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Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
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Wedge Offline
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Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
Looks like the companies that make money off of college sports are lining up to exploit the pandemic.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/co...370368002/
Quote:Learfield IMG College, the multimedia conglomerate that spent big over the last decade to buy up radio, marketing and sponsorship rights for top athletics programs, quietly approached several schools this spring amid the COVID-19 pandemic asking for 60-day delays to make scheduled payments before the last fiscal year ended on June 30 and to restructure deals in ways that would reduce or eliminate schools’ guaranteed rights fees, according to officials at nine schools that have partnerships with the company.

Learfield IMG, according to some of those officials who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, has even raised the prospect of drastic measures like activating force majeure clauses to get out of contracts if schools aren’t willing to renegotiate.

Some schools have agreed to replace their guaranteed distributions from Learfield IMG with a revenue-share arrangement, citing the possibility they would not be able to collect any sponsorship money at all in the near-term if football isn’t played this fall.
Quote:But administrators at other schools, whose budgets have already been upended by the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament and expected loss of football revenue this year in even a best-case scenario, have been angered by the company’s approach. They see Learfield IMG as using the pandemic to either get out of some of their less-profitable deals or secure more favorable terms on contracts that, in many cases, extend out for years.

Said one Group of Five administrator: “People are madder about this than anything I’ve seen in my years as an AD.”
Quote:Though every contract is slightly different, multiple athletics directors said that after consulting their general counsels they would be prepared to fight it out in the courts or through arbitration if Learfield IMG tried to terminate the contracts.
Quote:As one administrator at a top Learfield IMG property said: “The lawyers are going to be really busy.”
07-05-2020 03:50 AM
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XLance Offline
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RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
The music has stopped, and a lot of folks that were at the sports feeding trough are finding that all of the chairs are gone.
07-05-2020 08:10 AM
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Thiefery Offline
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Post: #3
RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
How are they trying to screw schools? They are set to be washed if no football. they also took a red wave to the face with the cancellation of CBB conference tournaments, NCAA tournaments, baseball, softball, etc.

EVERYONE is getting screwed by Covid.
07-05-2020 10:15 AM
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Hokie Mark Offline
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RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
(07-05-2020 10:15 AM)Thiefery Wrote:  How are they trying to screw schools? They are set to be washed if no football. they also took a red wave to the face with the cancellation of CBB conference tournaments, NCAA tournaments, baseball, softball, etc.

EVERYONE is getting screwed by Covid.

Indeed, if these contracts all have 'force majeure clauses', I'd say Learfield is being reasonable and trying to preserve future relationships by not simply activating those clauses... they are essentially offering partial payment for what amounts to no sports since February (give or take).
07-05-2020 11:47 AM
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Wedge Offline
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RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
If Learfield was merely trying to negotiate a settlement for just 2020-21, that would be understandable.

But what Learfield is actually doing is trying to eliminate contract aspects that are favorable to the colleges (guaranteed annual payments) for the entire length of the contract, which might be 10 years or more.

They're also taking advantage of the pandemic to renegotiate contracts entered into before Learfield and IMG merged. At that time, athletic departments got favorable terms, more money, etc. because Learfield and IMG were competing for the colleges' business. Now that Learfield and IMG have merged, there's basically a monopoly, and "Learfield IMG" is using its monopoly to lower its own costs at the expense of the colleges.
07-05-2020 01:04 PM
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JRsec Offline
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RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
(07-05-2020 03:50 AM)Wedge Wrote:  Looks like the companies that make money off of college sports are lining up to exploit the pandemic.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/co...370368002/
Quote:Learfield IMG College, the multimedia conglomerate that spent big over the last decade to buy up radio, marketing and sponsorship rights for top athletics programs, quietly approached several schools this spring amid the COVID-19 pandemic asking for 60-day delays to make scheduled payments before the last fiscal year ended on June 30 and to restructure deals in ways that would reduce or eliminate schools’ guaranteed rights fees, according to officials at nine schools that have partnerships with the company.

Learfield IMG, according to some of those officials who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, has even raised the prospect of drastic measures like activating force majeure clauses to get out of contracts if schools aren’t willing to renegotiate.

Some schools have agreed to replace their guaranteed distributions from Learfield IMG with a revenue-share arrangement, citing the possibility they would not be able to collect any sponsorship money at all in the near-term if football isn’t played this fall.
Quote:But administrators at other schools, whose budgets have already been upended by the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament and expected loss of football revenue this year in even a best-case scenario, have been angered by the company’s approach. They see Learfield IMG as using the pandemic to either get out of some of their less-profitable deals or secure more favorable terms on contracts that, in many cases, extend out for years.

Said one Group of Five administrator: “People are madder about this than anything I’ve seen in my years as an AD.”
Quote:Though every contract is slightly different, multiple athletics directors said that after consulting their general counsels they would be prepared to fight it out in the courts or through arbitration if Learfield IMG tried to terminate the contracts.
Quote:As one administrator at a top Learfield IMG property said: “The lawyers are going to be really busy.”

All the more reason for the schools to ban together and market their own images. Cut out Learfield/IMG and when things return to normal they can almost double their revenue by selling direct to manufacturers and by controlling their own signage and marketing their own radio.

Don't sign anything and don't given Learfield/IMG the time of day moving forward. If they breach the existing contract then let's void the whole damn thing! We'll be better off for it in the long run and if that move kills their stock that's icing on the damned cake!

But no matter how you view this it is best for all to void the contracts and renegotiate under normal circumstances. Accepting diminished terms for long duration contracts is insane!
(This post was last modified: 07-05-2020 01:59 PM by JRsec.)
07-05-2020 01:57 PM
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TerryD Offline
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RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
(07-05-2020 01:04 PM)Wedge Wrote:  If Learfield was merely trying to negotiate a settlement for just 2020-21, that would be understandable.

But what Learfield is actually doing is trying to eliminate contract aspects that are favorable to the colleges (guaranteed annual payments) for the entire length of the contract, which might be 10 years or more.

They're also taking advantage of the pandemic to renegotiate contracts entered into before Learfield and IMG merged. At that time, athletic departments got favorable terms, more money, etc. because Learfield and IMG were competing for the colleges' business. Now that Learfield and IMG have merged, there's basically a monopoly, and "Learfield IMG" is using its monopoly to lower its own costs at the expense of the colleges.

Tough to argue with this, Wedge.
07-05-2020 01:58 PM
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Post: #8
RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
(07-05-2020 01:04 PM)Wedge Wrote:  If Learfield was merely trying to negotiate a settlement for just 2020-21, that would be understandable.

But what Learfield is actually doing is trying to eliminate contract aspects that are favorable to the colleges (guaranteed annual payments) for the entire length of the contract, which might be 10 years or more.

They're also taking advantage of the pandemic to renegotiate contracts entered into before Learfield and IMG merged. At that time, athletic departments got favorable terms, more money, etc. because Learfield and IMG were competing for the colleges' business. Now that Learfield and IMG have merged, there's basically a monopoly, and "Learfield IMG" is using its monopoly to lower its own costs at the expense of the colleges.

Learfield has been trying to get a monopoly position.
07-05-2020 10:39 PM
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Hokie Mark Offline
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RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
(07-05-2020 01:04 PM)Wedge Wrote:  If Learfield was merely trying to negotiate a settlement for just 2020-21, that would be understandable.

But what Learfield is actually doing is trying to eliminate contract aspects that are favorable to the colleges (guaranteed annual payments) for the entire length of the contract, which might be 10 years or more.

They're also taking advantage of the pandemic to renegotiate contracts entered into before Learfield and IMG merged. At that time, athletic departments got favorable terms, more money, etc. because Learfield and IMG were competing for the colleges' business. Now that Learfield and IMG have merged, there's basically a monopoly, and "Learfield IMG" is using its monopoly to lower its own costs at the expense of the colleges.

Ah, I see.
07-06-2020 06:57 AM
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georgia_tech_swagger Offline
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RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
I don't think there's a competitor of note to Learfield-IMG in the space of college sports radio / web productions. Learfield and IMG were seperate ... now they're the same company. There was Sidearm Sports and CBS too .... they're now also under the Learfield-IMG umbrella.

Amusing that a monopoly player in the space wants help.
07-06-2020 11:28 AM
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RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
(07-05-2020 01:57 PM)JRsec Wrote:  
(07-05-2020 03:50 AM)Wedge Wrote:  Looks like the companies that make money off of college sports are lining up to exploit the pandemic.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/co...370368002/
Quote:Learfield IMG College, the multimedia conglomerate that spent big over the last decade to buy up radio, marketing and sponsorship rights for top athletics programs, quietly approached several schools this spring amid the COVID-19 pandemic asking for 60-day delays to make scheduled payments before the last fiscal year ended on June 30 and to restructure deals in ways that would reduce or eliminate schools’ guaranteed rights fees, according to officials at nine schools that have partnerships with the company.

Learfield IMG, according to some of those officials who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation, has even raised the prospect of drastic measures like activating force majeure clauses to get out of contracts if schools aren’t willing to renegotiate.

Some schools have agreed to replace their guaranteed distributions from Learfield IMG with a revenue-share arrangement, citing the possibility they would not be able to collect any sponsorship money at all in the near-term if football isn’t played this fall.
Quote:But administrators at other schools, whose budgets have already been upended by the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournament and expected loss of football revenue this year in even a best-case scenario, have been angered by the company’s approach. They see Learfield IMG as using the pandemic to either get out of some of their less-profitable deals or secure more favorable terms on contracts that, in many cases, extend out for years.

Said one Group of Five administrator: “People are madder about this than anything I’ve seen in my years as an AD.”
Quote:Though every contract is slightly different, multiple athletics directors said that after consulting their general counsels they would be prepared to fight it out in the courts or through arbitration if Learfield IMG tried to terminate the contracts.
Quote:As one administrator at a top Learfield IMG property said: “The lawyers are going to be really busy.”

All the more reason for the schools to ban together and market their own images. Cut out Learfield/IMG and when things return to normal they can almost double their revenue by selling direct to manufacturers and by controlling their own signage and marketing their own radio.

Don't sign anything and don't given Learfield/IMG the time of day moving forward. If they breach the existing contract then let's void the whole damn thing! We'll be better off for it in the long run and if that move kills their stock that's icing on the damned cake!

But no matter how you view this it is best for all to void the contracts and renegotiate under normal circumstances. Accepting diminished terms for long duration contracts is insane!

I agree with a lot of what you are saying JR, but the thing that puzzles me is what would happen if the schools did punt Learfield-IMG(since the two have merged). A lot of colleges and universities have very good mass communication departments, so I don't anticipate any problems on the production end(maybe not for tv, but definitely for radio!!!). The problem I see with radio is with distribution.
(This post was last modified: 01-04-2021 09:52 AM by DawgNBama.)
01-04-2021 09:50 AM
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Post: #12
RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
All the schools in the SEC and ACC have full on campus production facilities. The schools also pay to staff these facilities. And they paid to bring them online and make them operational. And they paid to trench all the fiber optic cables to venues to make that work. Etc etc etc.

So Disney pays no overhead or staffing on the actual event production for any ACC or SEC event beyond on-air "talent." Disney walks away with 50% of profit after this despite paying way less than 50% of actual overhead. The pay day to the SEC or ACC to simply say "we're going to run this soup to nuts in house now" is take whatever you make off your conference network and double it. That's before you do direct sales. That's before you redo T1 and T2 such that you're in total control and merely selecting a vendor to rebroadcast your on campus production room. And as a bonus you can replace random ESPN talking heads you probably don't want to hear with the home/away radio network which you probably do.
01-04-2021 11:45 AM
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DawgNBama Offline
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RE: Learfield trying to screw athletic departments
(01-04-2021 11:45 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  All the schools in the SEC and ACC have full on campus production facilities. The schools also pay to staff these facilities. And they paid to bring them online and make them operational. And they paid to trench all the fiber optic cables to venues to make that work. Etc etc etc.

So Disney pays no overhead or staffing on the actual event production for any ACC or SEC event beyond on-air "talent." Disney walks away with 50% of profit after this despite paying way less than 50% of actual overhead. The pay day to the SEC or ACC to simply say "we're going to run this soup to nuts in house now" is take whatever you make off your conference network and double it. That's before you do direct sales. That's before you redo T1 and T2 such that you're in total control and merely selecting a vendor to rebroadcast your on campus production room. And as a bonus you can replace random ESPN talking heads you probably don't want to hear with the home/away radio network which you probably do.
Would love to do that to ESPN, Swagger!!! My alma mater, the University of Montevallo ,(a Division 2 school), already does that with Youtube as the vendor. The quality is a little lacking, but it's still better than ESPiN.

Getting back to Learfield-IMG, I got on their website and did some digging. I found out that Auburn and some other schools don't use them for their radio network. I would be interested in seeing who Auburn uses for their radio network.


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01-04-2021 03:07 PM
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