Sphere Entertainment Co. (NYSE:SPHR) Q1 2025 Earnings Conference Call November 12, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Ari Danes - SVP, IR, Financial Communications & Treasury
James Dolan - Executive Chairman & CEO
David Byrnes - EVP, CFO & Treasurer
David Granville-Smith - EVP

Conference Call Participants

Brandon Ross - Lateshed
David Karnovsky - JPMorgan
Peter Supino - Wolfe Research
Daniel Duran - Morgan Stanley
Peter Anderson - Bank of America Merrill Lynch
David Joyce - Seaport Research Partners

Operator

Good morning, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Sphere Entertainment Company Fiscal 2025 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Ari Danes, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Ari Danes

Thank you. Good morning, and coronavirus Sphere Entertainment's fiscal 2025 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today's call will begin with our Executive Chairman and CEO, Jim Dolan, who will provide an update on Sphere.

Dave Burns, our Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, will then review our 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 Investors 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 Jim.

James Dolan

Thank you, Ari, and good morning, everyone. When we opened Sphere a little more than a year ago, our goal was to redefine the live entertainment experience. We started that journey in Las Vegas and have made headway improving our Sphere's innovative business model.

From the beginning, our vision also included a global network of venues. In October, we took an important step forward when we announced plans to bring the world's second Sphere to Abu Dhabi. An international capital that welcomed more than 24 million visitors last year. The Abu Dhabi venue is expected to be similar in scale to Sphere in Las Vegas. And under the terms of our partnership, the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, will fully fund its construction. We will receive a franchise initiation fee, which grants them the right to build the venue using our intellectual property.