Mike Aresco addresses UConn's departure, the impact on his American Athletic Conference moving forward

[weyuo]

The P6 marketing campaign is the worst part.

I cringe every time I see people running around with P6 flag. I have to change the station when that ‘power’ AAC tv spot is on.

I cringe every time I see 5 conferences claim that they deserve special TV privilege and placement in tournaments that determine national championships.

 

[Dooooooomed]

Rumor on Reddit is that ESPN is telling the AAC they will drop the payout $2M a year per member if the AAC doesn't keep UConn for football. I mean, it's only a rumor, but that would be simply delightful.

LOL. That would be the funniest thing ever.

 

[Storrs South]

Rumor on Reddit is that ESPN is telling the AAC they will drop the payout $2M a year per member if the AAC doesn't keep UConn for football. I mean, it's only a rumor, but that would be simply delightful.

Link?

 

[uconnfan68]

Rumor on Reddit is that ESPN is telling the AAC they will drop the payout $2M a year per member if the AAC doesn't keep UConn for football. I mean, it's only a rumor, but that would be simply delightful.

And keep tier 3 rights for it too.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Link?

I’m sure it’s not true. Looked and I can’t find where I saw it.

 

[browndog319]

The more I have thought about this, I have come up with a different take. Let's say UConn was getting $1 million per year for women's basketball. That works out to ~$83k per AAC basketball school, which means the money really didn't matter to the other schools. Even if the AAC took $2 million per year less on the contract to exclude women's basketball, that amounts to $166k per school per year. I really don't think the other schools would want UConn to leave over ~$100k per year per school.

Plus, I think too many people have made too much of the ESPN+ part of the deal as more sports are going streaming and bundled cable packages are not the future. Big 12 entered into a similar contract with ESPN.

I think the real issue is that Aresco didn't think the ESPN+ component of the deal (streaming) was a big issue and he didn't think there was much of an exposure issue of watching games on ESPN+ vs SNY. In fact, for those out of market, ESPN+ makes more sense to purchase than SNY as there will be a lot more content. And please, some people need to stop with the "ESPN+ can only be watched on my computer" nonsense. By the time the AAC contract starts, it will be widely available by a couple of clicks on your TV.

Bottom line, the AAC media contract was not lucrative enough to keep UConn in the AAC. If the deal was $15 million per year, I think UConn would have stayed in the AAC.

It’s actually not if you use Sling to stream TV. If you bought Sling Blue, you’re blocked. I ran into this for some game last year. It’s actually a thing. So it is a problem... and some of us bought that package for football. So keep acting like it’s no big deal. You clearly had a provider where it wasn’t blocked. Not everyone has that and I don’t feel like having multiple TV streaming services...

 

[hardcorehusky]

I went with FUBO which has everything but ESPN. Best move I ever did.

 

[browndog319]

Netflix has never left. I think +, will lock one of those down as well.

But it wasn’t always on it. I had the first generation Roku and it didn’t have any buttons like that - just the purple ones. I think I got it in 2008.

 

[huskymedic]

More of a rehash but couple of interesting blurbs in this Capital Gazette article:

American Athletic Conference commissioner not concerned about Connecticut departure

For the past week or so, commissioner Mike Aresco has been conducting interviews with most of the newspapers that cover member schools of the American Athletic Conference. Aresco’s message ha…

www.capitalgazette.com

>>Aresco had planned to take a vacation to Europe this week, but that was postponed so he could address this situation.<<

>>There is a provision in the new media rights contract that allows ESPN to renegotiate because of Connecticut’s departure. Naturally, Aresco was not eager to discuss any potential changes to the deal.

“We’re going to sit down with ESPN fairly soon. We have a great relationship with ESPN,” Aresco said. “Obviously we hope that the impact is minimal, but I really don’t want to get into it. I don’t want to do anything that would put them on the spot. We’re still a powerful conference in both revenue sports.”<<

 

[The Moose]

How much would a school expect to pay a year in “production” costs that they need to cover under the new deal?

 

[BFieldHusky]

More of a rehash but couple of interesting blurbs in this Capital Gazette article:

American Athletic Conference commissioner not concerned about Connecticut departure

For the past week or so, commissioner Mike Aresco has been conducting interviews with most of the newspapers that cover member schools of the American Athletic Conference. Aresco’s message ha…

www.capitalgazette.com

>>Aresco had planned to take a vacation to Europe this week, but that was postponed so he could address this situation.<<

>>There is a provision in the new media rights contract that allows ESPN to renegotiate because of Connecticut’s departure. Naturally, Aresco was not eager to discuss any potential changes to the deal.

“We’re going to sit down with ESPN fairly soon. We have a great relationship with ESPN,” Aresco said. “Obviously we hope that the impact is minimal, but I really don’t want to get into it. I don’t want to do anything that would put them on the spot. We’re still a powerful conference in both revenue sports.”<<

There is a provision in the new media rights contract that allows ESPN to renegotiate because of Connecticut’s departure. Naturally, Aresco was not eager to discuss any potential changes to the deal.

Funny how fans of the other schools in the American don't want to acknowledge this "little nugget."

 

[CL82]

There is a provision in the new media rights contract that allows ESPN to renegotiate because of Connecticut’s departure. Naturally, Aresco was not eager to discuss any potential changes to the deal.

Funny how fans of the other schools in the American don't want to acknowledge this "little nugget."

What I want to know is whether the provision is "any team", specifically UConn or UConn and a few others.

 

[CL82]

“It didn’t come as a huge surprise. We knew it could possibly happen... Aresco said. “There have been rumors percolating for years. They had expressed their unhappiness in various ways. We thought that discontent was misguided.”

#ThanksMikekeeptalking

 

[browndog319]

What I want to know is whether the provision is "any team", specifically UConn or UConn and a few others.

I would have to imagine it’s the ones that were at the highest risk during the B12 expansion talks. Tulane and ECU do not an interesting conference make...

 

[whaler11]

How much would a school expect to pay a year in “production” costs that they need to cover under the new deal?

The complicated case of the Pac-12 Networks

The Pac-12 Networks’ first three years have been defined by distribution difficulties and revenue shortcomings that have conference leaders wondering whether they should stick with the unusual structure of one national channel and six regional channels.

www.sportsbusinessdaily.com

according to this article - it costs the pac 12 15-25k to put a live olympic sport event on their network.

Wazzu AD says... maybe we should cut back at the end.

I’m sure it’s less to put something on +... but if you do 100-200 events a year that is going to add up.

 

[The Moose]

The complicated case of the Pac-12 Networks

The Pac-12 Networks’ first three years have been defined by distribution difficulties and revenue shortcomings that have conference leaders wondering whether they should stick with the unusual structure of one national channel and six regional channels.

www.sportsbusinessdaily.com

according to this article - it costs the pac 12 15-25k to put a live olympic sport event on their network.

Wazzu AD says... maybe we should cut back at the end.

I’m sure it’s less to put something on +... but if you do 100-200 events a year that is going to add up.

I’m thinking this is at least $500k a year but could be up to $1mm.

 

[UConnRock]

How much would a school expect to pay a year in “production” costs that they need to cover under the new deal?

I found a reference to the high school broadcasts of football games on ESPN that said it costs $65k-75k for production of the HS games. I would assume a FBS game would approach $100k

 

[The Moose]

I found a reference to the high school broadcasts of football games on ESPN that said it costs $65k-75k for true production if the HS games. I would assume a FBS game would approach $100k

Sounds like $7mm is less than $6mm in real money

 

[Dooooooomed]

Sounds like $7mm is less than $6mm in real money

Even less for UConn because we wouldn't skimp out on WBB production like the rest of the conference probably will.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

How much would a school expect to pay a year in “production” costs

’bout 2 fify

 

[whaler11]

I found a reference to the high school broadcasts of football games on ESPN that said it costs $65k-75k for production of the HS games. I would assume a FBS game would approach $100k

and the league is going to own outsourcing the production of football on the +

 

[Rewster]

Aresco is trying his best to get in front of this to control the narrative but in the end UConns departure is going to expose how bad a deal he made.

 

[The Moose]

Will be very interesting to see what Fox adds with us and ESPN removes without us in those contracts

 

[SU1968]

Honest question, guys: Several posts have said that your buy-out is $10 million and you have to stay for 27 months. If ESPN cuts the remaining AAC schools payment by $2 million each, would you be liable for $2 million to each school for each year if you were to leave immediately? Would it be in your best interest to stay the 27 months? What are thoughts here?

 

[Fishy]

Honest question, guys: Several posts have said that your buy-out is $10 million and you have to stay for 27 months. If ESPN cuts the remaining AAC schools payment by $2 million each, would you be liable for $2 million to each school for each year if you were to leave immediately? Would it be in your best interest to stay the 27 months? What are thoughts here?

They're not going to cut the contract by $2M per school, but the answer would be no even if they did.

We can leave with 27 months notice and $10,000,000. To leave earlier, we need to come to some sort of arrangement with the conference, but it certainly would not be $2M per school, per year.

The new television contract doesn't even start until 20-21, which is the earliest we'd be able to leave anyway.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

AAC? that was then, this is now. not big on the 'hate' stuff, even if there is some subtle antagonism for us in the college sports bitness world. so what? who cares? and, with some good planning and a bit of luck, the reasonable possibility of us becoming the college sports brand in the northeast is exciting. play the cards we have, expect the best, and fuhgettabout 'them.' U-C-O-N-N. UConn! Uconn! UConn!

 

[noeynox]

Mountain West future on line as TV talks take place

The conference, which wants to balance control of start times for its athletic events and exposure, is in talks with several providers.

www.reviewjournal.com

 

[gwhuskyfan]

Can't wait to have nothing to do with this guy, and this crap conference

 

[Hogoff]

So “UConn wants to stay for football” but Aresco says hell no. In my mind, that’s an argument in court that will help UConn get out of paying the full $10 million in exit fees.

 

[CL82]

Maybe not since the parties have agreed to those. It does help the argument that we should have to pay more to leave early.