in the number of concerts at our venues. Aside from revenues from entertainment offerings, we also saw a modest increase in food, beverage, and merchandise revenues for the quarter, which primarily reflected higher food and beverage sales at other live entertainment and…

Thank you, David. Operator, can we open up the call for questions, please?

[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from David Karnovsky with J.P. Morgan.

So you reported AOI growth through the first nine months of the year at 13%. Just with the guide maintaining that mid to high range, that does imply, I think, a decline in AOI in the fourth quarter. So I wanted to see if you could walk through the puts and takes and the revenue and cost side for the fiscal fourth.

There are definitely several factors impacting our fourth quarter. First of all, the overall New York Arena concert market is down this quarter compared to last year. And at the Garden, we do have a tough comparison, as last year included three Billy Joel shows, a number of first-time headliners, and some late adds to the calendar. In addition, the Garden hosted 15 playoff games last year. This year, the Rangers did not qualify for the playoffs, while the Knicks have played three home playoff games so far. In terms of our theaters, we continue to pace ahead in concerts for the June quarter and expect a strong fourth quarter in special events with the Tony Awards at Radio City. We also continue to monitor how each individual event plays off as we've seen improving per event trend this year, and that could be another area of upside for us. So while there are a number of puts and takes as we close out the year, we remain on track for solid AOI growth for fiscal 2025.

The next question comes from Cameron Mansson-Perrone with Morgan Stanley.

I just wanted to follow up on those concert bookings comments, particularly looking kind of beyond this year. As we look ahead to 2026, how is that -- and I know it's early and we're still a bit ways from there, but how is the early booking activity shaping up looking ahead to next year?

For bookings pacing, we continue to see a number of positive signs for fiscal 2026. At this stage, we have substantial visibility into the September quarter, and we're pacing ahead at both the Garden and our theaters. In fact, we're likely to set a new record for concerts in a single quarter at the Garden. Looking ahead to the December quarter, we're again pacing ahead at our theaters, but we're behind at the Garden. However, we are encouraged by the conversations we're having at the arena, and we're actively narrowing that gap. [indiscernible] we're pleased with how concert bookings are pacing so far for fiscal 2026.

The next question comes from Peter Supino with Wolfe Research.

This is Jack Speed [ph] on for Peter with two questions. First, with the Penn Station project now in federal hands, have your conversations with public officials or private developers shifted? And do you believe the odds of selling the theater at MSG have increased as a result? And then secondly, is there anything you can share on Christmas Spectacular's exposure to domestic or international tourism?

I'll take the Penn Station question first. So as invested members of our community, we remain committed to improving Penn Station and the surrounding area. And as we've said before, we and our guests are already seeing the benefits of some of the recent improvements that have taken place in the surrounding area of the garden. As redevelopment of the area continues, we're committed to collaborating closely with all stakeholders. In terms of the theater specifically, we'd always consider options that make strategic and financial sense, but we have nothing further to report at this time.

I'll take your question on the international tourism across the company. So, let's start with Christmas. We sold approximately 1.1 million tickets this past holiday season and we estimate that international tourists accounted for approximately 10% of those tickets sold. In terms of concerts, let's look at the Garden, which is our most economically significant venue. We believe international tourists accounted for a low to mid-single-digit percentage of concert ticket sales last year. So for both Christmas and concerts, we estimate that international ticket sales are the smallest geographic segment by far, with Canada and the UK being the main international feeder markets for both. So a vast majority of ticket sales for both businesses come from the US, both local residents and domestic tourists.

The next question comes from Stephen Laszczyk with Goldman Sachs.

Just a follow-up on Christmas Spectacular. I'd be curious if you could talk perhaps a little bit more about how you're thinking about the upcoming season for Christmas and what you see as the main drivers of that continued growth that you called out in your prepared remarks. And then perhaps related to that, is there anything you can say around event ticket sales for Christmas this year or any maybe high-level comments you could give on demand just given the macro backdrop.

We see growth potential for next year's Christmas Spectacular through both more shows and higher average ticket yields. We're currently on sale with 211 shows for the 2025 season, which is up from 200 shows last year. And depending upon demand, we have the ability to further increase this year's show count beyond the current 211. We're also focused on improving our average ticket yield. We're still priced below comparable live entertainment options on Broadway, and we'll continue to manage our ticket inventory to maximize revenue. In terms of event ticket sales, we went on sale about a month earlier this year, which allows us to capture some incremental business for people that are already making Christmas plans. So while the earlier on sale impacts the year comparison, event ticket sales are currently pacing up, over 60% in terms of gross ticket revenue. That reflects improvements across both volume and ticket yield and it also reflects growth in both group sales and individual ticket sales. So while it's still early, we're confident in the growth opportunity for the '25 holiday season.

Your last question comes from Peter Henderson with Bank of America.

I don't believe there are any material capital projects on the horizon. Net leverage is now at 2.5 times, and that should continue to naturally delever over time due to organic growth. So, I'm just wondering how we should think about capital returns moving forward, and if you can provide any specificity sort of around how you think about opportunistically.

As you've heard the company discuss before, we have three main priorities in terms of capital allocation. The first is ensuring that we continue to have a strong balance sheet. And as you mentioned, our net debt leverage was approximately 2.5 times at quarter end, and we should continue to de-lever as the business grows. The second part of our policy is to ensure that we have flexibility to invest in our core business when we see compelling opportunities arise. And while we're still early stage in our budgeting process for fiscal 2026, looking over the near-term horizon, there aren't any material capital projects the flag. Our third priority is to opportunistically return capital to our shareholders. We've now repurchased $40 million of stock this fiscal year, including $15 million this past quarter, and we have $70 million remaining under our current buyback authorization. So, going forward, we will continue to explore ways to opportunistically return capital to our shareholders.

This concludes the question-and-answer session. I'll turn the call to Ari Danes for closing remarks.

Thank you all for joining us. We look forward to speaking with you on our next earnings call. Have a good day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.