AAC lawsuit coming?

[CL82]

View attachment 44319

Page 18 under (b)(iii). Says they can choose to return rights to members or give to specified entities. That would be us or SNY, in this case. SNY shows some Seton Hall home games that Fox doesn't want under their current deal

Thanks. I saw that but I read it as far less of a certainty than you do. You can always give away what you have. There is no language that suggests this is the norm for games that are not broadcast by Fox. There may be a collateral deal or an understanding, but this reads that the rights for any NBE sports are the NBE's to do with what they will.

 

[UConn Dan]

Fox has the rights to all of our men’s home games and select women’s home games, and can sublicense those at no additional money to us. All the remaining women’s games are with the big east to license out - I’m assuming we’d get a cut like we did in the old big east.

 

[UConnNick]

I think lawsuit is pretty common when exiting a conference and it will force folks each side to negotiate. Don’t see a lasting impact here.

 

[UConnNick]

I posted the above on Sunday, so I hope I am not the random person being quoted. If the AAC tried to void a UConn contract with a third party like SNY, then UConn would have a pretty good case of walking with a significantly reduced exit fee. If, as I now suspect, both sides knew this was going to happen for months and the AAC negotiated away the Tier 3 rights because UConn was the only school that cared about them and we weren't going to be around anyway, then we probably owe $10 large.

I don't think whether Aresco knew or didn't know UCONN was leaving anytime before the final results of the contact negotiations for the media deal has any bearing on Aresco's fiduciary duty to all league members. He still owes the duty regardless. What if UCONN or the NBE had changed their minds, and UCONN was staying in the AAC during the forseeable future? Then Aresco deliberately negotiates away UCONN's Tier 3 SNY rights just to be a dick, which he is. I don't think the fiduciary duty ever goes away as long as Aresco is employed under contract.

If this case gets litigated, Aresco is not going to come out of it looking like a good guy...more like a self-dealing, vindictive jackass. I think it gives UCONN a lot of negotiation leeway.

 

[CTMike]

Aresco: ok, lets negotiate for our TV rights for the next 20 years... we’ve got a large national brand in UConn, UCF has had a nice little run...

ESPN: 7 mil per school.

Aresco: well, we were thinking more...

ESPN: No. btw you will produce it at your own cost and we’ll hide it so no one can see your tire fire.

Aresco: but...!

ESPN: Memphis. Tulane. ECU. Say another word and we cut our offer in half.

Aresco: you drive a hard bargain...

 

[UConnNick]

UConn...if we can't beat you on this court...

 

[UConnNick]

We're gonna beat you in this one!

 

[huskypantz]

Aresco: ok, lets negotiate for our TV rights for the next 20 years... we’ve got a large national brand in UConn, UCF has had a nice little run...

ESPN: 7 mil per school.

Aresco: well, we were thinking more...

ESPN: No. btw you will produce it at your own cost and we’ll hide it so no one can see your tire fire.

Aresco: but...!

ESPN: Memphis. Tulane. ECU. Say another word and we cut our offer in half.

Aresco: you drive a hard bargain...

I’m thinking AAC as Lando Calrissian and ESPN as Darth Vader during the Bespin negotiations.

 

[John Greene]

Great, let's sue another conference commissioner. I have a better idea why don't we just throw in a couple of college presidents for laughs. It worked so well last time.

Does anyone have Bloomie on speed dial? I'm sure he would want a piece of this.