westfaironline.com January 16, 2023
WHAT’S NEXT FOR WWE? BY PHIL HALL Phall@westfairinc.com
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n the afternoon of Jan. 5, Stamford-based WWE experienced the corporate equivalent of a coup d’état when former Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, who abruptly retired last July amid revelations of secret hush money payments to former female employees who accused him of sexual harassment, used his voting power through his majority ownership of Class B-stock to elect himself as the company’s executive chairman. McMahon, who also forced the removal of three independent directors and the appointment of former WWE co-presidents Michelle Wilson and George Barrios to the board of directors, declared that he muscled his way back into the leadership position
so he could engineer the company’s next round of media rights negotiations and possibly set up a sale of WWE. “WWE is entering a critical juncture in its history with the upcoming media rights negotiations coinciding with increased industry-wide demand for quality content and live events and with more companies seeking to own the intellectual property on their platforms,” said McMahon in a statement issued by the company. “The only way for WWE to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for me to return as executive chairman and support the management team in the negotiations for our media rights and to combine that with a review
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WWE wrestlers Austin Theory and Finn Bálor. Photo courtesy of WWE.
Greenburgh’s Feiner on the town and business in 2023 BY PETER KATZ Pkatz@westfairinc.com
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I’ve never really had the support of the political leadership but I do very well with the average voter because I’m always looking for ways to help any constituent,” Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner told the Business Journals during a discussion of a number of new town initiatives. “They have total access to me; they can call me on my cell during the day, on the weekend. We’ll have town government officials
make house calls to them, to a neighborhood. The town is super responsive to the voters.” For Feiner and Greenburgh, businesses both large and small as well as professional practitioners are important as part of the constituency and the town’s economic engine. “I’ve been driving around Central Avenue and a lot of the small stores that were vacant are now being replaced with small stores,” Feiner said. “We have exceptional services and I want people and a business that comes here to know that if they have a
problem they’re not going to get an answering machine or have to wait on hold for an hour. We’re creating a culture in the town where we want people to feel that we’re going to be responsive to their concerns.” Feiner had taken notice that Greenburgh does not have a Chamber of Commerce, which he believes can be an important vehicle to lobby on behalf of its business members and permit networking while enhancing a sense of community among businesses. So, he proposed launching just such an organization and
issued an open invitation to a meeting. “Greenburgh to my surprise over the years never had a Chamber of Commerce. They tried it maybe decades ago and it never worked,” Feiner said. “One of the goals that I have for this year is to have a very active Chamber of Commerce. I posted a notice and we now have about 30 volunteers.” Feiner’s chamber-in-formation had its second organizational meeting on Jan. 9. “We’re going to reach out to the businesses and I hope that
we’ll be able to help the local businesses survive, take advantage of programs that can help them,” Feiner said. “There may be tax breaks; there may be marketing efforts. We may try to get students with marketing skills to help with social media. Maybe we could even create student opportunities to help students set up their own businesses. You can’t survive as a small business if you don’t use e-commerce. We’re going to have programs, meetings, social events. We’ll organize street activities. We may have programs
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