ESPN, MSG & the BE

[redmen9194]

First of all, no one is moving into the Garden. Some facts.

1.) The "out" clause with the Garden involves membership changes. Nothing else. The Garden does not want to be locked into a contract with the Big East and find out that lets say the eastern half of the league leaves for some reason.

2.) The Garden makes money on the deal regardless of attendance. The Big East essentially pays rent to use the Garden for the Big East Tournament. The league then keeps whatver the ticket proceeds are. Not sure about the concessions. But the reality is as long as the Big East can afford the rent, and wants to remain, it will.

3.) MSG does not want to be part of a rotation. They have made it clear they want the building booked during championship week. Both the Big Ten and the ACC do not want a permanent site in New York. The Big Ten is primarily in the mid-west and their rotation will include the east with DC and NY but they will also include Chicago, Indy and perhaps another city or two in the mid-west. The ACC is primarily a southern league. The powers that be will not stray to far from NC for long.

We have been hearing that the ACC and the Big Ten would muscle us out of the Garden. We are there at least until 2026 and no one has been able to bump us. We were at our weakest last season when perception of the league was low. We are now moving into a position of strength. What action would you suggest by the way that the Big East take?

[Irishdawg]

What action would you suggest by the way that the Big East take?

I think a simple statement from Val Ackerman would suffice. Something like...

[gtmoBlue]

Potential Action in a changing landscape-

Not being privy to discussions or plans at the league office, the following ideas are within reason:

- negotiate with several of the media service companies to secure the best possible Multi-Media Rights contract for the league. While most BE universities don't have the clout to go solo for MR, a league-wide MR contract would gain the best possible terms, duration, and payout, and benefit every member school. The conference has 2 dozen or so event properties, many member venues, signage, some vendoring & parking positions, the BE Digital Network, radio, conference/member websites, film and video libraries, sports archives, and many other resources. When properly leveraged, packaged, and marketed these resources have great value over a 10-12 year MR contract. Given recent activity seen in this sector, the conference could gain between $80-200 million/year over the life of such a contract.

- negotiate primary/1st Option rights (Right of 1st Refusal) on renewal of the current contract with MSG Co. It would seem prudent that the league already has such rights. If not, negotiate now.

- increase BE visibility, participation, and charitable giving, in partnership with member schools and select charities/youth organizations, in league cities. Increase camps, sports clinics, & educational outreach in partnership with these local, vested organizations.

- BE expansion to a 12 team league. Negotiate and invite the best candidate universities, including potentially stealing a high level "needle-mover" university, which may be frustrated and unhappy with their F5/P5 current home. Obviously not talking about midpack or bottom dwellers (Wake Forest/UAB) here. Authorize the league office to be able to offer buyout assistance as part of their incentives package to high level candidates. The growth and sustainment of the BE is the driving force for expansion-not Fox Sports.

- renegotiate our Fox Sports contract based around the league's increased content offerings from a 12 team configuration.
Fox still needs good content for programming and more BE Sports provides them such good program content.

The smart folks at the league HQ have probably considered these possible options and may in fact be working on one or more ideas along these lines. Heck, they probably have 6-10 better ideas and proposals. I hope so.