(06-18-2011 09:59 AM)brista21 Wrote:  CJ, jeez ease up a bit. ohio's a good guy and a great poster. He's offering a different point of view that isn't scarlet-colored glasses, yes. But he's not being a jerk about it either and I've never seen him be one either.

Thanks for stating that.

The economy has an impact. I hope that it doesn't go down further, but then again I didn't think housing prices could get worse (which has a high correlation with economic strength or weakness) and they dipped even further over the past few months. (This concern has little to do with TV sports rights. Instead, I'd like the economy to perform well so that I'd have a job, not have insolvent federal and state governments and/or not pay insane taxes in order to keep them solvent.)

That being said, the bigger question for the Big East (and any other conference) is who's going to be bidding and how many bidders are there. I think it was a good idea for the BE to wait to take its contract to the open market, but the main risk that needs to be acknowledged is that it doesn't appear that Fox is interested in the Big East. Here's a quote from the Fox Sports president from the SBD article posted:

Quote:“The competition in college is virtually over,” Freer said. “It’s going to be five or six years before another collegiate conference of significance comes to the open market with rights for football.”

Seeing that the Big East's rights are up next year (not 5 or 6 years from now), that doesn't sound like someone that's going to bid on the BE. Turner, who I think is the most attractive non-ESPN partner if you can get a deal in place, always makes faint rumblings about regular season college sports but didn't seriously look at any of the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 rights, which indicates that they aren't serious about it (or at least aren't going to pay a lot for them). That means the BE is depending upon Comcast alone to come in and bid up the rights over ESPN. That may very well happen, but Comcast, even with its latest deals with the Olympics and NHL which look large in total dollars, is fairly budget-conscious, as they're actually paying flat or less for the next 4 Olympics compared to the current deal on an inflation-adjusted basis and the new NHL deal isn't any more than the pre-lockout ESPN deal adjusted for inflation, either. In contrast, the new Pac-12 and Big 12 deals paid by ESPN and Fox were increases that were way ahead of inflation.

Once again, I think it was still the best decision for the BE to wait, but we'd be remiss to believe that it's completely risk-free because without Fox as a player, there's one less potential bidder involved.

(06-18-2011 02:04 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  

(06-18-2011 11:48 AM)superdeluxe Wrote:  Way to over-react there.

This is a Big East Board. We don't need him or you here telling us how much we suck. You are a guest here. You need to act like it.
CJ

Where in his post did he say the Big East sucked? Talking about there might be a ceiling to media rights deals does not equate to the BE sucking.

Hell have already seen there are limits to how high the dollar goes, Look at the recent Olympics contracts, Those didn't have insane raises did they?

If they are not Big East fans their opinion means sh*t here. I see through their backhanded compliments and their snide remarks.
CJ

(06-18-2011 07:24 AM)mattsarz Wrote:  

(06-18-2011 06:53 AM)CatsClaw Wrote:  None of that is going to affect the Big East's TV deal. That's why I tell people who think the Big East can't possibly get a great deal to actually look at the situation not give their personal opinions and then bring up things that have zero to do with TV negotiations. The bottom isn't going to fall out of the economy next year and even if it did it's not going to affect the value of TV deals next year. But lets say that it true, how is taking a lowball offer now going to help the Big East? With what you're saying that deal is going to be worse by this time next year. I still don't see how people think that the dollar is going to affect TV deal. The entertainment industry is actually booming, and TV, IPods, and other entertainment products, these are industries that are barely affected by this because these are things people enjoy doing, whether they have money or not. TV most of all.

That was a great article by the way, and proof the Big East made the right decision.

Neogitation for the ACC deal was affected by the economy. I remember reading articles saying that the ACC could have opened up negotiations with ESPN in 2009, but held out until 2010 hoping that the economy would help them out.

Ad sales, along with consumers' sub fees to cable/satellite, pay for these rights deals.

http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=337262

There's a reason the Olympic bidding for 2014 only started this year, when it was supposed to start in 2008. Economy. It DOES matter.

I'm talking about people saying that the TV deal will be worse because the economy will bottom out. It has an affect obviously, but not nearly the affect that people are claiming it will have. I mean seriously, us getting a lower deal because the economy will bottom out!? I will trust an expert on this though, those who believe that the economy isn't having nearly as much of an affect as people believe, at least when it comes to sports TV negotiations.

(06-18-2011 03:04 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The economy has an impact. I hope that it doesn't go down further, but then again I didn't think housing prices could get worse (which has a high correlation with economic strength or weakness) and they dipped even further over the past few months. (This concern has little to do with TV sports rights. Instead, I'd like the economy to perform well so that I'd have a job, not have insolvent federal and state governments and/or not pay insane taxes in order to keep them solvent.)

That being said, the bigger question for the Big East (and any other conference) is who's going to be bidding and how many bidders are there. I think it was a good idea for the BE to wait to take its contract to the open market, but the main risk that needs to be acknowledged is that it doesn't appear that Fox is interested in the Big East. Here's a quote from the Fox Sports president from the SBD article posted:

Quote:“The competition in college is virtually over,” Freer said. “It’s going to be five or six years before another collegiate conference of significance comes to the open market with rights for football.”

Seeing that the Big East's rights are up next year (not 5 or 6 years from now), that doesn't sound like someone that's going to bid on the BE. Turner, who I think is the most attractive non-ESPN partner if you can get a deal in place, always makes faint rumblings about regular season college sports but didn't seriously look at any of the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12 rights, which indicates that they aren't serious about it (or at least aren't going to pay a lot for them). That means the BE is depending upon Comcast alone to come in and bid up the rights over ESPN. That may very well happen, but Comcast, even with its latest deals with the Olympics and NHL which look large in total dollars, is fairly budget-conscious, as they're actually paying flat or less for the next 4 Olympics compared to the current deal on an inflation-adjusted basis and the new NHL deal isn't any more than the pre-lockout ESPN deal adjusted for inflation, either. In contrast, the new Pac-12 and Big 12 deals paid by ESPN and Fox were increases that were way ahead of inflation.

Once again, I think it was still the best decision for the BE to wait, but we'd be remiss to believe that it's completely risk-free because without Fox as a player, there's one less potential bidder involved.

Or it could be FOX putting themselves in a negotiating position. Besides none of the conferences went into negotiations without a risk. Considering what the Big East is getting paid now it's worth the risk.

[quote='mattsarz' pid='6587608' dateline='1308399881']


Negotiation for the ACC deal was affected by the economy. I remember reading articles saying that the ACC could have opened up negotiations with ESPN in 2009, but held out until 2010 hoping that the economy would help them out.

/quote]

The ACC's resulting contract was more of a market correction then anything. ESPN over paid last time out for ACC broadcast rights. They paid the ACC for the promise that, with expansion, the ACC would rival the SEC. Things didn't pan out as ESPN, Swafford and the ACC stooges expected. This time they paid a more realistic amount.

It's all about timing and Swaffords timing sucks, always has.
CJ

Something else to consider. Sports costs may be rising but compared to other programming it is still reasonably cheap. There is a reason sit-coms and drama are disappearing from TV. A drama like ER used to cost 15 Million per episode to produce. A reality program now costs approximately $500,000 per episode. When you consider the sheer volume of inventory that a network and pick-up, these contracts don't seem so far out of line.
CJ

(06-18-2011 03:04 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The economy has an impact. I hope that it doesn't go down further, but then again I didn't think housing prices could get worse (which has a high correlation with economic strength or weakness) and they dipped even further over the past few months. (This concern has little to do with TV sports rights. Instead, I'd like the economy to perform well so that I'd have a job, not have insolvent federal and state governments and/or not pay insane taxes in order to keep them solvent.)

That being said, the bigger question for the Big East (and any other conference) is who's going to be bidding and how many bidders are there. I think it was a good idea for the BE to wait to take its contract to the open market, but the main risk that needs to be acknowledged is that it doesn't appear that Fox is interested in the Big East. Here's a quote from the Fox Sports president from the SBD article posted:

Quote:“The competition in college is virtually over,” Freer said. “It’s going to be five or six years before another collegiate conference of significance comes to the open market with rights for football.”

There are several ways to look at what this Fox Rep said:

1)The Fox guy didnt say that they would not bid for the BE rights.

2)Maybe Fox doesnt view the BE as a football conference of significance.

3)He didnt mention basketball. I know that football drives the bus. What about the steering wheel and the tires? Basketball certainly helps that bus to roll. And for some networks could be a major ratings grabber during the winter, at a much cheaper price than the NBA or NFL.

4)Maybe Fox just isnt interested in the BE at all. Someone did point out that Fox doesnt have regional stations in the BE footprint and probably would not be a serious bidder for the BE rights. This was mentioned months ago.
It may have been either you or Neil, or both.

The question that you raised above "who's going to be bidding on the BE TV rights and how many bidders are there?" I think its a question that ESPN also may be asking. I also dont think they will wait to find out. Its likely that they come back at the BE with a much better offer, in the $15-17 million area with guarantees of better exposure for BE fb. I think the BE and Espn will reach a deal long before the BE can hit the open market.

(06-18-2011 05:52 PM)cuseroc Wrote:  

(06-18-2011 03:04 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The economy has an impact. I hope that it doesn't go down further, but then again I didn't think housing prices could get worse (which has a high correlation with economic strength or weakness) and they dipped even further over the past few months. (This concern has little to do with TV sports rights. Instead, I'd like the economy to perform well so that I'd have a job, not have insolvent federal and state governments and/or not pay insane taxes in order to keep them solvent.)

That being said, the bigger question for the Big East (and any other conference) is who's going to be bidding and how many bidders are there. I think it was a good idea for the BE to wait to take its contract to the open market, but the main risk that needs to be acknowledged is that it doesn't appear that Fox is interested in the Big East. Here's a quote from the Fox Sports president from the SBD article posted:

Quote:“The competition in college is virtually over,” Freer said. “It’s going to be five or six years before another collegiate conference of significance comes to the open market with rights for football.”

There are several ways to look at what this Fox Rep said:

1)The Fox guy didnt say that they would not bid for the BE rights.

2)Maybe Fox doesnt view the BE as a football conference of significance.

3)He didnt mention basketball. I know that football drives the bus. What about the steering wheel and the tires? Basketball certainly helps that bus to roll. And for some networks could be a major ratings grabber during the winter, at a much cheaper price than the NBA or NFL.

4)Maybe Fox just isnt interested in the BE at all. Someone did point out that Fox doesnt have regional stations in the BE footprint and probably would not be a serious bidder for the BE rights. This was mentioned months ago.
It may have been either you or Neil, or both.

The question that you raised above "who's going to be bidding on the BE TV rights and how many bidders are there?" I think its a question that ESPN also may be asking. I also dont think they will wait to find out. Its likely that they come back at the BE with a much better offer, in the $15-17 million area with guarantees of better exposure for BE fb. I think the BE and Espn will reach a deal long before the BE can hit the open market.

Comcast will definitely be a player for the next BE TV contract. They will drive up the cost of our contract. I agree ESPN will try to come back with a better offer before the open market. I think BE would be wise not to take their offer even if they come back with something better. Comcast will step it up if they want to be a major player in college sports.

I think you're right cuse, that's how I see things playing out. You make a great point SF, I have a feeling that Comcast is willing to make us their Pac-12 or SEC, their center piece as far as cracking into the collegiate market and ESPN will know this. I could see Comcast making us a strong offer and allowing us leeway to also start a conference network. I think that ESPN will come at us with an ACC-type deal but I'm sure that Comcast, through Notre Dame, will make us a pretty fat offer as well.

(06-18-2011 04:38 PM)CardinalJim Wrote:  If they are not Big East fans their opinion means sh*t here. I see through their backhanded compliments and their snide remarks.
CJ

All over a future non-existent TV contract discussion?

(06-19-2011 04:31 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  All over a future non-existent TV contract discussion?

No....
This is a a Big East board. If your so-called opinion is nothing more than an attack on the conference than it shouldn't be allowed here.
CJ

I actually agree with Ohio on the "lowball" comment. If they were going to cancel the remaing two years of the crappy existing agreement and start with the proposed deal, it would have effectively been $15MM, as Waylon Smithers has pointed out. That was actually a good deal the BE turned down.

Oh, as far as the "economy" comments, it HAS been bad since 2008. It wasn't any better for the PAC-10 than it was for the ACC.

(06-19-2011 11:45 AM)CardinalJim Wrote:  No....
This is a a Big East board. If your so-called opinion is nothing more than an attack on the conference than it shouldn't be allowed here.
CJ

No one in their right mind would have seen Ohio's comments as a attack on the conference.

I didn't see it as an attack, and I'm in my left mind...

I did not see an attack either.

I feel that there wasnt anything wrong with what the Ohio State fan said either. He is a solid poster here and he doesnt get involved with smack and insults. But to be fair to Cardinal Jim, we have had some visitors over here who would regularly make "back handed comments and snide" remarks about our league. It was happening so often that sometimes one could get rather paranoid and think a visitor was being disrespectful even when they really were not. It has happened to me. For the most part, and since the board went to this new format, we havent had nearly as much of that crap as we have had in the past. So we should really cut Cardinal Jim some slack on this one, imo.

agree3

Agreed cuse. There are so many people who come on here from other conferences to tell us we CAN'T get a better deal, we CAN'T get better, the conference is going to get raided or the economy is suddenly going to collapse right before we sign a deal that it's easy to get defensive. I can completely see why CJ is reacting the way that he is. It's easy for the people who are not Big East fans to criticize, this is the future of our conference and programs at stake here. I guarantee that if we went to Big Ten or Pac-10/12 or SEC or ACC boards we would be ripped apart. I've seen people ripped apart for having the gall to say on those boards that the Big East will be fine so you should expect so aggressive reaction from the message board of a conference that has been trashed non-stop since 2003.