Transcript: Venu Holding Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call

On Friday, Venu Holding (AMEX:VENU) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below. This content is powered by Benzinga APIs. For comprehensive financial data and transcripts, visit https://www.benzinga.com/apis/. Access the full call at https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/966483815 Summary Venu Holding reported a 25% increase in total assets to $461 million as of March 31, 2026, and completed a capital raise of $86.25 million. The company is building a new asset class of live entertainment venues with multi-seasonal and multi-configurational designs, leveraging partnerships with municipalities and fractional ownership sales. Future outlook includes ongoing discussions with over 45 municipalities for new venues and strong interest in venue partnerships, evidenced by over $100 million in negotiated and contractual partnership revenue. Operational highlights include the success of the Ford Amphitheater and an increase in bookings and talent interest for new venues like Broken Arrow and McKinney. Management emphasized the progress in developing venue technology, strong partnerships with companies like PepsiCo and Aramark, and a growth strategy focused on expanding venue footprint and partnership opportunities. Full Transcript OPERATOR Good morning and welcome to Venue Holding Corporation's first quarter, fiscal 2026 financial results and business update. This morning Venue Holding Corporation issued a press release summarizing the company's 2026 first quarter performance following the filing of its quarterly report on Form 10Q for the period ending March 31, 2026. All participants on today's call are in listen only mode. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the line for a Q and A session. At this time I would like to turn the call over to Heather Atkinson, Chief Financial Officer of Venue Holding Corporation. Heather, please go ahead. Heather Atkinson (Chief Financial Officer) Thank you and good morning everyone. Welcome to Venue Holding Corporation's first quarter, fiscal 2026 earnings call and business update. On the call today we have our founder, chairman, and CEO J.W. Roth, President Will Hodgens, Chief Operating Officer Vic Fetter and President of Growth and Strategy Terry Liebler. Following the Safe Harbor statement, J.W. will open with highlights from across the business Will Vic and Terry will each provide updates from their areas. I will then walk through our financial results. After that we will open the line for questions. Before we begin, I want to remind everyone that various remarks about future expectations, plans and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform act of 1995. Venue cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated, including risks described in the Company's report on Form 10Q for the quarter ending March 31, 2026 and our other SEC filings, all of which can be reviewed at venue.live or sec.gov any forward-looking statements made on this call speak only as of today, May 15, 2026, venue does not intend to update any forward-looking statements except as required by Federal securities laws. With that, I would like to turn the call over to our founder, chairman, and CEO J.W. Roth. J.W. Roth (Founder, Chairman, and CEO) Thank you Heather and thanks a million to everybody that's joining us today. We had a busy start to fiscal year 2026 as we continue to execute on our strategy to bring a new asset class to live entertainment. Our venues are designed as multi seasonal, multi-configurational spaces with with unparalleled omni-content capabilities intentionally built to maximize utilization and deliver the elevated immersive experience today's concert goer expects. As I've mentioned before, the average amphitheater in the United states is approximately 40 years old and falls well short of modern premium standards. Beyond filling this market gap, we've developed a capital efficient model for financing venue construction we build these premium live entertainment venues through three public-private partnerships with municipalities, pre-sale of fractional ownerships in the venues and the sale-leaseback transactions. Roughly 40% of the project construction comes from municipalities in the form of real estate tax incentives and cash. Another 40% comes through the presale of fractional owners ownership and 20% from the sale leaseback of the contributed real estate which typically generates a development profit. We believe this model aligns all parties around the long term success of every venue we build. The first pillar of our development model involves partnerships with forward looking municipalities that recognize the economic value of our venues bring to their local markets. Through these partnerships we negotiate incentive packages that contribute meaningfully to the funding of each venue's development. We believe there is one aspect of this model which is not fully reflected in our financials. Under standard GAAP accounting rules, any real estate contributed by a municipality sits at basis or zero on our balance sheet. So while we reported total assets of 461 million doll, that number does not include any value for the real estate the municipalities contribute to us. In addition, earlier this year we received an independent appraisal that valued our real estate portfolio at $1.24 billion on an as completed basis. In 24 months we doubled our total assets and today we are having ongoing discussions with with more than 45 municipalities about bringing a venue concept to their city. The second avenue of our model is the presale of Lux Fire Suites in the venues we are developing. This allows investors to grow alongside us while providing a sustainable source of funding for our new venues. Since launch, our presales have generated over $260 million in sales and as we have grown, we've expanded our range of offerings to meet demand and give investors at all levels the opportunity to participate. Last month we launched our $300 million triple net inventory with Troy Aikman, a shareholder, a fire Pit suite owner and a partner. Since then we have seen a significant increase in investor leads and earlier this week we launched our firesuite income offering, opening the door to investors seeking a lower entry point into the fractional ownership of our fire suites. The final avenue of our model is the sale leaseback of contributed real estate which typically generates a development profit while allowing us to retain operational control of the venue. This component rounds out the capital stack for developing a venue and reinforces the long term economics of every project that we build as it relates to capital. We are currently in a capital intensive phase as we build what we expect to be the foundation of our platform and entertainment model. In March, we closed out an $86.25 million capital raise in the middle of one of the most volatile market stretches in region history, demonstrating that investors believe in our vision. As we move closer to our venue opening dates, we expect that conviction to continue to build. In summary, Venue is building a new asset class of live entertainment venues to fill a clear gap in the market, and we're doing so in a capital efficient way. We're excited and we can't wait to see what comes next. All right, now I'm going to turn this over to Will, Vic and Terry to talk more about what this past quarter has delivered and what we expect on the horizon. Will Will Hodgens (President) thanks jw Good afternoon everyone. I want to give you a real picture of what the booking and talent side of the business looks like right now because there's a lot of exciting momentum. Let me start with Ford Amphitheater. The 2026 season is underway and booking is still very much active. The calendar continues to build with a number of shows yet to be announced. We continue to expect Ford's 2026 season to look a lot like prior seasons by the time we're done. The conversations we are having with promoters and agents reflect the reputation this venue has earned. Ford is a destination and we're looking forward to a great season. On the new venue side, Broken Arrow is taking shape and we are deep in discussions with artists and promoters about what the inaugural season looks like. While it's too early to share specifics, I'm pleased to say we are seeing a significant amount of interest in the venue and we look forward to sharing more when the time is right. McKinney is not far behind.. We are already laying the groundwork for booking conversations in that market. Situated just north of Dallas, McKinney represents a significant opportunity given the region's strong demand for live entertainment. We, along with our operating and booking partner, Live Nation, are actively building relationships today that will allow us to drive meaningful programming from day one. At the club level, Phil Long Music Hall in Colorado Springs and the hall at Bourbon Brothers in Gainesville delivered a consistent quarter of programming and we continue to refine our approach. At both locations, we are focused on finding the right content mix that maximizes both the guest experience and the commercial opportunity. To summarize, talent conversations are strong, our markets are progressing well and we're entering into the busy season with strong momentum. As we move into Q2, we're focused on executing against our plan and delivering on the opportunities in front of us. With that, I'll turn it over to you Vic. Vic Fetter (Chief Operating Officer) Thank you Will. Good morning everyone. As J.W. mentioned earlier, our goal with these venues is to build a new asset class in live entertainment. Our venues are designed to be multi seasonal, multi-configuration venues featuring immersive experiences and integrated technology creating experiences that fans cannot find anywhere else. We're implementing some of the most advanced venue technology available in building these capabilities into new venues from the ground up and I'm excited about what's ahead and we will have more to share on the technology partnerships powering this in the months ahead. With that vision in mind, let me turn to the progress we're making on the ground at McKinney. The trusses for the Academy of Restructure are underway and construction is progressing as planned. Broken Arrow is approaching an exciting stage of construction as the Fire Suites have been delivered to site and installation will begin soon. In El Paso, we're advancing through our infrastructure development plan and in Houston we expect to close out the entitlement phase in the coming weeks. We look forward to sharing more as these projects advance outside of active developments. This past week we announced expansion plans in Chattanooga, Tennessee in active conversations beginning in Northern Colorado. We'll have more to share how those plans take shape in the months ahead. Turning to our operating venues in Q1, the opening of Roth Sea and Steak in November 2025 added a meaningful new revenue stream for our portfolio and the early performance has been exceptional. The team is executing at a high level. Our hospitality scores reflect that performance and the property establishing itself as a premier dining destination in Colorado Springs independent of the concert season. Private events at Ross are tracking ahead of expectations and we're heading into a strong summer. We are proud of what that team has built at our Bourbon Brothers Smokehouse and Tavern locations. We experienced some headwinds in the first quarter. Colorado Springs saw softer traffic and our Gainesville location was impacted by early winter storms that led to full and partial closures during the quarter. That said, we do not view this as a structural trend. The teams are focused, the menus are being refined to align with evolving customer preferences, and we're actively working on programming and private event strategies designed to drive traffic and revenue at both locations. Every decision we're making operationally right now is made with scale in mind. We're looking forward to a great busy season ahead. With that, I will hand it over to Terry. Terry Liebler (President of Growth and Strategy) Thank you Vic. Good afternoon everyone. The growth and strategy team's role is to make sure Venue is always moving toward the next opportunity, the next partnership, and the next reVenue stream. Q1 has given us a lot to talk about. Let me start with the new partnerships because the caliber of who is choosing to align with with Venue continues to set the tone. In the first quarter we locked in PepsiCo as our official beverage partner across the Sunset Amphitheater portfolio and Aramark Sports and Entertainment expanded to five of our Venues and made an additional equity investment in the company. These are long term partners who are deepening their commitment because they have clear visibility into where we're headed and that tells a story. Naming rights represents a category of partnership that can be genuinely transformative for a Venue network of our scale. For shareholders, these deals deliver long term contracted reVenue that goes directly to the bottom line. No additional capital required, no operational complexity, just premium brands paying for the right to be associated with the platform we're building at scale. This becomes a significant and recurring reVenue stream. We have been deep in conversations on this front and I'm more excited by the direction of those discussions than any point to date. Stay tuned for several exciting announcements in the period ahead. With that, I will turn it back over to Heather for the financial update. Heather Atkinson (Chief Financial Officer) Thank you so much Terry. Now to dig into the quarterly figures a bit more. Our total assets increased to $461 million as of March 31, 2026, up $91 million or 25% from $370 million at December 31, 2025. As JW mentioned, it is worth noting that several of our municipality developments sit at zero cost basis on our balance sheet rather than mark to market value as they are contributed assets. An as completed basis appraisal of $1.24 billion reflects a more complete picture of what this portfolio will be worth once completed. Property and equipment increased to 382 million as of March 31, 2026, up $76 million or 25% from 306 million at December 31, 2025. The Company completed a capital raise of its common stock during the three months ended March 31, 2026, which resulted in gross proceeds of $86.25 million which generated net proceeds from to the company of $80.1 million. Our Lux Fire Suite and Aikman Club sales reached over 260 million in sales since launching the program. Demand for the product in our newly launched Triple net model prompted the recent launch of a $300 million triple net portfolio available to real estate investors across the nation, with Troy Aikman as the company's spokesperson. Our Lux Fire Suite sales team through the company's Triple Net model accounted for approximately 47% of total lux Fire suite sales for the quarter ended March 31, 2026. Venue's total revenue was 3.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2026, compared to 3.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, an increase of 11% quarter over quarter. These highlights represent that our balance sheet is strong, the assets are real, and the model is working. With that, I will turn it back to jw. J.W. Roth (Founder, Chairman, and CEO) Thanks, Heather, and thanks to Will, Vic and Terry. Here's what I want every investor on this call to take away. Today, we have built something that institutions recognize that world class partners keep choosing and that retail investors are finding new ways to access. The model is working exactly the way we designed it. The pipeline is as strong as it's ever been, and we're just getting started. Let's open it up for questions. OPERATOR We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality if you are muted locally. Please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q and A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Stephen Lashcik from Goldman Sachs. Stephen Lashcik (Equity Analyst) Steven, please go ahead guys, thanks for taking the questions. Maybe to start off, J.W., Could you talk a little bit more about the new class of venues you're set to build out here over the next couple of years? Maybe talk a little bit about what differentiates these venues from the legacy amphitheaters and venues most of us know today and maybe within that, the types of live entertainment you see yourself leaning into at these new venues and ultimately what that could mean for the business model, what that could mean for you realization as these new venues ramp up. J.W. Roth (Founder, Chairman, and CEO) First, Stephen, thanks a million for taking the time to join us today. You know, the venues that we're building, they're just purpose built. They're state of the art amps. They're designed to fill a clear gap that is missing in the market. You know, you think of the amphitheater segment and I gotta tell you, I hate the word. I am working diligently to get rid of the word amphitheater because it drives me crazy because what we're building is real. A whole brand new asset class. You know, we're combining some of the things from traditional venues, but we're also changing in a massive Way we're, you know, our new amps, if you want to call them, that are designed around real estate ownership, premium hospitality, immersive technology. These are not yesterday's sheds. These are really a new and exciting venue. They're multi seasonal. Think of, think of the amps today. They, they run in the summertime, right? And then they close. Not these, these venues are multi seasonal. They will run year round. So instead of producing 30 shows that a typical amphitheater produces, these, these, these venues will produce up to a hundred shows annually. They're multi configurational, which also changes a lot of the utilization of these venues. In other words, up and down in size. And they do it in such a way that they always look full. I'm gonna have Vic get more into that here in a second. But honestly, at the end of the day, what you're looking at here is not your traditional amphitheater. This is in every way a brand spanking new asset class. Vic, talk a little bit about the utilization. Vic Fetter (Chief Operating Officer) Yeah, happy to. Thanks. Aw, and Steven, thanks for making the time today. So yeah, with the multi seasonal, we have multi configurational design, but we also have the immersive technology and that's all built in all the future venues. So we're unlocking a much broader range of programming that for example, you would see in a traditional amphitheater. You know, that means that we'll be able to host concerts, family shows, special events, corporate activations, and also our own immersive content and maybe other partners who are creating content currently in the space. So, and this is all within the same venue. So as a result, you know, we believe that these venues can host a minimum of 80 events per year. Right. Depending on market. But for context, right, look at the industry. And the average of the amphitheater is around 30 to 35 shows annually. So we're really intentionally building these to do meaningfully more, when you look at that Delta. And we believe that the model has the potential to drive better economics. Because we have traditional spaces that the amphitheater uses. We don't really look at the same way. Right. We have a step change in utilization. We are driven by immersive technology. We're combined with different premium hospitality offerings like Fire Suites and our VIP Clubs. And this is really where we get the multi configurational omni content, multi seasonal piece of this business. And this is really what makes a unique asset class within live entertainment that no one's really seen before. I hope that answers some of your questions, Stephen. Stephen Lashcik (Equity Analyst) Yeah, thanks for that. And then maybe a second One just for Terry, on partnerships, it sounds like there's some really nice momentum building ahead of the venues opening. I was just curious if you could elaborate a little bit more on what you're seeing on that front, how we should be thinking about some of the sizing of that opportunity today. And then as this business scales over the longer term, you know, how do you see the Sponsorship portfolio growing as the venue footprint scales over time? Terry Liebler (President of Growth and Strategy) Thank you. Yeah, thanks for the question, Stephen. Yeah, we're really, really pleased with the momentum we're seeing on the partnership side. I think what's notable is that the momentum is building well ahead of the venues actually opening. So that really speaks to the strength of the venue brand and of course the feel of the entertainment platform we're creating today. Partnership opportunities span across specifically key inventory assets and also a number of categories. This includes of course, naming rights, premium hospitality spaces like the Aikman Clubs, and category exclusive partners. So for example, Pepsi and eight Beer. We're also seeing really strong inbound interest for both regional and national brands who want to align with this concept that you just heard JW and Vic talk about. In fact, very proud and really excited to share that we secured more than $100 million already to date in negotiated and contractual partnership revenue. We think that that is obviously a very strong proof point of the demand that we're seeing again, well ahead of these venues opening longer term as the venues start to open. And of course the footprint scales, which by the way, in my experience means this means we can expect partnership opportunity to of course scale with it. So this is both in terms of the number of partners and then of course the depth of those relationships in each new venue. Each of those new venues effectively expands our addressable partner base and that creates new local, new regional and of course new national revenue opportunities. We also see real potential to layer in multivenue and platform-level partnerships, which by the way, we've already started to do as that footprint grows as well. So we really believe that will drive an even greater value proposition over time. So I think in summary, kind of overall, we view this revenue as high margin, recurring and of course scalable. It's a revenue stream that compounds as we bring those additional venues online. Stephen Lashcik (Equity Analyst) Great, thank you. OPERATOR Your next question comes from the line of Marty Calbert from Morgan Stanley. Marty, please go ahead. Marty Calbert (Equity Analyst) Good morning, J.W. and team. Great quarter. My question is twofold. First of all, a great, great, great announcement about Chattanooga. Can you explain more about the development that could go on around Chattanooga? I'm a Whiskey, man. So I would love to see a naming of a Jack Daniel's Amphitheater in Chattanooga. J.W. Roth (Founder, Chairman, and CEO) Yeah, that's awesome. I am too. You know, we've been working on that thing for a while and. Well, first, Marty, just Thanks for jumping on here. I appreciate you're a great shareholder, great supporter, and I just appreciate you joining us today. I'm actually going to kick this over to Bob. Bob, will you jump in here and walk Marty through not only what we're doing in Chattanooga, but let's expand on that question a little bit and talk about just all of the sort of new markets that you and Ryan are working on. Yeah, you bet. Bob Thanks, JW and thanks for the question, Marty. You know, both Chattanooga and Northern Colorado are great examples of how our pipeline is really starting to produce momentum. Starting with Chattanooga, it's going to be located right down on the Tennessee River in a project called the Bend. This is a premium mixed use development that is adjacent to the amphitheater itself will actually be right on the river adjacent to a 300 slip marina. And really Chattanooga is an ideal market for Venue. It's, you know, as a million person MSA, it's a growing region. It's very vibrant from its entertainment perspective. From a routing perspective, it's, it's critical. Sitting between Nashville, Atlanta and Knoxville. It makes it very attractive for stops by artists. Conversations are going well and some pieces that still are coming together on that we are doing opening up our the opportunities here because this is an opportunity where we worked with a private developer and we're also working with the city on the incentives. And so that partnership is seeming to be very fruitful. Turning to Northern Colorado, this is another strategic market for us and one that given the roots in the region is going to be important to us. The Northern Colorado project is meaningful to us because location to community and it's an area of nearly again a million people that has historically been underserved as it relates to live entertainment. So we're seeing strong support from the local market and municipal leaders. We are actively engaged in conversations with everyone adjacent to I-25 there and have a couple of conversations that are advancing very quickly. And so more broadly the project reflect the type of opportunity that we're coming across through our pipeline. You know, well located markets, really strong interest from municipal partners. I mean, we hosted one last night again that we can't mention quite yet, but is very promising in the region where we're operating with Oklahoma and Texas. So our pipeline of conversations that currently sits at well over 45 municipalities has a lot of momentum, and overall, we're very pleased and again, super excited about what's going on in Chattanooga and moving forward to identifying the location where we'll put our Northern Colorado facility as well. Marty Calbert (Equity Analyst) Thank you, JW and Bob, Appreciate it. OPERATOR Your next question comes from the line of Jamie Bernowski. Doug Thank you, everyone. Doug, terrific quarterly update. Jamie Bernowski Thank you. Thanks for ongoing clarity on the financial metrics as you head into the busy season at the gorgeous Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs. Can you walk us through? What are you really most excited about? J.W. Roth (Founder, Chairman, and CEO) There's so much good going on. There's got to be one or two things that are just getting you jumpy as you start each and every day regarding that area. First, Jamie, thanks a million for taking the time to do this and to be a part of this. You're a great shareholder, and I appreciate you. You know, I mean, honestly, the Ford has just been a home run. It's. You know, it started off as sort of a proof of concept, and we. A lot of tuition has been paid as a result of building the Ford because what we've learned is we've learned, you know, how Elevated works, right? So when we started this, the whole. The whole sort of premise and genesis of our business was to create venues that catered to the demand of today's fan. When you look across the space and you see what the NFL has done, you see what Major League Baseball has done, you see what so many different stadiums and venues have done, what they've really done is they've catered to the demand of today's fan, and music has just failed in that area. With the exception of a few standouts like the Sphere, most outdoor music venues of the past have failed there. So we really have concentrated on defining what elevated means. And so the Ford has been a great example of that. You know, we opened last night and had a great show. And really what I was looking for this morning from Vic is, Vic, tell me about how we did in the clubs. Tell me about what our per capita were. Your whole idea is trying to break that $35 number, right? And we did. We. We crushed it last night, and Elevated worked. And we're going to see that. That continue to grow. And when you look at what we're building in these other markets, you're not only seeing the Elevated and the premium side grow, but you're also seeing the other demands of the fan, like ride-share. Last night, I watched ride-share work at the Ford. Cuts down on traffic, cuts down on congestion. But what it also does is it allows us to provide services that then increase dwell time. Right. I looked in the clubs when we were done last night with the show, and people stayed, which is the whole idea behind driving our business. So, you know, the summer lineup is fantastic. You know, we've still got probably 10 or 12 shows to announce to finish out what the Ford season is going to look like. But in every way, that the Ford Amphitheater is not only a genesis of our business, but it's really a good testing pad for us. And so, again, appreciate the question, and we're very excited about where the Ford is this year. Thank you. Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.