Here are the bullet points courtesy of Jon Wilner:
* ESPN and Fox will be co-rightsholders.
* Games will be shown on Fox, ABC, FX, Fox Sports Net, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.
* The contract includes the Pac-12 football championship game, which will be shown alternately on Fox and ABC.
* The deal is worth approx $3 billion … or approx $250 million per year … or approx $21 million per school per year.
* The deal starts in 2012-13 and covers 12 years.
* The league will form its own network — and be the sole owner (unlike Big Ten Network partnership with Fox).
* The conference will also create a digital channel, like ESPN3.
* The conference is expected to formally announce the deal Wednesday in Phoenix, where it’s holding its annual spring meetings.
What I heard is that Utah and Colorado will both (rightfully) be vested over the first few years. So expect the original 10 members to get a little more in the beginning. My math has OSU at around 22.5 mil the first year.
The downside is that Fox is still involved. As we all know, their production is horrible. Even Versus is better–they at least broadcast in HD, and Ted Robinson is an underrated sportscaster (the guy always does his research). The other thing I don't like is that games will be shown on Fox, ABC, FX, Fox Sports Net, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. For the most part they're just replacing Versus with FX, but that's still seven networks, which means we're going to be wasting a lot of our time hunting down games. Finally, I am curious to see how much of a hit the consumer will take. Right now I pay $5 for Comcast's Sports Package, which includes FSNW and FCS. The Beaver's games were always on one of those channels. I'd be willing to pay $10 per month, but I don't think I'd go higher than that.
Thoughts?
I know people are going to bitch if we dump a bunch of money in football and not track or basketball, but let’s be honest. Should we spend money on something that makes us no profit? Or would adding a track program increase our profile, therefor increasing football’s income?
Yes, we should invest in those sports. Having good programs across the board attracts good students and athletes/recruits. If OSU had a track team we’d have a better football team, too. A smart plan would be to budget most (but not all) of this money into football, start building up the other programs with the rest, and once football shows return on investment in a couple years take some of those profits and keep building the secondary programs.
Dumping T&F was one of the worst decisions ever made by OSU. Not only was it a successful and historic program, but the sport itself has a great local following. It also speaks to the “wholeness” of your athletic department. Without that “wholeness”, nobody can seriously think we are truly committed to our athletics. And to a certain degree, basketball should be our bread and butter. It’s decline began when T&F was dumped. The correlation isn’t in the timing of the two events so much as who created the events and what that said about the program as a whole.
In the end, profit is not what it’s all about. In a purely economic sense, profit is not the goal of any entity. Money is a wasted tool if it’s not spent. In this case, if it’s not spent on what some think are ancillary sports then our commitment to the primary sports will always be in doubt.
Think of those other sports as parts of the whole… a barometer for our football program. If they’re wilting, then it’s not long before the trunk of the tree dies.
Some other news: Willie Lyles is now linked to Cal….5k to make contact with recruit Trovon Reed, who eventually signed with–you guessed it–Auburn!
So it starts in 2012. What’s the deal for the next year I wonder? I guess it makes sense since the 2011 CCG is already owned by FOX.
I’ve heard a lot about Comcast being required to stop screwing with customers as a part of the NBC merger. I guess we’ll see next fall if that’s true. If I can once again watch Blazers games, then we’ll know Comcast suckers… er… customers won’t be screwed out of Pac 12 events just because their provider is a bunch of dicks.
Once this deal gets under way a year from this fall, We will hopefully have a new AD who knows something about finances and spending wisely and on things that OSU needs as far as recruiting, a sports psychologist for the school or maybe 2 of them(1 for male sports, the other for female sports), MARKETING/advertisement, and so on.
There is so much money at play here that can be used, but we should pay off our debt at about $750,000 over the 12 year period until we are out of debt. That’s where that money should go FIRST. De-allocate at least $750,000 towards paying off the debt each year, and not all at once(this would be stupid and a waste of resources and make us even further behind and limit our spending to $13 Million instead of ~$19-20 Million each year.
The money should also be saved, so save about $2-3 Million over the 12 years and by the end of the contract we will have ~$24 Million saved up by that time as a “Rainy Day” Fund. This would leave us at ~ $17-18 Million at this point each year.
That is still a lot to spend. The money saved should be saved for traveling and expenses to BCS, NCAA tourney for BBall and other sports, as well as the CWS travel expenses. We could also get chartered flights or our own airplane for the school. I think that would be worth spending money on right there, no?
Unlike Nikegon, OSU’s plans for capital improvements require certain percentages in reserve to be able to draw on bonds from the state. The numbers I typically hear are 50%, but I think large projects like Reser’s east side were slightly less.
Regardless, payment of debt over time is one aspect of future plans. Holding reserves for capital improvements will be another. But on what are we going to spend this money? We should be able to set aside $8-10m per year at our current spending levels plus the couple minor expenses you note.
I’m sure plans are already set for these monies. I’m also thinking all Pac 12 AD’s credit ratings just jumped through the roof.
I think we need to spend the money on updating Gill at some point in replacing the wooden benches with seat backs. Is that a bad idea? I don’t think so. Also, this will help in my idea of adding more student tickets to give out each season in order to fill the entire student section.
Why would we save $8-10 Million each year? that makes no sense to me. I say we spend as much as we can on marketing, advertising, branding, and try to get more exposure ESPECIALLY since we’ll be fighting the other 11 schools of the Pac-12(team down south mostly) with ESPN commercials for OSU. We need an OSU commercial that would work all year round and not just for football, basketball, and baseball. I’m thinking more or less like the Duck looking out over a pond from his office. Something more creative than that, but along those lines.
When you can avoid it, you never spend your own money. As you make more money, this becomes an easier rule to follow.
I can agree that as my own money, I want to save up and use wisely, but when we have that kind of money, why not spend it on things we absolutely need, like new practice equipment for all sports?
There is a lot we can do with this money and if we don’t do some of what the ducks do with their money, then we might as well pay all of our debt off in the first year instead of saving the $8-10 mil like you suggested because otherwise it will be sitting there and we’ll still be sitting in debt. It’s not like a sports facility will catch on fire and we’ll need to rebuild it, so we should save money just in case that happens. The sporting facilities are the most expensive pieces of property OSU owns athletically right now. There’s no reason to tuck away $8-10 Mil…that’s why I said 2-3 maybe $4 mil in savings and pay off the debt gradually from 750,000 to $2 Mil a year. That seems the most reasonable to me. Also, if we save $8-10 Mil a year, that money better be saved up for when we go to a BCS, CWS, NCAA Tourney, and what not, because if it’s not used in that way, then shame on OSU!
I’m saying that $8-10m will be what’s left after bills are paid under the current spending rate plus some of the smaller increases you suggested.
When you bank that kind of change, people come to you looking for ways to get you to invest it in them. You can start with the bank itself if you want. Who will give me the best rates and services for me to put my money in their vaults? Every second of that money’s life needs to be a moment of leverage.
The interest gains can pay for small items, and the capital holdings can be used as collateral for more meaningful projects… like maybe the west side of Reser.
They should put some in a CD or some other no-risk investment that will just help stave off inflation. By year 12, the 21 million is going to be more like 15 million. The downside of any long-term deal is inflation. The upside of course is guaranteed money at a much higher rate than the current contract. There’s a sweet spot where x amount invested will stave off inflation, and that’s what they need to put away. Of course, investing in the University’s programs can help stave off inflation, too, via increased demand/higher ticket prices…
Is this possibly why the pac-10 was stuck at $60 Mil a year? Due to inflation and us not going along with the inflation? Cause I mean, $60 Mil a year was A LOT back in 1980’s. So I mean, that’s very likely and I think Cal will now be able to bring back baseball with this new TV contract as well. A lot of good will come from this deal and we need to build a track program up as well. I’m excited for what the future entails/holds for OSU!
I believe Colorado, but not Utah, its fully vested from the start of the deal. It is next year that they only get a portion of a full share.
I think a mid-sized charter jet would be a good idea. The upfront cost is high, but it will pay for itself over time. They could also slap the OSU logo on there and get free advertising at some populated airports.
I had heard that Scott was thinking about a conference charter deal with a private fleet. That wouldn’t rule out Alaska or Southwest from being the private fleet, but leasing charter services are more cost effective than purchasing aircraft outright.
I’m trying to find informative articles on buying vs leasing a plane…can’t seem to find anything. I’d guess the main problem with buying is the hidden costs of gas, a pilot, parts/labor, and being grounded if anything goes wrong with the plane. Pushing those responsibilities onto someone else is probably a smart idea.
There are positives though, such as depreciation/write offs, freedom, status (e.g. flying a private jet to see a recruit), slapping a logo on the side and getting free advertising, etc. As I grasp for positives, the idea of leasing becomes more appealing.
Seems like a difficult subject, honestly. Probably requires a pretty complex cost-benefit analysis.
I’d say buying a plane would be more cost effective than paying for plane tickets ranging from $150-225(Seattle) to upwards of $500 a person. For the football team, that’s ~$37,500 for 75 people from the $500 range! That’s a lot of money to travel. I’d say that if we were to really invest in a plane, we should invest in a private jet for the coaches and they can use the plane to head up recruiting trips and multiple sports coaches can utilize it not just football. Imagine this, Coach Casey, MR, CR, all heading to Texas/Oklahoma to talk with recruits all on the same weekend and not spending about $1500 to send each head coach to Texas/OK? I think there are more pluses to the idea of a private plane than there are minuses to be honest….and the coaches who go on recruiting trails after a game can fly back on their own scheduled time instead of a commercial flight! I am loving this idea more than ever right now!
At the risk of being called crotchety…
Buying a jet? Seriously? A Lear runs you 13-15 million, but it holds 10 people. You gonna make 8 trips back and forth? Or we could get a low-end Gulfstream that holds maybe 20 people for $20 million or more. Any larger jet that COULD hold 75-85 people is probably over $100 million.
This is just absurd.
Last June, Cliff said it was being discussed as an option. I know because I asked him the question.
I did some reading on the subject this morning. Apparently used aircraft is selling at 20-50% discounts due to the recession. I’m sure jet fuel is through the roof, though. You don’t know if it’s a good purchase. Neither do I. Which is why I said a cost-benefit analysis is required. It’s too complex and specialized for us to know.
(A large passenger jet) for flying the football team to games? That’s absurd and a waste of money.
(A small learjet or gulfstream) for recruiting? Perhaps an okay investment.
I admit, I know nothing much about jet aircraft. But I do know that the university has bigger fish to fry than to purchase a large jet aircraft for $100,000,000 to fly the football team to away games (6 times per year by the way) which was what was apparently suggested. That would be a boondoggle. And I’m fiscally liberal.
I have no real problem with the university looking into the possibility of buying a small business jet. They are relatively cheap and while fuel costs are absurd right now, the positives MIGHT outweigh the negatives.
Chip Kelly has a private jet….grant it, Phil Knight probably gave it to him(the school) cause it was one of his older ones. I could honestly see OSU saving up to get a private jet for all coaches to utilize for recruiting and flying to games. I feel this would save them money in the long run. The passenger plane that holds 75-85 people is ridiculous agreed. however, what about a private plane that can handle the basketball teams? I mean, there are only 10-15 people needed to travel by plane for a basketball team right? So why not get a plane like that?
More like 25 for hoops when trainers, coaches, managers and school officials who want to travel are added. But I agree. Now is the time to purchase a business jet.
http://www.ongo.com/v/808908/-1/FB7AE49FABFC7574/prices-for-second-hand-business-jets-left-under-a-cloud-despite-recovery
Corvallis couldn’t handle a large passenger jet.
The charter service I had heard about was for the large passenger service and maybe some mid-level travel considerations. Contracting with a charter service as a conference would allow Scott to do the dealing again, and it would keep the schools from having to worry about incidentals incurred from chartering on an individual basis.
From what I see, fuel costs aren’t that much more than gas…looks like they’re in the $6 per gallon range. It’s hard to find accurate data on the internet, though. I saw one site that said it’s $139 per gallon (haha).
From what I read, fuel efficiency in most planes equates to about 28 miles per gallon in a car. Again, this is from Google searches…
I think the biggest financial drawback is maintenance and parts. Apparently some common parts that break can cost up to $50,000.
Ok, ya that makes sense to have the trainers and such travel with the team. So 20-35 sounds about right for a basketball team. Baseball is about half of the need for the football team. So It will be interesting to see the school would buy a 25-35 passenger jet or a smaller one for coaches and assistants only. I guess it all depends upon whether Larry Scott gets a great deal on chartering for the Pac-12. Too bad we can’t have our own pac-12 airline company where we have multiple size airliners to use for traveling purposes. Or even strike a deal with Alaska, United, Delta, Horizon Air, Continental, and so on and so forth. Have an airline company be the company who charters the pac-12. Each team has a plane(like the Horizon Air plane with the UofO, OSU, BSU style) and each team uses this plane for their traveling and it’s up to the schools if they want to buy their own private jet for coaches to use…otherwise the coaches can travel with the airline company.
Write Cliff and ask him yourself. It’s expensive to fly an entire team and staff to Penn State or Wisconsin.
This is a good article to educate us all on the subject. http://www.avbuyer.com/articles/detail.asp?Id=766
Like I said, this is complex and requires cost-benefit analysis.
There are probably cheap, creative ways to go about it, too, like buying one jet, splitting the overhead with another NW school (e.g. Oregon) and scheduling home games while they’re away/visa versa. Or, maybe the status quo is the best solution. The fact that OSU looked into but didn’t do anything could mean (a) they couldn’t afford the best solution at the time or (b) the current solution is the best one.
This is the best model to sum up with what you’re talking about from the article I got this,
“To recap, you need to consider:
• Total number of travel days;
• Total number of people-days spent traveling;
• Total number of destinations – and total number of multi-destination trips;
• Distances involved to those destinations;
• Numbers for both ‘recurring’ and ‘one- off’ trips;
• Total costs of airline tickets, meals, rooms, cars, and personnel time;
• Differences in costs for arriving at the closest possible airport versus the closest airline facility.”
http://m.controller.com/ListingDetail/Index?listingId=1150152&categoryId=3
Hmmm – why is it I see planes at the Portland airport with U of O painted all over them? – I once saw 2 parked side by side. Is this Phil’s doing or an ad sort of thing?
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=164&f=1686&t=7061675
Coaches new lear jet?
http://m.controller.com/ListingDetail/Index?listingId=1136482&categoryId=3
an old Texas Rangers plane?
http://m.controller.com/ListingDetail/Index?listingId=1152490&categoryId=3
Players?
http://m.controller.com/ListingDetail/Index?listingId=1157116&categoryId=3
With ESPN involved in hoops, I think we can expect the traditional Thursday/Saturday schedule to be gone. And there’s no news on the Pac 12 Tourney, but one could expect it to at least travel to the six population centers instead of dying in LA.
$20.83m per year! How much is expected for the Pac 12 Network? The BTN pulls in ~ $70m+ for its members, and that’s with FOX owning half the network. Secondary sports can all be lapped up with the digital outlet. What kind of a fee will they charge?
I don’t think Comcast or Turner Sports are out of this deal yet. Unless the league network and digital dot-com are going to be a new investment by each member school to create a media and communications department at each like the one at USC, I don’t know how they propose to carry those entities forward.
Is this chunk of change going to hurry Weasel out the door next year? I think Urban Meyer might find LA a little more relaxing than Gainesville was.
I really hope not. I’d like to see Weasel get a lifetime deal.
Uh oh, “lack of institutional control” at BSU. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch!
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=6471288
Things have been awfully quiet down south. I wonder what the status is on their “investigation.”
Dunno, but Cal has now been linked to Slick Willie Lyles.
LMAO!!! LOL Wow, Duck fans are SOOOO dumb!!!!
Quote from OLive from a duck fan! LOL
“Autzen would still sell out easy still with 70,000 seats. Duck fans are evrywhere and support them thru thick or thin… Best fans in the country!!! GO DUCKS!”
Apparently he doesn’t realize that 50-75% of the fans that are “duck fans” are bandwagon fans….look at the blazers! No one really has been a fan in the “bad years” for them because they sucked and got into trouble. Once they get good and get into playoffs, everyone suddenly becomes a fan! A lot of Oregonians are somehow fair weather fans for whichever team is doing the best at the time in the state since they are “representing the state of Oregon”. I hate these types of fans because they argue when the ducks are doing well and they argue when the ducks are doing good. Pick a team and stay on your own side of the fence!
The thing is, will Oregon ever be bad again?
Once a program rises to elite status, it’s rare it drops off (unless they get a death sentence ala Miami). Even Miami rose up again…
Notre Dame?
Michigan and aTm?
All these schools have top of the line facilities which are getting better as we speak, and yet they seem to be suffering from the weight of being once–but not now–elite.
The sad thing is they’re still considered elite. It takes a long time to shake elite status. There are still people buying Citibank stock and in huge quantities, and if you question it or give a counter argument, they’ll tell you “it’s going to return to glory!”…
Notre Dame has the perception of “down, but a sleeping giant” right now. It would take about eight to ten seasons of 2 wins for them to shake off all their respect (kind of like the Beavers in basketball!).
Luckily Oregon engages in illegal activity, so they’re going to drag themselves down.
There’s an interesting post on one of the private forums. It reads:
I’m an electrical contractor and was working at a shop in eugene today. The individual has a medical marijuana growing license and wanted to install a security system at his hydroponic growing lab, 20 X 40 shop. As I was working I noticed his duck shrine consisting of signed posters, gloves and a pair of signed cleats. Curious as to how he got all this stuff I asked how he came about his lovely collection, the next 20 minutes were a laundry list of NCAA violations. He said he is personal friends with darren thomas and cliff harris and DT “gave” him the cleats after the national championship game, he really wanted the jersey but someone else gave DT $1300 for it. Said he “hangs out” with a lot of the guys on the team and gets some “pretty cool stuff”. Also said his other buddy does tatoo’s and does a bunch of stuff for “trade” also, found the “trade also” comment very interesting. Then he went on to say he was “freakin’ out” a little bit because he was contacted by the athletic department because the kiko aloson kid that got arrested was at his party and they wanted to discuss the activities and individuals involved.
Could have all be just a stoner shootin’ off his mouth but none the less found it very interesting.
Please dig deeper NCAA, I know this goes on to an extent everywhere but I think there is a group at u of o right now that could really sink the ship.
But… but… but… the pot was Masoli’s.
It wouldn’t suprise me at all if there is substance to this story. I think Oregon is a perfect example of someone getting “too big for their britches” as the old saying goes. A lot of money and sense of entitlement flowing on that campus.
Be fair. We Blazer fans started shying away because of the team itself. It was winning, but many people were REALLY pissed at Trader Bob and the team itself for the group of a-holes representing the city.
Well most Blazer fans did shy away. I however did not. I still rooted for them and was as hardcore of a fan as I am today. I’ve always hated the fans that jump on the bandwagon once they become a playoff team aka Duck fans.
LIVE STREAM OF 8AM PRESS CONFERENCE TOMORROW
Tomorrow at 8am PST. Scott and executives from both networks. This should be pretty darn cool.
http://seattletimes….http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskymensbasketballblog/2014950330_watch_the_pac-1.html
Don’t blow your 21 million a year all at one time Utah. :)
With this new deal is FSNW going to go away? I thought it was part of Fox until Dish had their problems with Fox last year. They quit airing Fox sports, but it didn’t affect FSNW. I found out they are owned by Comcast. So maybe if we get a fox station airing the games, they might actually be in HD. I just hope there is a reason to see them in HD. I know a lot of guys were out, but the spring “game” didn’t give me much hope of doing better than 5 & 7.
The $21 million+ means much more to us than it means to rich programs such as USC, UCLA, and Oregon. This money, spent wisely, can help the Beavers make the jump to the next level in football, basketball, and baseball, as well as in other sports. The key word, of course, is “wisely”.
If OSU asked me (which they surely won’t…), I’d suggest using the money first and foremost to upgrade not our facilities (or our travel capabilities) but our PEOPLE. I think a few top people — people with proven talent and experience — could add huge value to OSU’s sports operations in four areas: (1) coaching; (2) recruiting; (3) marketing; and (4) administration.
The key, IMHO, is to hire great people first. Then rely on the wisdom and experience of those people to help figure out how best to spend the rest of the money.
Is it really possible for OSU to lure top people to Corvallis? You betcha! As part of a PAC-12 conference very much on the rise, and with new, ample funding, the Beavers will suddenly find themselves appealing to many top coaches, recruiters, marketers, and administrators who would not have considered the Beavers before.
If we move fast, we can snag some of those great people in the next month or two or three. To me, that should be the top priority of the people in charge of athletics at Oregon State. And next time I bump in to BDC (for example, at our kids’ high school graduation next month), I plan on telling him so!
Here we go:
http://www.pac-10.org/livestream.aspx
Coach Rob and Weasel are the recognizable coaches on the stage.
Does it say anything about our TV partners that ESPN comes in business attire, and FOX comes in a cheesy polo?
Short but sweet. No numbers announced, just the bones. There will be another presser in a half hour for teleconference.
ESPN is quick with their announcement:
http://www.espnmediazone3.com/us/2011/05/04/espn-and-pac-12-reach-wide-ranging-12-year-agreement/
Notice basketball will be on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Football will get a Saturday PST prime time spot. FOX announced an Eastern time zone prime time slot for football on Saturdays on their broadcast network. I don’t know what that means for their Saturday night baseball and Stupid People Breaking the Law shows.
All football games will be available in one way or another.
Has anyone heard how much subscribers will have to fork out?
It looks like hoops will be the only sport which simultaneously wins yet suffers. FSN is only really mentioned with regards to hoops carriage. So picking up some games may rely on the national package which includes all FSN affiliates. I only pay for that package on a month to month basis as it is, and I won’t have to do it for football anymore since carriage will be covered by basic subscription channels and the Pac 12 Network package.
That’s assuming the Pac 12 Network will package its subscription with the digital and “media labs” properties. I see no reason for them to lose fans by restricting access and breaking out each property individually. In fact, actions up to now (and what I’ve heard/read) suggest those properties will be all-inclusive.
And I can’t imagine Scott will miss the price point on this one either. Yes, the league wants to maximize profits. But a part of that is accessibility and exposure. Putting the league behind a pay wall priced beyond a beer or two per month would turn off more potential viewers than anything.
The one major thing I’m excited about with this new Pac-12 TV contract is that we don’t need anymore high profile match ups with teams like LSU, Penn State, TCU, Wisconsin even. We can schedule the Chatanooga’s of the NW and Portland State, and basically pad our schedule like the SEC does. OR by doing that would we be contradicting ourselves as a conference by saying we schedule weak OOC’s in order to have better records?
This is just to follow this blog segment…*****DISREGARD******
I just caught the tail end of an interview with BDC with ESPN radio 1080 the FAN Primetime with Isaac and Suke. BDC said that he’s not sure how much they will get with the TV deal cause the $21 Mil is the average each year. So I don’t think he knows what to budget for and what to spend the money on. We need a different AD after his contract expires!
Sam Gaviglio is on the Golden Spikes watch list now! :)
Bob D says that the number will be more like 14.5 mil, not 21 mil, after buyouts, etc…
That’s quite a difference.
Trying to figure out if that’s each year or just year 1.
Just year one. We have to pay Learfield $1.5m (of the total $16m) to buy out our contract with them. Then the amounts increase to over $25m in the final years of the deal.
Per Ted Miller of ESPN Pac-12 Blog:
“Understand: The money distribution won’t be $250 million in 2012. That’s the average over 12 years. But the distribution number will exceed $170 million in the first year, which was the threshold for having to pay USC and UCLA $2 million for their willingness to go along with equal revenue sharing.”
http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/21406/pac-12-every-game-matters-because-its-on-tv
So there will be more than the $170 Mil the first year, but some years may yield to more $ than others. So what buyouts would consist of lowering the cost? I’m still confused about that.
The buyout he mentions is Learfield…the conference is mandating buying out of some components of it.
He does mention the average should be 20-21, so I assume this means 14.5 is only the first year.
According to Bob, that figure does not account for the Pac-12 network revenue since that’s still being worked out. So, it could be more.
With the Pac-12 TV deal, I’m thinking I’ll need to get a tv and a basic cable package and internet depending on how the Pac-12 Network will run in 2012-2013. I may be at Western Oregon at that point, so I may have to find some “on campus” friends(the local bar in Monmouth) OR I may decide to get the quickest degree(Philosophy) and go into law enforcement there after instead of taking the 2 years to get a degree route in a different subject. We’ll see. I’m still torn about which degree to seek.
Do not get a degree in Philosophy unless you want to teach/get a phd in it.
philosophy? really? don’t do it man
Wow, OSU has 10 million in debt, not 4 as we all thought.
About $6m left on the bond from the east side of Reser.
This could definitely explain the hesitancy of completing the stadium/redoing the West side…we don’t want to spend future money, nor money we don’t know what we’re going to budget for. It’ll be 2014ish before we discuss the Reser expansion again.
Seriously?! It went from $8 Mil to $10 Mil?! There goes 2-3$ Mil a year then. So much for my $750,00 estimate…we need to get out of debt ASAP if we want to be able to turn profits. Cause late fees kill you!
He said 4 mil to the State, and 6-7 mil to “the foundation” (whatever that is…general fund?)…so that’s 10-11 mil.
Regarding your second point about paying it all off at once…he said that’s not the plan. If they do that, they’d fall behind other universities. The plan is to pay down as much as possible while also having enough budget to advance each program.
It looks like even with this windfall it will take until 2015 or so before we see significant improvements. The first few years will be paying down debt/maintaining and slightly upgrading current programs. He said the money could theoretically help with a track program, but seemed hesitant in committing to that. After seeing the debt figure I understand why.
Hopefully the Pac-12 network generates significant revenue…seems we still need some big donors to step up, too, if we want to see quick improvement.
I don’t see us finishing Reser anytime soon with that type of debt. I mean, look how long and what it took us to stay a float before we got serious help from our conference commissioner. It seems to be we’d be lucky to even discuss the plans of upgrading Reser in 2014. I say we upgrade Gill before we upgrade Reser. Reser is fine for now until we have a season of true sell outs. Also, BDC seems to want to sell the stadiums out as his first priority and by doing so, lowering to the cost of season tickets and BASF donations in certain areas will help in this regard. Especially since there will be easy access to watch the games on TV. Why spend less money on a tv package that costs less than the cheapest season ticket price? This will have to cause BDC some serious rethinking in the ticket prices. I’m not saying go from $149 for season tickets in the “Valley View”, but I’m talking about the $250-1000 price range. These prices will come down so there is incentive to sit in better seats than before and bring people to the game vs. sit at home in a laz-boy and watch from home.
Maybe, but you never know. We could get more casual fan interest, donors, P-12 network revenue, make it to a BCS game, etc.
The one good thing about the TV contract is, people will now be able to watch WSU and UW and actually see their progress week to week instead of about 2-5 games a season. That’s with any team really. OSU was lucky/unlucky to get all but 1-2 games on TV last year. That’s really good exposure for us. It will be interesting to see what kind of TV offers we get this year. Obviously the Wisconsin game will be nationally televised probably at a 3:30pm kickoff on ESPN2. that’s just my guess right now. I doubt it will be any earlier than that, but it could be later. The later time slot would benefit us from the elements and have cooler weather in the evening.
Or even ABC! I could see that too. The only other games I see that would for sure to possibly be televised nationally are:
These are the only games I see that are worth actually watching/paying attention to in week 2.
http://espn.go.com/college-football/schedule/_/week/2
Nevada at Oregon(maybe due to the Boise upset last year)
Mississippi St. at. Auburn(defending NC’s)
Utah at. USC( one of the first conference game in the pac-12)
CAL at Colorado
South Carolina at Georgia
Alabama at Penn St.
BYU at Texas
TCU at Air Force
Apparently OSU is 2 years away from seeing any money. The contract goes into effect during the 2012 season, but the payout isn’t until the following June. The plan is to borrow from the University until that time and settle up. Downside is short-term cash shortage/upside is the money does collect interest will awaiting distribution.
Fed investigating the BCS? Wow, talk about the blind leading the blind.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6479279
You guys might like the first item on the second page:
http://oregonstate.edu/leadership/sites/default/files/budget-documents/11-23-09-athletics.pdf
on that note, the team will now be bussed to Seattle instead of flown to Seattle due to the 5 hr drive/300 miles away from Corvallis just to save $65,000. Ya, we’re not getting any jet anytime soon guys! lol wow, that’s retarted! This reminds me of the movie Major Leagues! Wow, this is a stupid move by the AD to save $65,000. really?!
This was the plan set forth after the budget shortfall in 2009. Because of these cuts, savings were made which allowed the AD to remain within the budget.
The good is that some of these will be reinstated. And we have found other, genuine and lasting savings (paperless media guides?).
They won’t be reinstated right away. So yes, we will most likely get the boys back into airplanes for the road trips up to Seattle, the Sports psychologist before massage therapy, and quite a bit more, but yes, there are some good things that were cut out of the budget.
No wonder Marketing SUCKS at OSU!!! 3rd one down:
Action: Support Staff Cuts
Result: The athletic department has eliminated 4 executive secretary positions worth $200K
over 3 years, as well as left open marketing and business office positions resulting in additional
annual savings of $100K
wait, the date is back in Nov. of ’09. This is about a year and a half old. Still a good model…which means the Beavs bused up to the UW game last year….could that be a part of why we weren’t focused and didn’t play to the best of our ability last year?! I mean really? I’ve been on a 5+ hour charter bus ride and played that same day. That was not fun at all and we lost to Bend that year in the playoffs by 1 measly point right as the game clock ran out cause the other team ran a 2 point conversion to win the game. I don’t like the bus idea…if anything, bus them to portland and then take the train up to Seattle! $30 a person one way! that has to be cheaper than busing them all the way up to Seattle!
Train would be an awesome mode of travel. Albany is the nearest depot.
The guys could all wear straw hats and fur coats. And they could play ukuleles to entertain themselves on the trip.
Seriously, it would be cool if America had a lick of sense and continued to glorify the train rather than giving in to cars. But we didn’t, and schedules don’t allow for convenient travel.
Per the Gazette Times
“Long-term goals for the Beavers are building a practice facility for the basketball programs, expanding Reser Stadium and building a track facility.”
http://gazettetimes.com/sports/beavers-sports/article_b6b0ec6c-7682-11e0-b3f9-001cc4c03286.html
beavers4life,
You and I have similar thoughts about our AD. He mentions Reser there but to me it was more of a realization of criticism pointed his way and I still don’t think it is anywhere near as much of a priority for him as it needs to be.
I like Bill Moos thinking. They are going straight at facilities first according to this article. They believe that will get them recruits, and then the wins and then sustained success. Moos explains here:
http://www.cougcenter.com/2011/5/5/2154674/pac-12-tv-contract-revenue-wsu-football-basketball-bill-moos-martin-stadium-renovation
BDC by his own words is trying to give a stimulus to the teams such as a little more money for coaches and some new equipment. That is not how you get recruits though. We are well behind in the strategy to garner the top receruits and BDC’s “game plan” will not have us closing the gap.
OSUprof has the study and the numbers of why expanding Reser should be our top priority. We have to do the things BDC has for his “long-term goals” as some of our earlier moves and not latest. The track and basketball facility will get going but football is the economic engine and visual clue as to the overall strength of your atheltic department. With Cal and UW having the correct gameplans with their major football stadium upgrades and now WSU knowing their best route to success, why does BDC still not get it? Instead of paying coaches more than a very small amount more, they need to get the 6-7 million Reser current debt paid off ASAP so we can look forward and more realistically be ready to move forward with Reser expansion and a cohesive, beautiful stadium that we will need to recruit in the upper half of the conference.
I hope we do not extend this guy come 6-3–2011 that just doesn’t know how to get out of mediocre mode.
Brand, facilities and marketing are the obvious priorities so we can be in higher demand by top recruits, consistently recruit the best athletes to OSU and further enhance our brand/programs.
We do not want to market this Mayberry fluff though. To be seen as a national reputation school you have to have a powerful brand that is known to win big games. Riley’s Mayberry garbage is just an excuse of not winning enough big games. If he insists on being that guy, whatever, but you build the brand and then market that powerful winning brand and then get more big wins to keep it going and go further into the elite category. This Mayberry stuff puts a lid on the success and makes it hard to be ever seen as truly elite.
The one thing I’ve noticed with BDC’s efforts in his “Budget” or “Savings plans” is that he’s trying to keep his job and go for a contract extension. I say OSU’s biggest mistake would be to extend his contract. BDC is an optimist and apparently he doesn’t realize that his contract expires in June. If he did realize this, he would be stating, “If I am to get a contract extension that goes into the 2012-2013 school year, this is the “tentative” Budget plan for the Athletic Department. Instead, he’s stating things and acting like he has a lifetime contract with OSU as the AD and that his job is secure. I don’t like this! I don’t like AD’s thinking they have a job when their contract is to expire in a month! Really BDC? REALLY? Do you know something that the OSU President doesn’t know? Like giving you a contract extension?
It would be another O.B.A.M.(One bis A$$ mistake) if we extend BDC not just for mediocrities sake, but for the status quo’s sake. You’re right in paying off our debt and paying Learfield sports to get out of that(another mistake by BDC to give them that long of a contract).
BDC seems to think that everyone should get lifetime contracts at OSU until they decide to leave on their own. This is NOT the way things should be run. Pat Casey is the only exception in where it worked at OSU(19 years so far with OSU?).
I want an AD who is willing to spend money as an investment in order to get long term gain. Completing the West side first, then the upper deck of the South endzone the following season would be the bast plan of action because there’s no way they could build the rest of the stadium in 9 months. The West grandstand now is bigger than the concrete block that was on the East side 7 years ago. To think, the East side is only 6 years old! That’s young! I think the stadium could become a complete bowl upper deck eventually if we have the right construction done to support it.
BDC has to go IMHO because he’s keeping OSU behind in athletics based on keeping a rainy day fund. Like I said before, what will go wrong? Gill catching on Fire? Please!
If you want to build the west side, you need funds. In order to get funding from the state, you need to have a down payment. I think the east side was done with one of about 85-90%. We’re not exactly there unless we do have money in savings. That can be done while still paying off debt incrementally. But just where do you think all these savings will go?
The best case scenario is that some wealthy alums step up due to the excitement generated by this deal. If revenues come flowing in from some new sources (or if known contributors part with more of their money after the new league valuation), then construction begins sooner than later.
Remember the whole “is college football in decline” debate?
This certainly doesn’t help those who think it’s healthy:
http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=dw-wetzel_justice_letter_could_signal_big_trouble_bcs_050411
We do not want to market this Mayberry fluff though. To be seen as a national reputation school you have to have a powerful brand that is known to win big games. Riley’s Mayberry garbage is just an excuse of not winning enough big games. If he insists on being that guy, whatever, but you build the brand and then market that powerful winning brand and then get more big wins to keep it going and go further into the elite category. This Mayberry stuff puts a lid on the success and makes it hard to be ever seen as truly elite.
I have to say, I don’t know what the hell Mayberry is…I guess it was before my time. Beaver fans are soooo old. Is Mayberry a place where coaches say “aw shucks” and lose all big games?
Pretty much. That and hip, hip,..hooray!
This is Mayberry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=focjoVHKRi4
Others push that Mayberry stuff on us because they know it doesn’t help us get any bigtime recruits, but we do go along with it too much by saying this “family values” stuff too much. You may want to have family values but you don’t market or try to sell that to sound sexy and cutting edge to top recruits. Still Tinker seems to think that “values” is the main thing we want to get across with a brand and he seems a little surprised as he knows that isn’t how sell a national brand. He isn’t surprised the poor leadership of BDC would say that necessarily but he knows what is clearly most important is having a POWERFUL brand that is instantly seen as such when viewed. For that to happen you have to have a great football stadium, not a half-finished one.
Pay off all debts ASAP and then get the basketball facility and track done while also finalizing plans for Reser expansion. Get some media out there with the plans for a 55K Reser to get the fans buzzing and maximize the energy of the project with the new Pac-12 megaTV deal and heavy exposure with Fox and especially ESPN. Then get it built and start enjoying your new POWERFUL brand, beautiful stadium and strong recruits. That is the order.
WAZZU not wasting a moment. Already have new drawings for a Martin Stadium “palace” or as close to that as they can get. Wish BDC had the same urgency with facilities and what should be our “crown jewel” of a beautiful and complete 55K Reser.
http://washingtonstate.scout.com/2/1069993.html