Taking bits and pieces from Graymar and Brian Cahill's version of Graymar's CotG Business Model, I developed my own business model system for use with small independent wrestling promotions. (Graymar's COTG Business Model system is good for GWF cards because the GWF is comparable to the WWE in terms of fan base, but when you're running a small indy promotion, the fan base generated by the Wrestler "Draw" and the subsequent talent pay get into ridiculous numbers to accurately represent the indy promo. (No offense, Graymar). Let's be brutally honest, wrestlers in indy promotions barely make enough money per show to put gas in their car. Indy shows almost never sell out, no matter how many fans attend your show. So how does my system work? Simple:

Using Jim Steinhoff's Stroke system, we're going to determine how many fans come to the show. First, determine how many matches you're going to have on this card. I'm going to use 7 matches in my example. Now, after you've determined how many matches you're going to have and who's going to take on who in each match, add the Current Stroke Values for each wrestler or team on the card and divide that total by the number of wrestlers or teams on the card (In this case, 14 participants).

Example: HWA Show at the HWA Arena on Diemos; October 4, 2124 (Seating Capacity: 100)

In the example above, the total fan attendance actually came to 15.714285, but it fractions get rounded to the nearest number. Now that we've determine the Draw based on the average, determine the ticket price. For the example above, I'm going to charge $10.00. So the total gate for this card will be $160.00. The Arena Rental Expense is $100 based on Graymar's Business Model System--Pay Per Appearance Structure Version, (Of course he suggests a ticket price of $3.00 in this version, but due to inflation, I've increased the ticket price to what most indy promotions are charging now.), so even though the gate is $160.00 with half of that going to the wrestlers as their pay, we're still in the red by $20.00. So we need to look into Concessions and Merchandising.

First we need a system to determine how many of those 16 fans buy concessions and/or merchandise. For this, I've used an old Ticket Sales Percentage chart I created a few years ago, but rarely used because it didn't exactly serve my purpose after discovering the COTG Business Model System, so I've adapted it for this purpose. How does it work?

First, both dice and look at the chart below to determine what base percentage of concessions and/or merchandise were sold at your show

Now that the base percentage has been determined, roll both dice again and refer to the chart below to determine how many more percentage points, if any, to add to the base percentage. (If you sell out of a concession or merchandise item, do NOT roll on this chart.)

Next, determine what concession items will be sold. For our example, we'll sell boxes of popcorn for $1.50, hot dogs for $1.00, per dog and soda pop for $1.00 a cup.

So with the adjustment to the PROFIT/LOSS column, the HWA will pay $11.00 to the Arena Rental Expense and the other $12.00 will be divided among the 14 participants on the card. We're still in the red $9.00. So let's look at selling some merchandise.

Just like Graymar's COTG Business Model System, every product sold must have a theme. You cannot say that your just going to sell Wall Street shirts. In this example, let's sell "WALL STREET--RULING THE RING AND THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT" shirts, "187--JUST ANOTHER HOMICIDE VICTIM" shirts, and "AMBROSIA--FROM LOST SOUL TO FAMILY WOMAN" DVDs, all for $10.00 apiece. Just like the concessions, we'll use the Concession/Merchandise chart above to determine how many units, if any, are sold during the show.

So here, the wrestlers mentioned above will take their share of the $83.00 they earned for their respective merchandise (Wall Street getting $40.00, 187 getting $10.00, and Ambrosia getting $33.00), while the HWA puts $9.00 toward their Arena Rental Expense, putting us in the black by $73.00.

The HWA will also sell shirts with their logo on them for $10.00, so let's add that to our merchandise calculations:

In this case, the participants on the card divide up $15.00, while the other $15.00 is our profit bringing our total profit for the night to $88. Not bad for the night.