New BE TV Deal Expected to Top $2B

[mattp]

It's laughable that the Big East would leak this. If the ACC knows that the NBE will get paid, all the more reason to destroy it. Very odd how the Big East has diarrhea of the mouth over and over.

the last time we were crowing about the big deal we were going to get Cuse and Pitt defected.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

the last time we were crowing about the big deal we were going to get Cuse and Pitt defected.

On the other hand, the league has to hold a carrot out to its fans and even the other schools to show that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I hope no Big East team is stupid enough to leave for an ACC that could lose half its members without a) getting some binding commitment from whoever is left in the ACC that they will actually stay, and b) knowing where ESPN will settle on the contract. The $17MM/school deal has not been signed, and ESPN probably won't sign it without a GOR. The ESPN could revert back to $13MM a school if there are departures, and the ACC couldn't do a thing about it.

 

[junglehusky]

Do people really believe UCF, Memphis, Houston, SMU and SDSU will be crappy forever?

Not forever, no. But how long can we (UConn) afford to wait to find out? 10 years? 30 years?

 

[junglehusky]

On the other hand, the league has to hold a carrot out to its fans and even the other schools to show that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I hope no Big East team is stupid enough to leave for an ACC that could lose half its members without a) getting some binding commitment from whoever is left in the ACC that they will actually stay, and b) knowing where ESPN will settle on the contract. The $17MM/school deal has not been signed, and ESPN probably won't sign it without a GOR. The ESPN could revert back to $13MM a school if there are departures, and the ACC couldn't do a thing about it.

Can't say I disagree with any of that.

Earlier in this thread or another one, there was a guess as to the breakdown of the BE deal - I can't find it at the moment but it was $6 million for the bball schools and (if I read it correctly) $12 million per football school. I have to say it doesn't sound impressive one way or the other, at least to me.

 

[WestHartHusk]

Can't say I disagree with any of that.

Earlier in this thread or another one, there was a guess as to the breakdown of the BE deal - I can't find it at the moment but it was $6 million for the bball schools and (if I read it correctly) $12 million per football school. I have to say it doesn't sound impressive one way or the other, at least to me.

if the split is equal among football and basketball teams then the football schools need to walk. there is no reason to subsidize them any further; they should get market value for their product (football schools getting 3 shares and bball only 1 - or something comparable). Providence bball does not equal louisville football...hell georgetown bball does not equal usf football.

 

[Pudge]

whats our athletic tradition? we are a rising stud in college sports. don't hate on other schools that are a couple years behind us. they all have the same dreams as us. those rpivate schools are living on the paychecks being earned by public schools in there league. they are living in the past. they are the occupy wall st ppl. they want $$ but won't work for it.

Ha ... this is as confused as I get.

The Private Schools = the Occupy Wall Street?

WTF? I continue to think the Tea Party & the OWS are country cousins. Screaming about nearly the same Ol stuff. Meanwhile, the WALL STREET I know & teach about are the clowns who put together Trillions of Mortgage Backed Securities (Commercial & Residential ... then securitized virtually anything else that had CF) have skated SCOTT-FREE. I don't get how we can get outraged by the OWS on one hand ... or have the bumper sticker against the Tea Party; then, just not focus on true fraud. Securitizing CDOs when you know you have a crap asset is wrong; then, the Rating Agencies slapped on an Investment Grade.

Back to Football ...

FOR all the Whaler fans, let's remember 6 months of comments. We (the BE) are going to get a big contract: Fluke of timing. Maybe more value than BE is worth; ACC will be undervalued at that point having signed up too early. Where do I want my Huskies? I kinda like playing the Traditional Catholics in hoop; being amongst the up&coming Boise/Houston/USF. I despise John Swofford & Chuck Neinas. And, I don't think we have seen anywhere near what this whole spinning Conference Realignment can go. Does the SEC/B12 understand their effect on Title IX? On massive dollars being swayed. That the Iowa States & Kansas get rewarded & valuable eyeballs get left out (umm ... Notre Dame). Stay tuned.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

One thing is clear for UCONN is that we got to grow our FB program. We need to expand the Rent to 55K and pack that stadium. Our basketball is strong, but what's creating this realignment frenzy is football. Our new conference mates already got plans. Boise is expanding their stadium to 55k, Houston is building a brand new stadium, UL just expanded their place to 55K and RU expanded theirs to 50K+. UCONN needs to expand our stadium to over 50K ASAP.

THERE IS NO DEMAND

 

[Pudge]

THERE IS NO DEMAND

WRONG

See in Capital Markets (and as it relates to our Football Stadium), there are unique circumstances that you need to exploit when that window is open. That window was 2003-2008. Rutgers, with a horrendous capital structure (led by Mulcahy & Pernetti & McCormick), understood that. Hathaway (and whatever President he was talking to) never quite got the full picture. WE have in Rentschler a Public Authority structure that allows us to expand when we have Cash Flow. Clearly, we have OVERproduced Cash Flow from the models done when the Stadium was initially conceived. We easily (far more easily than Rutgers OR probably Louisville) could have done the 10-15,000 seats. We still can. Demand? We were at 36-38,000 (about 94% of capacity) through most of this period ... with tty marketing.

It'd be harder now. Far more of an uphill lift. PR. But, to be in the Big Leagues, we do need to be at 50,000+ IMO.

 

[CL82]

WRONG

See in Capital Markets (and as it relates to our Football Stadium), there are unique circumstances that you need to exploit when that window is open. That window was 2003-2008. Rutgers, with a horrendous capital structure (led by Mulcahy & Pernetti & McCormick), understood that. Hathaway (and whatever President he was talking to) never quite got the full picture. WE have in Rentschler a Public Authority structure that allows us to expand when we have Cash Flow. Clearly, we have OVERproduced Cash Flow from the models done when the Stadium was initially conceived. We easily (far more easily than Rutgers OR probably Louisville) could have done the 10-15,000 seats. We still can. Demand? We were at 36-38,000 (about 94% of capacity) through most of this period ... with tty marketing.

It'd be harder now. Far more of an uphill lift. PR. But, to be in the Big Leagues, we do need to be at 50,000+ IMO.

Too many other athletic upgrades (like baseball and soccer and of course the BB practice facility) ahead of it. It's not going to happen in the near term. UConn has ignored it athletic facilities for too long. There's too much to do. Football has gotten a lot of capital thrown it's way with the Rent, Shenkman and Burton facilites. It will be a while before the university turns its attention back to it.

By the way, I fully understand that football is likely to provide the best ROI for capital improvements. I just think that other areas have been so neglected that the university's attention will be directed toward them for a while. Herbst has a vision of what she wants UConn to be. She understands what first class athletic facilities look like. She'll get back to the Rent but, absent a white knight coming in to foot the bill (or a waiting list for season ticket holders), it's not going to happen for a while.

 

[Jericho]

Not really. If they wanted that, they could have signed with the ACC prior to the current ESPN contract. Also, why would joining a conference with OU and Texas excite them if they might only play one of them per year in a cross-over game? Maybe a Conf. championship? You have to understand that in order to do that, ND throws away most of the following scheduled games (from this coming season):

Navy / Purdue / Michigan State / Michigan / Miami / Stanford / BYU / Oklahoma / Pitt / BC / Wake Forest / USC

The teams in bold are teams that ND will NEVER throw away. NEVER. I cannot be more clear about that. You might laugh about the Navy game being a must-have, but there is a history there. As the story goes, Navy essentially saved ND when they couldn't pay their bills by making it a Navy training facility. From that point on, ND said they would ALWAYS schedule them, even after winning like 30 in a row or whatever it was. The other games in bold are must-have rivalries, including BCU, the fellow Jesuit college.

There are what I would consider somewhat serious talks of the Michigan series ending or at the very least going on hiatus (which is in the current contract). The problems are coming from Michigan, which does not want to schedule away out of conference games given the new Big 10 schedules. And this was before the deal with the Pac 12 kicks in where they may have yet another away game against a Pac 12 opponent. Michigan wants some patsies on their schedule and ones that will come to Ann Arbour to lose. Notre Dame does not fit this definition.

We'll see how it plays out, but I don't think Michigan or MSU are locks. Only USC and Navy are real locks, IMO.

 

[Jericho]

With all respect, we are so duck*ing far from fine that it's not even worth putting "us" and "fine" in the same paragraph. There's nothing fine here and there's no good news - a conference meeting, some forced smiles and a throw-away line in a puff piece article does not constitute fine.

Unless there's some soft landing out there that has yet to materialize, we're going to be marginalized in a big, bad way - not just in terms of a four team playoff, but in access to decent bowls, prominent media coverage and despite silly fantasies to the contrary, revenue. We're not raising the UCFs and San Diego States of the world up to our perceived level, we're falling to theirs. Big Monday is not in our future.

There's a reason UConn, Louisville, Cincy and Rutgers have not stopped reaching out to other conferences. It's because they don't speak Spackler, they tend to deal in reality and they know that 'in the end' we won't be fine unless we're somewhere else. They don't want to end up pissing in a bowl of store-brand Oat-eeos because they couldn't afford Cheerios anymore.

I must say I love this post. A touch of comedy too. Plus. I like the generation progression of posts (on this and many other topics): 1) general vague rumor surfaces; 2) positive spin on how this helps UConn (generally by the same people); 3) counter-post on how UConn is still stuck riding the short bus; 4) Complaints about post #3 and how it's not cheery and sunny and drinking the UConn is okay Kool-Aid. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

 

[Carl Spackler]

WRONG

See in Capital Markets (and as it relates to our Football Stadium), there are unique circumstances that you need to exploit when that window is open. That window was 2003-2008. Rutgers, with a horrendous capital structure (led by Mulcahy & Pernetti & McCormick), understood that. Hathaway (and whatever President he was talking to) never quite got the full picture. WE have in Rentschler a Public Authority structure that allows us to expand when we have Cash Flow. Clearly, we have OVERproduced Cash Flow from the models done when the Stadium was initially conceived. We easily (far more easily than Rutgers OR probably Louisville) could have done the 10-15,000 seats. We still can. Demand? We were at 36-38,000 (about 94% of capacity) through most of this period ... with tty marketing.

It'd be harder now. Far more of an uphill lift. PR. But, to be in the Big Leagues, we do need to be at 50,000+ IMO.

50,000 makes UConn the largest division 1-A football stadium east of the Hudson River. It most definitely is a project that needs to be addressed, and I'm guessing now, but my opinion is that getting the expansion done, is going to be significantly less in cost than the basketball facility, or what it would take to upgrade the hockey facility on campus to hockey east standards, as I don't believe that facility, which is essentially brand new too, was built with any foresight into increasing seating capacity.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

50,000 makes UConn the largest division 1-A football stadium east of the Hudson River. It most definitely is a project that needs to be addressed, and I'm guessing now, but my opinion is that getting the expansion done, is going to be significantly less in cost than the basketball facility, or what it would take to upgrade the hockey facility on campus to hockey east standards, as I don't believe that facility, which is essentially brand new too, was built with any foresight into increasing seating capacity.

Incorrect, UMass plays at Gillette. And being the largest stadium east if the hudson is absolutely nothing to crow about.

 

[whaler11]

Incorrect, UMass plays at Gillette. And being the largest stadium east if the hudson is absolutely nothing to crow about.

Thank you.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Incorrect, UMass plays at Gillette. And being the largest stadium east if the hudson is absolutely nothing to crow about.

UMass has zero intention to continue to play at Gillette, and if you think that when you walk a recruit out onto the field, and say -" this is the largest college football stadium in New England" - it's not a big deal....well then you must be a boston university sports fan.

 

[CTMike]

Yale Bowl?

 

[Carl Spackler]

Yale Bowl?

not division 1-A.

 

[coachcap]

not division 1-A.

Really should be. They, Harvard, Princeton, & Penn can all afford it.

 

[UConnDan97]

There are what I would consider somewhat serious talks of the Michigan series ending or at the very least going on hiatus (which is in the current contract). The problems are coming from Michigan, which does not want to schedule away out of conference games given the new Big 10 schedules. And this was before the deal with the Pac 12 kicks in where they may have yet another away game against a Pac 12 opponent. Michigan wants some patsies on their schedule and ones that will come to Ann Arbour to lose. Notre Dame does not fit this definition.

We'll see how it plays out, but I don't think Michigan or MSU are locks. Only USC and Navy are real locks, IMO.

If it is coming from the Michigan / Big10 side of things, then so be it. I will still believe it when I see it. But I would be absolutely shocked if it was dropped from the ND side of things.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

UMass has zero intention to continue to play at Gillette, and if you think that when you walk a recruit out onto the field, and say -" this is the largest college football stadium in New England" - it's not a big deal....well then you must be a boston university sports fan.

It has absolutely nothing to do with BU, especially since I've been a UConn fan my whole life so your potshot attempt missed worse than Randy Edsall's attempt at pin the tail on the dream job, and everything to do with that being the biggest of three stadiums in a narrowly defined region, out of ~120 total across the country, once again, is absolutely nothing to crow about. These are totally irrelevant points and serve nothing more than to advance this complex some people have on here with BC. If we have the biggest stadium in BCS conference X, that's something to be proud of, if we have the biggest stadium on the east coast, that's also something to be proud of. Being the biggest stadium among UMass and BC is like being the car with the best paint job at the junk yard. I am extremely glad you're not the one recruiting for this program, because you'd get laughed out of a recruits living room if you tried to pump your chest about having the biggest stadium in the most irrelevant part of the nation with respect to college football, and where there are only TWO other competitors for that title! And the biggest overall stadium is an FCS school! How can you not see how utterly absurd your statement is?

 

[Dann]

usc and navy are the only games that matter

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Really should be. They, Harvard, Princeton, & Penn can all afford it.

None offer athletic scholarships, they'd never be able to recruit, even with the "athletic scholarships" they offer.

 

[freescooter]

Greg Swaim is a moron.

Greg Swain IS a moron. Might want to check what Notre Dame is going to do with its soccer and lacrosse teams, both nationally ranked in recent years. the B-12 offers neither. there are lots of things that would have to be worked out before Notre Dame agrees to go to the Big 12...while I agree that olympic sports aren't going to make or break any decision, Notre Dame ain't going to be too happy putting nationally ranked programs in the Horizon League. So that at a minimum needs to be figured out. As they demonstrated with their hockey program going to Hockey East rather than the new western power conference, ND still has eastern ties and still sees itself as a sports power, not just a football power.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

As they demonstrated with their hockey program going to Hockey East rather than the new western power conference, ND still has eastern ties and still sees itself as a sports power, not just a football power.

They moved to HE mostly because it's a better overall conference with less travel required than the NACHO. Instead of flying all over the place to Denver, North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, etc. and then have to take long bus rides from those airports, they can basically rack up frequent flyer miles to Boston and only have to drive more than two hours to three opponents. Plus, the deal NBC Sports has with HE is better. You are correct in that they do consider themselves an eastern school and they have far more alumni based in the Boston/New England area than in Nebraska, but the success of the league/TV deal was more of the key point for them. The NACHO even asked BU and BC to join with ND and both declined.

 

[Dann]

solution to all this:
2011: acc did not vote in favor of wvu, the acc chose ruty and uconn. the proof of this is in the fsu and clem research there bot or pres or who ever was quoted talking about. he stated that the most valuable properties in the big east were wvu, then uconn and lville, then ruty/cuse/pitt. they wouldn't take bad academics and got snobby, so uconn and ruty got a invite. we passed and decided to live with wvu who actually wins . we wanted to see that nbc contract and how good it could get, there a reason they moved to where they did. cuse and pitt take the bait right away like typical private school . pitt/cuse/bc/duke/wake to me are dead wood, i would like nothing more than to watch them rot and watch us rise. wvu then gets a b12 invite, can't blame them for going and now uconn and ruty are left out, to add insult the bc dicckhead shoots his mouth off. so what. we know were hotshit still and that we will get our spot. jus twin baby. the reason espn put out all those ruty/uconn to the acc for 16 stuff was becuase they knew that syrapitt didn't bring the value and they couldn't pay the acc enough to keep the big boys home. the result is what u see now with fsu/clem and crew looking elsewhere. the acc leadership screwed up, espn tried to incourage him to fix it and he didn't now as result espn said f it we will kill it, they gave the b12 all the amo it needs. its going to be a crazy summer.

2012-bball pf breaking ground

summer 2012-we are invited to the acc(fsu/clem leave) and we pass again becuase then the B1G invites us.

2013-new baseball/soccer and w/e else on the way

2013-bball is all done with ncaa bs

2014-all above is finished, this is our 1st year in the B1G

2014-downtown storrs round 1 is looking good

summer 2014-we leave the NBE for the B1G

2015- JC's last year with uconn as hc. he will forever be around the program, we will put a statue of him and db together in front of our new announcment to come in a couple years. the court will be named after him. the statues will be positioned so that 20 years from now we can put a geno and doty ones with them also.
KO/KH take over the program. for those wondering, shaka took over UK after Cal was caught again and finally the ncaa did something about it.

2015-we gut gampel for a 7kish puck factory. its great and we now play psu/nd/mich on the reg and have umass/prov/bu/bc ooc games. god bless puck.

2016-we announce that a 15k arena is being bilt into downtown storrs. this is the end of the xl finally. time to start creating a fanbase on campus instead of killing it off campus. times are different now, were a B1G member not a city school.

2017-with this and dt storrs its now the state and towns job to build up the surrounding towns of uconns campus to little college towns like fairfield for example. small pops are fine but having a local fanbase is important. its a short trip to hartford for work every day and that can be the future bright spot of ct if we build this part of the state correctly. this needs to be an on going thing for 20 years. dt storrs was the begining of it. this is also how u increease your own market. its going to be a part of culture in this state 10 years from now to mow the lawn and goto a uconn game on the wekeends just like it is in other states. were getting there.

2020-all is well and we now have 34k season tix holders. ppl are itching to expand the rent becuase while were sucessful on the fields/courts were still looked at as a little kid in the conf becuase of size. it becomes a question of do we sit tight for 10 years at 40k and then just build a 60k dt storrs place or do we forever lock outselves into hartford. we answered that with the bball stuff. we sit tight and eventually in 2025-2030 range we put up the $$ for a 60k downtown storrs stadium thats on par with the big boys. highway stuff is done and the best tailgating set up ever, etc etc with ideas. we sold the rent to a owner in the mls or the lax league and that team becomes the only pro sports team in ct. thats fine as that type of team won't hurt our #'s as uconn tix sold. we make a agreement with them that they can't schedule same times as fball games and they can oly expand there palce to 50. they pay up $80mil for the rent. thats half way to our stadium in cash.

uconn is now a college town with surrounding towns being the same. its a short ride from hartford with great highways now(cough 384). a much higher % of college grads now live within a hour of campus and it becomes the lifestyle. we sell out 15k and 60k games like a bud light sale at walmart. were hosting baseball regional and just pissing bc off that our puck is in the same ncaas as them.

this is susans vision! and it should be yours. dream B1G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

they say the best football is played in the dirty south. the sec. utexas is in the south part of texas. usc is in the south part of cali. umichigan is in the south part of michigan. connecticut is the dirty south of new england. welcome to a revolution. DOGS BITE!!!!!!!!!!!!! #kickitinthesticks