BIG EAST - - PHASE II

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

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New Big East and Fox Team Up – Richard Sandomir, The New York Times - March 11, 2013

The seven Catholic universities had privately voiced concerns that the Big East was changing to chase football cash; aware of the discontent, Fox last fall made clear its desire to talk to the group. The universities also knew that the terms of what essentially acted as a prenuptial agreement would let them leave the Big East as a unit, without paying exit fees, and make their own TV deal.

Fox won them over with a 12-year deal worth about $500 million, according to reports. But the contract could spike to $600 million if the conference grows to a dozen teams, according to two people briefed on the contract but not authorized to speak publicly about its terms. A number of universities are said to be candidates to join the new Big East, including Xavier, an Atlantic 10 member, and Creighton, of the Missouri Valley Conference.

Welcome home, UConn. - admin, HLOH thread - July 1, 2020 (21 posts)

Fox Sports Lays Off More Than 50 In Realignment Move - Brian Steinberg, Variety.com – July 24, 2020

Fox Sports has laid off between 50 and 100 employees, according to a person familiar with the matter, part of a bid to realign the Fox Corp. unit after it shed its regional-sports networks as part of the company’s massive asset sale to Walt Disney Co. in 2019.

Fox Sports employs approximately 1,000 staffers. Fox previously owned a large passel of regional-sports operations that served local sports broadcasts to fans in the northeast, southwest and many other parts of the U.S. Those network were sold to Walt Disney as part of a transaction that also included many of Fox’s entertainment networks and production studios for $71.3 billion. Disney in turn sold 21 of those networks to a consortium of companies that were led by Sinclair Broadcast Group for around $10.6 billion. The YES Network, which broadcasts New York Yankees baseball, was sold to a group that included the team, Sinclair and Amazon. Disney, which also owns ESPN, was required to sell the regional outlets as a condition of its Fox asset purchase.

Like other sports-media companies, Fox Sports has had to contend with months without live-sports broadcasts. Many of Fox Sports’ on-air anchors and analysts agreed in April to take a temporary pay cut, largely in tandem with compensation decreases among top executives at parent company Fox Corporation.

Fox Q4 Sales Down Sharply From Previous Quarter On COVID-19 Advertising Impact - Jill Goldsmith, Deadline.com - August 4, 2020

Fox Corp. on Tuesday reported total sales of $2.42 billion last quarter, in line with expectations, down slightly (4%) from a year ago but off $1 billion from the previous three months as COVID-19 hit advertising. The company that owns Fox News, Fox Sports, Fox Entertainment and the Fox Television Stations had warned a major squeeze was coming with stations expected to be down 50%.

Cable Network Programming reported quarterly segment revenues of $1.27 billion, a decrease of $28 million or 2% from the amount reported in the prior year quarter, as lower advertising and other revenues were partially offset by higher affiliate revenues. Advertising revenues decreased $22 million or 8%, primarily due to the postponement of live events at FS1 as a result of COVID-19, partially offset by higher advertising revenues at Fox News Media. Other revenues decreased $15 million or 31%, primarily due to lower revenues at Fox Sports as a result of COVID-19.

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Fox pretty much has to give the Big East something more these next 5 years if they want to keep us.

adoraz – I have to strongly disagree with your assertion, as the present TV Rights contract between Fox Sports and the Big East contains detailed provisions covering possible conference expansion. Those provisions were automatically activated on July 1, 2020, as provided for in the contract.

Therefore, Fox Sports does not have any legal obligation to pay the Big East Conference a penny more than stated in the contract. Furthermore, with staff layoffs and salary reductions across the board at Fox Sports, no Fox Sports executive is going to authorize an unnecessary ‘santa clause’ payment to the Big East Conference just because UConn joined. Meanwhile, ESPN is having their own financial and programming problems.

it is extremely unlikely that ESPN will have any interest in outbidding Fox Sports for the Big East TV Rights contract in 2025.


........ Ivy League - Wikipedia ........

ESPN, Ivy League announce 10-year deal to air games on new ESPN+ – ESPN - April 4, 2018

ESPN Signs 10-Year Media-Rights Deal With Ivy League - John Ourand, SportsBusinessDaily.com - April 4, 2018

ESPN signed a 10-year media rights deal with the Ivy League, with plans to carry every football and men’s and women’s basketball game starting in the fall. Most of the games will be on ESPN’s soon-to-launch OTT platform, ESPN+. One of ESPN’s linear TV channels will carry at least 24 games per year, including six football games (including the Harvard-Yale game), six regular season men’s basketball games, the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and the men’s lacrosse tournament semifinals and finals. Eight other conference postseason events also will be carried on linear TV. The deal is structured in a similar way to ESPN’s recent Sun Belt conference deal, which essentially was an ESPN+ deal with some linear elements. These deals underscore ESPN’s strategy of moving its rights deals with non-Power Five conferences to its OTT platform.

List of ESPN College Basketball Properties - Wikipedia

• ACC: 1979–2036[1]
• Big Ten: 1979–2023
• Big 12: 1997–2025
• Pac-12: 2012–2023
• SEC: ?–2023

If ESPN acquires (or attempts to acquire) the Big East’s TV Rights, the regulator or courts may order ESPN to sell its interests in the Ivy League (a lucrative market with a lot of filthy-rich alumni) and possibly sell its interests in other conferences (due to anti-trust concerns) - with Fox Sports being the only apparent customer for those properties. The easy path for ESPN is to give the Big East a big miss, and let Fox Sports have ‘em.

[GoldenWarrior11]

So many home run decisions that paid off immensely by the leadership of the conference:

Off-Court Successes
- Hiring Val
- Inviting Butler, Creighton and Xavier
- Keeping MSG
- Keeping Big East brand/history
- Round Robin Format
- Inviting back UConn
- Gavitt Games with the Big Ten
- The Battle with the Big 12
- Relationship/TV deal with Fox
- Respected and successful collection of head coaches

On-Court Successes
- Villanova's blue blood run of dominance
- Xavier's #1 Seed/Elite Eight
- Butler's Sweet 16 appearance
- Nine programs making NCAAT since reorganization
- Non-conference dominance

Areas to improve/build
- St. John's, DePaul and Georgetown rising to the top half of the league
- A non-Villanova Final Four program/NC contender
- Extension of the Gavitt Games (more games, more top-ranked matchups)
- Extension/Raise of the Fox TV deal (accounting for on-court success, increased ratings and increased content)
- Expansion (Long-term) of the BE to create/own more successful basketball programs, more BET sessions and more NCAAT teams annually
- Keeping successful coaches in tow (like Cooley, Willard, McDermott) and away from the P5 (Buzz, Holtmann, Mack)
- Increasing average salary of BE coaches to remain competitive with the top-half of the P5 in men's basketball
- Continue building the #BetheChange and #Coaches4Action campaigns
- Getting more alumni teams into TBT that model and challenge the Golden Eagles
- More BE lottery picks (this is a double-edged sword, since majority of our programs rely on three and four-year players, the best of whom still make the NBA). Still, would like our conference to get one or two every year just like the other top programs).

[jfan]

Great lists. I would add to the On-Court Successes---- Two National POY.

[adoraz]

Fieldhouse- go back and reread my full post because clearly you didn't understand it (or you're intentionally misrepresenting it). I'm fully aware of up to 2 teams getting paid based on the current contract, and yes that's what happened on July 1. That has nothing to do with my post. This has nothing to do with Fox handing out money. This is about business and knowing how contract extensions work.

Just look at how pro athletes negotiate extensions. They often end up getting paid more for the time remaining on their contract in additional to more in future years, especially for young stars who were initially underpaid. I'd say we're a young star, too.

Won't get into whether or not ESPN would be interested because there's no way to prove or disprove that, but it's silly to think they won't at least be interested. Not wasting my time debating Ivy vs Big East and whether that would even be a factor.

To your point, though, yes covid has thrown everything off. I am not expecting them to resign until early 2021 now at the earliest. Most likely the summer of 2021 if things return to normal.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

It's silly to think they [ESPN} won't at least be interested.

Once again, I strongly disagree.

Fox TV Contract Year. Basketball Season

1. 2013-14 . . . . . 7. 2019-20
2. 2014-15 . . . . . 8. 2020-21
3. 2015-16 . . . . . 9. 2021-22
4. 2016-17 . . . . 10. 2022-23
5. 2017-18 . . . . 11. 2023-24
6. 2018-19 . . . . 12. 2024-25

1. Through the end of the 2024-25 season, the Big East will not receive any more money than stipulated in the present 12-year TV Rights contract with Fox Sports, which covers the UConn addition. The next TV Rights contract with the Big East conference will commence with the 2025-26 season.

2. ESPN’s TV Rights contract with the Ivy League will conclude at the end of the 2028-29 season. Note that ESPN’s Ivy League TV Rights contract includes the same TV markets as Providence, UConn, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova - which would give ESPN a monopoly in those markets if ESPN acquired the TV Rights for the Big East conference. This may not be permitted by the regulator.

3. If the regulator DID permit ESPN to acquire the Big East TV Rights and keep the Ivy League TV Rights, ESPN would basically be competing against itself in those markets – not an ideal situation for ESPN.

4. ESPN does not need or want any more ‘expensive’ basketball programming (such as the Big East has to offer) due to their extensive list of College Basketball properties, which includes the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC.

5. If ESPN starts to sniff in the direction of the Big East, ESPN will immediately begin racking up huge legal costs. ESPN will need top law firm(s) to explore in detail and report all statutory, regulatory, and financial aspects of a proposed acquisition of the Big East TV Rights in 2025-26. Going down this route could cost ESPN $millions, only to be told: ”Don’t even think about it!”

6. Both ESPN and Fox Sports are aware of Items (1) to (5) above, and the Big East executives should be as well.

7. The significance of this is that if ESPN and Fox Sports both know that ESPN is not interested in acquiring the TV Rights for the Big East conference, that leaves only one bidder – Fox Sports – and leaves the Big East without any negotiating leverage whatsoever – not a good situation for the Big East.

8. In their March 2013 offer to the Catholic 7 schools, Fox Sports had to make a contract offer of sufficient financial magnitude and duration to entice the Catholic 7 to part ways with the football schools. In this, Fox Sports succeeded.

9. In their January 2025 offer to the 11-member Big East conference, Fox Sports has no need to offer any such incentives, as the conference has already parted ways with the football schools (at least until UConn came back).

10. Bottom line: Although contract extensions usually go up in value, that is not always the case, and in this particular case, the Big East conference has no leverage whatsoever in future TV Rights negotiations with Fox Sports. What that could lead to in 2025 is anyone’s guess. Fox Sports’ primary obligation is to their shareholders, and paying any more than necessary for a TV Rights contract is not a good way for a CEO to keep his job.

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It is likely the BE will double the per game values we currently receive.

Certainly not true now, and not necessarily true in the future.

[gtmoBlue]

Nice post Adoraz. FF is probably under a bit of Covid-related stress, or he was baiting/looking for an argument.

agree with the majority of your lists, except for these:

- Increasing average salary of BE coaches to remain competitive with the top-half of the P5 in men's basketball
Coaches are making enough already. Time for the players (if congress passes new legislation) to make a couple of bucks.
- Continue building the #BetheChange and #Coaches4Action campaigns
Who is "Bethechange"?
- Getting more alumni teams into TBT that model and challenge the Golden Eagles
Seems like Warrior/GE folks are the only ones who care about the TBT. I will say they did a great "bubble job" last summer. The TBT is an example
of how the NCAA and college basketball can emulate & hopefully repeat their successes.

[Xudash]

Nice post Adoraz. FF is probably under a bit of Covid-related stress, or he was baiting/looking for an argument.

agree with the majority of your lists, except for these:

- Increasing average salary of BE coaches to remain competitive with the top-half of the P5 in men's basketball
Coaches are making enough already. Time for the players (if congress passes new legislation) to make a couple of bucks.
- Continue building the #BetheChange and #Coaches4Action campaigns
Who is "Bethechange"?
- Getting more alumni teams into TBT that model and challenge the Golden Eagles
Seems like Warrior/GE folks are the only ones who care about the TBT. I will say they did a great "bubble job" last summer. The TBT is an example
of how the NCAA and college basketball can emulate & hopefully repeat their successes.

Muddled isn’t capable of baiting. He is fully capable of hyper-linked drivel. He doesn’t understand that VD isn’t worthy of membership in the BIG EAST, and that VD is stuck in mid-major hell with its “spectacular” TV deal. He’s jealous of the BE’s Fox media agreement.

I have him blocked, but noticed his recent quoted post. Frankly, it clearly shows what a failure VD is when it comes to managing COVID-19. I’d be immediately concerned about that.


And yes, strong post GW11.

[adoraz]

Nice post Adoraz. FF is probably under a bit of Covid-related stress, or he was baiting/looking for an argument.

Thanks GTMO. Well regardless his presence here is certainly not doing his team any favors for Big East candidacy. Not sure what about my post bothered him so much, maybe he's holding out hope that Dayton will join before we negotiate.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Fox pretty much has to give the Big East something more these next 5 years if they want to keep us.

adoraz – you did a lot of huffing and puffing, but posted absolutely nothing which backs up your ridiculous assertion. Try again.

Link

I have him on block, but …

We all know that you have me on block, and that you never read my posts, so there is no need to keep repeating it every time you reply to them.

Link

I have him blocked, but noticed his recent quoted post.

No one on this thread has quoted anything that I posted. I am at a loss to understand how you read a quote that was never made.

[redmen9194]

Another accomplishment is that every school except DePaul has been ranked since the relaunch and we have a winning record against the Football 5 schools. Quite frankly, I have zero interest in going back to ESPN. I think Fox is so much better and the broadcasters are much, much better than the ESPN crews. If we went to ESPN we would have less games on TV as well. I'm good with Fox.