Takami Ohbari reveals that NJPW was in fear of potentially shutting its doors due to the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company president discussed this topic during a recent interview with Proresu-TODAY. During the chat, Ohbari shares that at one point he could count on one hand how many months NJPW had left.
It was a long time (that difficult period). I try to look at sales separately inside and outside the venue. Especially because of the Corona disaster. Inside sales are tickets and merchandise sales, which at one point were down 60 percent due to the decline in attendance. Even in the most recent year, it’s still down about 40 percent… it’s only back up to 60 percent. If we had continued with our existing business portfolio, I think the company would have ceased to exist within a few months, let alone take a major hit. The majority of our business was dependent on revenues from the venue. One day, Tanahashi asked me, ‘Boss, if this situation continues, how many more months will this company last?’ I could count on one hand. At the time, I could count on one hand. With a smile on my face, I replied, ‘Don’t worry.
Ohbari says that NJPW has since been able to turn things around, but that at the moment they are barely making a profit compared to what they were doing prior to 2020.
The inside sales fell by a frightening double-digit billion yen (during the pandemic), but we are now at the point where we can cover about 70-80 percent of that amount with our outside business. As mentioned, in terms of sales scale, the current fiscal year ending in June will probably be the second largest in our 50-year history. However, ticket revenue is a fixed cost business, and after covering that, almost all of it is profit. A decrease in attendance means that only the most profitable part of the business is lost, and in terms of profit, we are just barely able to reach a level where we can turn a profit.
NJPW will be partnering up with AEW for Forbidden Door 2 this summer, the second straight year the two companies have worked together.