Ryman Hospitality Properties

Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc.

Formerly	Gaylord Broadcasting Company Gaylord Entertainment Company
Company type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: RHP Russell 2000 Component
Industry	REIT Entertainment
Founded	1925; 99 years ago (1925)
Founder	Edward Gaylord
Headquarters	Nashville, Tennessee , U.S.
Key people	Colin Reed (Executive Chair) Mark Fioravanti (RHP CEO) Patrick Moore (Opry Entertainment CEO)
Revenue	US$747.7 million (2007)
Operating income	US$43.2 million (2007)
Net income	US$111.9 million (2007)
Total assets	US$2,336.9 million (2007)
Total equity	US$941.5 million (2007)
Owner	The Vanguard Group (largest) BlackRock GAMCO Investors (8.3%)[1]
Subsidiaries	Opry Entertainment Group

Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. is a hotel, resort, entertainment, and media company named for one of its assets: the Ryman Auditorium, a National Historic Landmark in Nashville, Tennessee. The company's legal lineage can be traced back to its time as a subsidiary of Edward Gaylord's Oklahoma Publishing Company; however, the backbone of the modern entity was formed with the company's acquisition of WSM, Inc. in 1983. This purchase resulted in the ownership of the Grand Ole Opry and associated businesses, including the company's flagship resort property, then known as Opryland Hotel. As such, Ryman Hospitality cites 1925 (the founding of WSM Radio and the Opry) as its origin year.

From its corporate spin-off from Oklahoma Publishing in 1991 until 2012, the organization was known as Gaylord Entertainment Company. Most of its media and entertainment ventures were closed or divested over time as the company was refocused into a hospitality-based business by the early-2000s, constructing and operating massive resort properties catering to the high-end corporate convention market. In 2012, Gaylord Entertainment sold the Gaylord Hotels brand, as well as operations of its existing resorts, to Marriott International and converted the company's corporate structure into a real estate investment trust, retaining ownership of the properties themselves, and taking the Ryman Hospitality name as a result of the transaction. The company continues to own and operate the Opry and its affiliated companies inside a majority-owned subsidiary called Opry Entertainment Group.