GTFLETCH
Dodd-Like
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2014
- Messages
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Guess made on July 4th: ESPN is making in the neighborhood of $75 Million – $100 Million at least, and that is sure to go up now that Comcast has signed up.
So rather than my original estimate of $75-100 Million for ESPN from the ACC Network, let me revise that to $120 – $140 Million. You do the math. If ESPN is helping drive expansion, 2 ACC teams to the SEC would have to move the future $100 Million per team average or be revenue neutral.
Adding 2 ACC Teams to the SEC contract would have to raise the SEC’s deal. That would cost ESPN an additional $290 Million (2 more teams, at 105 Million a year, worth $90 Million to raise the per-team average by 5 million).Then the likely dissolution of the ACC Network would add a $120-$140 million loss and ESPN now just took a $400 million bottom line hit to increase the size of the SEC. A diminished ACC would still have a TV rights deal as well. The numbers simply don’t work in ESPN’s favor to push SEC expansion further – at least in the short term (next 5 years).
Rather ESPN would be more well suited to simply restructure the ACC’s deal. How this could look either by further expansion or a tv merger with say the Pac 12, or just a new deal is anyone’s guess right now. Of course, FOX and the Big 10 are wildcards, but the more the numbers become available – the more I believe an attempt at a restructured deal by ESPN is on the horizon as alluded to by the UNC Chancellor recently.
So rather than my original estimate of $75-100 Million for ESPN from the ACC Network, let me revise that to $120 – $140 Million. You do the math. If ESPN is helping drive expansion, 2 ACC teams to the SEC would have to move the future $100 Million per team average or be revenue neutral.
Adding 2 ACC Teams to the SEC contract would have to raise the SEC’s deal. That would cost ESPN an additional $290 Million (2 more teams, at 105 Million a year, worth $90 Million to raise the per-team average by 5 million).Then the likely dissolution of the ACC Network would add a $120-$140 million loss and ESPN now just took a $400 million bottom line hit to increase the size of the SEC. A diminished ACC would still have a TV rights deal as well. The numbers simply don’t work in ESPN’s favor to push SEC expansion further – at least in the short term (next 5 years).
Rather ESPN would be more well suited to simply restructure the ACC’s deal. How this could look either by further expansion or a tv merger with say the Pac 12, or just a new deal is anyone’s guess right now. Of course, FOX and the Big 10 are wildcards, but the more the numbers become available – the more I believe an attempt at a restructured deal by ESPN is on the horizon as alluded to by the UNC Chancellor recently.
