Instead Of Taking TNA On The Road...

[VencomHardcore]

TNA is killing its own growth. They do need at least two venues if they are not going to travel. And if Orlando is going to be where the tv tapings are then Nashville and Fayetteville, NC should host ppvs since both arenas are very cheap and TNA draws large crowds in both places.

If TNA cut all of the WWE stars except for two. Then they have more money, can hire younger stars that cost less and put money into promotion.

For those that complain about the young stars not affording the travel. With the extra cash from paying the WWE stars, they can purchase a coach bus and just have the stars travel together.

But TNA isn't going to bring in more money from Orlando with people getting free tv tapings and ppvs.

[Maikeru_1979]

what they need to do is just travel the state first. going to miami, orlando, daytona beach, tallahasse, panama city beach. get different WRESTLING crowds, not tourists at all the shows yet keep it close enough that wrestlers can travel cheaply.

[Defekt]

I think there was a recent report on this basically saying it wasn't worth it to TNA to take Impact on the road often.

Shows outside the Impact Zone don't bump ratings enough to justify the increased travel and production costs.

[Zeven_Zion]

Originally Posted by Defekt

I think there was a recent report on this basically saying it wasn't worth it to TNA to take Impact on the road often.

Shows outside the Impact Zone don't bump ratings enough to justify the increased travel and production costs.

Why would they? I find it extremely difficult to see the correlation between road shows and ratings. How does a show on the road impact the quality of the program aside from an aesthetic point of view? You just have more people in the background who tend to be louder. Is that really going to make fans tune in? I'll give you one better. Is that really going to make the fans tune and stay tuned it? I don't think so. No one watches a wrestling show for the crowds, they watch for what happens in the middle of the crowd, in that four sided ring. Ergo, if what happens in the ring isn't interesting enough it is going to affect the ratings. So whether you have a show at a sold out Madison Square Garden or a sound recording studio at Universal, your ratings will remain frozen solid because the essence of the show is not compelling enough. Don't get me wrong, crowds make it better, but they don't make it.

And mind you I don't think that the ratings issue stems from the product. It was 0.99 last week and 1.2 two weeks before. It goes up and down the same little area but never above that. It shows you something. I tend to believe that the bigger problem is poor marketing and a lazy attitude when it comes to advertising anything TNA related. When's the last cool looking TNA poster you saw? Where did you see it? How many times did you watch a TNA commercial on another network? Hell, how many times did you see a TNA commercial on SpikeTV? That is if people even WATCH SpikeTV. Poor TNA has no side audience to draw from on that damn network, they're their highest rated shows or just up there.

TNA should be raising a fuss about everything they do. Going to Bumfuck, Texas and selling out a rinky-dink arena will do as much for the ratings as the Three Stooges did for RAW. The product is fine, it ain't revolutionary and orgasmic, but there's little wrong with it. What goes on backstage seems to be rotten and naturally that stinks up the entire company.

[JJYanks121]

What I don't understand is why the first focus is on taking IMPACT on the road. If it's me, the first goal would be to take Pay Per Views on the road. Some of them are already, so why not all of them?

Lets realize a few things with this suggestion. PPVs are live so there already is an added production cost whether you are in the IZ or on the road. It's also a show people pay for, not a cable show so there's no ratings to think about.

Wrestling has since the 80s been about the PPVs. You build up to them and you deliver your big matches on them. If that is to be true, conceivably people would buy them on TV and if it is in their area, they would pay money to see it in person. Provided TNA changes their business model to reflect this (at this point, the TV show is treated as more important in most regards), I think this could be a great step for them. You're talking 12 shows outside of the Impact Zone, of which 3 are already. You are adding 9 shows. I'm sure you can find 9 arenas in markets that you can promote yourself and sell a bunch of seats. This would go a long way to making TNA Pay Per Views feel like they mean more and it may even make them more money. I would start with that and worry about Impact later.

[Syborgg]

Originally Posted by prush80

What some of you are failing to realize, perhaps realize, is what if you are on the lower card or not gettting paid much. You live near the impact zone. Now you have to drive elsewhere, can you afford it? Especially on a weekly basis? You're going to be on TV every week and broke.

^^ This is a good point. I hear and read(I don't always believe what I read) reports of wrestlers getting to a show, whether it's WWE or TNA only to find out that they aren't being used. These guys are independant contractors. The wrestlers pay for their own travel(plane tickets, hotels, meals, rental cars etc.) and it's alot easier to swallow if you take a short drive to work vs. a possible flight or a longer drive only to find out they aren't paying you because you aren't needed for this week's episode.

The only way I could see travel being viable for TNA is if they stuck to a territory like within the southern states. They also would have to tape atleast 2 episodes in one spot to keep costs down. Then you have to remember that WWE owns exclusives to alot of the bigger arenas around the U.S., TNA would have to find and use some smaller venues although, that might keep costs down too.

[K-Mac]

They should try holding one of their tapings at UCF Arena. If it works out, good. If it doesn't, well, it was worth a shot.

[whoopin' ass]

TNA needs to start filming outside of the Impact Zone for 2 main reasons. first, it looks better. While it looks similar to WWE when they do the ring shots, when the camera pans the Impact Zone, you can see that there are a lot less people there then say for Raw or Smackdown. Personally, I think TNA should put out the best product they can and not worry about WWE but that does give the viewer an impression that TNA is less than WWE. Yet the few times i have seen TNA film outside the Impact Zone, it looked like a bigger promotion and in this industry, perception counts for a lot. while i can understand not doing it every other taping, at least once a quarter, they need to go somewhere.

second reason is the fans, no offense to anyone. you need that rotation of fans to tell you what really works and what doesn't work. being at one place all the time, especially with the limited house show schedule TNA has, can screw up their perception.

so what can they do? can't charge to get into the Impact Zone - we know that already. Why can't they tape shows after they do a ppv somewhere? since they have a crew there already, has to be a way to make that work. also, why not tape some live events? if they know they are going to be in some larger venue with a good crowd, take a couple cameras and have taz and tenay do voiceover work afterwards. i don't think there are many alternatives for them but they do need to start getting away from the Impact zone a little more often

[HBsam31]

I like the traveling the state idea just to get a start. I agree that they need to have different crowds to see what works and what doesn't. I think though that PPV's need to be the first priority. Get all 12 PPV's at different places across the country. I know they already travel some of the PPV's out of Orlando. After the get that done that would be the time to start traveling Impact around the state. More fans will get exposed to the live product, and maybe the company can then gauge how to improve it. If traveling throughout Florida works for them maybe then they can branch out of the state. I think the slow and steady approach would be best, but I think they really need to get the product live to fans outside of the Impact Zone.

[kor420]

I Think they should take the shows on the road, but only travel the south east. They will build a larger fanbase than they would just sitting in one spot for so long.