I touched on this with some lengthy post about CUSA.tv and being a banker the numbers have run circles around my brain. I am by nature a problem solver, and it has irked me for year how the G5 Conferences have always seemed to get the shaft when it comes to TV Contracts. Technology has reached the point were chord cutters are starting to dictate the terms of G5 Media Contracts and thus allow us to lose even more money. Not only can we effectively reverse this trend but capitalize on it and also declare our Independence from ESPN/CBS/Fox/NBC slave masters.
First, the highest Gang of Five Contract is worth around 1.65 Million a year base. 1.25 Million should be our minimum base goal. That's 17 million a year in total media rights distribution. Now CUSA itself runs on a sub-five million dollar budget a year so, lets make it 18 Million for good measure. There are six basic ways to accumulate income from a tv contract. Not having a middle man like one of the big networks will simplify the process.
1. The Old Cable Model of charging fees to subscribers is your bread and butter. Now if we were to use this only it would take 180K annual subscribers. Thats an average of around 12K per school. A base average is closer to 5 thousand subscribers. That's 70,000 total equaling 7 million to the pot with 23 million to go. We are already at 2.5 times the amount that we receive in media money already.
2. Selling our best to the Big Boys and the Local networks will shore up a lot of loose change. That means on average 2.5 games per school at 50 thousand dollars a piece would equals 1.75 Million. UTEP drew 53k views on face book alone to play NMSU. Its worth it to ESPN to pay under $1 per set of eyeballs to draw in advertisers. Its also worth it to the networks to pick up the better games cheaper and get a few extra thrown in for fluff. Then you add an average of 5 Basketball games per team at say 20 thousand a piece. That's another 1.4 Million to the pie. We are now at 10. million.
3. OOC Schedule provides 2 OOC games a piece in football alone to draw non subscribers in at $6.95 a piece. Basketball provides 7 OOC home games. Lets just say those 2 OOC games are able to pick up 1.5K viewers a piece at $6.95. That's $292K. Basketball would add another $147K. Pocket Change, maybe but with the new media contract any amount counts. Add another $439K to the purse. We are now at 10.439 Million.
4. Advertising: I am a banker by trade, not an advertising exec so these numbers could be way off. I am going to say we could possibly draw about $25K per home football game and maybe $10K per basketball home game. At 6 Home games per school x $25K = 2.1 Million in advertising $ with another 2.1 million in Basketball advertising revenue. We are now at $14.639 Million
5. CUSA Title Game: The only thing CUSA that ESPiN cherishes. Game is worth at least 1.5 million in my book and they would pay it just to keep their thing going. We reserve the rights to the online content and we have a deal with the devil. Add another 1.5 Million to the pot equaling $16.139 million.
6. Bowl Game: Here is the kicker, no matter what we do with our media rights ESPN is going to own all the bowl games. There was a failed attempt by BB to exert some autonomy witht the purchase of the TicketCity Bowl. ESPN was wise in placing this bowl on an SD channel and not allowing any publicity to it. The HOD folks had to sell out to ESPN+, thus taking the only New Years Day Bowl CUSA had. Tradition is Everything to me and It is of my humble opinion that EVERY CONFERENCE CHAMP should play in a NEW YEARS BOWL. So let CUSA.tv purchase a singular bowl tie it to a new years date. Sell the Adverting rights and the half of the Internet Rights to another Conference like the MAC or AAC. I figure the over under for this endeavor would level out at around 2 Million to the Coffers of the new CUSA.tv Network. I am certainly sure that the rights could be negotiated with either local or national networks for an OTA broadcast. Folks joke about the Campus Insiders doing the Arizona Bowl, but keep in mind the Wright brothers only stayed in the air for 12 seconds their first flight. They didn't quit trying did they? We are now at $18.139 Million, not including advertising for Olympic Sports and Championships for WBB and MBB.
So here we are at $18.139 million dollars in total accumulation for the new CUSA.tv network. Lets give the 1.39 Million back to the Conference and is Subsidiary to keep things going and take our $1.25 million back to campus where it belongs. The point I am trying to make is that we have reached the point where Universities can now scientifically assess their value to a conference and other media partners based on the amount of income it draws from its fan base and the fan bases of its opponents. Sound scheduling and smart promotion can prove to networks that small markets like that one in Ruston far out shine those mega markets in Boca, Miami, Houston, Denton and Charlotte.
First, the highest Gang of Five Contract is worth around 1.65 Million a year base. 1.25 Million should be our minimum base goal. That's 17 million a year in total media rights distribution. Now CUSA itself runs on a sub-five million dollar budget a year so, lets make it 18 Million for good measure. There are six basic ways to accumulate income from a tv contract. Not having a middle man like one of the big networks will simplify the process.
1. The Old Cable Model of charging fees to subscribers is your bread and butter. Now if we were to use this only it would take 180K annual subscribers. Thats an average of around 12K per school. A base average is closer to 5 thousand subscribers. That's 70,000 total equaling 7 million to the pot with 23 million to go. We are already at 2.5 times the amount that we receive in media money already.
2. Selling our best to the Big Boys and the Local networks will shore up a lot of loose change. That means on average 2.5 games per school at 50 thousand dollars a piece would equals 1.75 Million. UTEP drew 53k views on face book alone to play NMSU. Its worth it to ESPN to pay under $1 per set of eyeballs to draw in advertisers. Its also worth it to the networks to pick up the better games cheaper and get a few extra thrown in for fluff. Then you add an average of 5 Basketball games per team at say 20 thousand a piece. That's another 1.4 Million to the pie. We are now at 10. million.
3. OOC Schedule provides 2 OOC games a piece in football alone to draw non subscribers in at $6.95 a piece. Basketball provides 7 OOC home games. Lets just say those 2 OOC games are able to pick up 1.5K viewers a piece at $6.95. That's $292K. Basketball would add another $147K. Pocket Change, maybe but with the new media contract any amount counts. Add another $439K to the purse. We are now at 10.439 Million.
4. Advertising: I am a banker by trade, not an advertising exec so these numbers could be way off. I am going to say we could possibly draw about $25K per home football game and maybe $10K per basketball home game. At 6 Home games per school x $25K = 2.1 Million in advertising $ with another 2.1 million in Basketball advertising revenue. We are now at $14.639 Million
5. CUSA Title Game: The only thing CUSA that ESPiN cherishes. Game is worth at least 1.5 million in my book and they would pay it just to keep their thing going. We reserve the rights to the online content and we have a deal with the devil. Add another 1.5 Million to the pot equaling $16.139 million.
6. Bowl Game: Here is the kicker, no matter what we do with our media rights ESPN is going to own all the bowl games. There was a failed attempt by BB to exert some autonomy witht the purchase of the TicketCity Bowl. ESPN was wise in placing this bowl on an SD channel and not allowing any publicity to it. The HOD folks had to sell out to ESPN+, thus taking the only New Years Day Bowl CUSA had. Tradition is Everything to me and It is of my humble opinion that EVERY CONFERENCE CHAMP should play in a NEW YEARS BOWL. So let CUSA.tv purchase a singular bowl tie it to a new years date. Sell the Adverting rights and the half of the Internet Rights to another Conference like the MAC or AAC. I figure the over under for this endeavor would level out at around 2 Million to the Coffers of the new CUSA.tv Network. I am certainly sure that the rights could be negotiated with either local or national networks for an OTA broadcast. Folks joke about the Campus Insiders doing the Arizona Bowl, but keep in mind the Wright brothers only stayed in the air for 12 seconds their first flight. They didn't quit trying did they? We are now at $18.139 Million, not including advertising for Olympic Sports and Championships for WBB and MBB.
So here we are at $18.139 million dollars in total accumulation for the new CUSA.tv network. Lets give the 1.39 Million back to the Conference and is Subsidiary to keep things going and take our $1.25 million back to campus where it belongs. The point I am trying to make is that we have reached the point where Universities can now scientifically assess their value to a conference and other media partners based on the amount of income it draws from its fan base and the fan bases of its opponents. Sound scheduling and smart promotion can prove to networks that small markets like that one in Ruston far out shine those mega markets in Boca, Miami, Houston, Denton and Charlotte.
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