The failed P-6 campaign that led to a lousy TV deal with ESPN along with UConn athletic department in 2018: generated $40 million in revenue, spent $81 million in expenses is why UConn is packing it up and going home!
“The long-term goal is obviously to move athletics closer to financial self-sufficiency,” UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said in an email, noting that as recently as 2013, the athletic department did not require a significant subsidy. “In recent years, declining conference and media licensing revenue, along with rising costs, have created the current deficit. It is not sustainable and the Division of Athletics is continually working to identify savings and drive up revenue in order to help close this gap.”
The biggest individual team culprit of the UConn athletic department’s 2018 deficit was the school’s football program, which lost $8.7 million. Additionally, men’s basketball lost about $5 million, women’s basketball lost about $3.1 million and the rest of the school’s sports lost about $22.3 million among them.
Lets look at the new American P-6 TV Deal: At first glance: Each school will get just under $7 million per year starting in 2020-21, still not at the level of the SEC’s $43.1 million from 2017-18 but considerably more than the couch change that Div. I’s have-nots receive.
The fine print: Most games will be on ESPN+, a pay web service ($4.99 per month) with only 2 million subscribers, rather than linear or “real” TV; schools are responsible for on-campus production costs, which some estimate could lower their net annual take by as much as $2 million; and the deal is for 12 years, when technology may change and media rights might be worth more and Div. I athletic budgets will undoubtedly have soared.
“That’s what blew me away,” SDSU’s Wicker says, “that 13 years from now they’re still only going to be getting $7 million per school, knowing what things cost today and what they might cost in 13 years. I would be surprised if we got locked into something like that. I think that’s too long.”
So UConn to the Big East Makes Sense, Feels Terrible....Why??? The timing is interesting in one regard. UConn stopped receiving payouts from the current Big East schools this year for the split that took place six years ago.
As part of the settlement, the basketball-only schools kept the Big East name and Madison Square Garden for its conference championship, while the leftover football schools were compensated handsomely. The football schools reportedly kept roughly $100 million of the $110 million left over from previous exit fees, entry fees, and money earned during the NCAA tournament.
And now it appears as though they want back in The BIG East jumping from a BAD AAC TV deal to a more stable BIG EAST "Basketball Only" TV Deal!
Link
https://www.courant.com/sports/hc-sp-uco...story.html
Link
https://www.abqjournal.com/1308039/mwc-m...om-tv.html
Link
http://friarbasketball.com/2019/06/22/ad...-terrible/