From UtesRus
So...
I'm a media whore, love it, and have friends in media. Chatting with one of them yesterday about life, the universe, the station, and the insanity that is Todd Christensen, but don’t take this as absolute fact – this was two dudes shooting the breeze over beers.
Anyhoo. Thoughts on the Mtn. and beyond.
1. Todd C. GREAT GUY and a bit like sushi, at first you're appalled and disgusted at the sight, smell, and sound of it, but with enough time you get to like and enjoy it. He is well-respected and a really bright football guy, knows what he's talking about and is on a different planet when he gets rolling. Talent for the MTN is improving and they're always looking to upgrade, however, the TV business is cutthroat and talent puddle jump like no tomorrow - always looking for the bigger network gig. I LOL when he said to just look at Todd as the Mtn's LDS/BYU version of Rod Burgundy...good guy though.
2. Comcast and the Mtn : Comcast is one of the MOST POWERFUL media conglomerates on the planet, and a few years ago tried to buy ESPN by way of Disney - I didn't know that. They own a lot of channels and content, and their M.O. is to develop regional content, programming, and everything in between to bolster (obviously) their cable business units and their library; they're rumored to be trying to buy/merge NBC Universal. The Mtn. is a baby business unit and with time, will mature to a really great channel, especially if the teams in the MWC continue to follow the "Utah blueprint" with football and improve both on, and off, the field.
3. "Utah blueprint" - What's that? The Utah BCS WINS made believers out of EVERY team in this conference that it can be done at any school, including theirs. He said that our success (due in great part to a new stadium, IPF, great coaches, and upgrades within the program) has created a new 'arms race' within the conference in the past 6 years and 'woke up' the schools. So the admins of many MWC schools and alumni base are NOW doing everything they can to replicate what we have here and it starts with renovation. Before it was 'wishful' thinking and fodder for 'what-ifs', but now it's the "Urban Legacy" to demand facilities upgrades as part of coaching hires. That dang Urban ruined it for every penny-pinching university president.
The formula is simple he said, "Good facilities bring the athletes you need to compete and win. Win and you get the fans in the stand and money." I replied, "That makes sense, but what about BYU, they've always had the facilities, cash, and success. Everyone should've been trying to copy them all these years, right?" He said that many schools probably looked at BYU's success as a function of the church's support and not incubated from the ground up. And in a warped way of 'academia' thinking, the level of BYU’s success held back immediate spending simply because the thinking was, why spend millions upon millions when the ultimate reward is a conference championship and a $200K payday to some bowl game? The ROI just didn't inspire them and their fans. So, when Utah busted the BCS and brought home a million bucks, that got a lot of presidents off the pot, because they saw what type of 180 it can do for a program (zero to hero overnight) AND the mass cash infusion the school and conference got. BCS Money is like Heroin, one taste and they're hooked.
Seeing Utah just pop and use their success to generate 'fan base revenue', that in turn help build more success, resulting in YET another BCS win, that gave the directors even more ammo and motivation. Now, the expectation is to go build, build, and build; get athletes, get competitive, win, hopefully get a BIG payday, and get fans in the stands. Team's winning conference championship is mostly rhetorical p.r. since we have no BCS auto, so the REAL focus for every school, is to get to a bowl game, maybe even the BCS – every year.
The gist of what I got was that TCU and BYU have plenty of "inside" money to build a winner, but Utah is the example for them to follow because they used the people's and alumni cash - which everyone in the conference can relate to. So now, everyone’s on the same page of “investing in your program” because everyone's to be the "Next Utah" and bust the BCS. Think about it, UNLV probably MADE more money staying home than some teams who went to a crappy bowl game last year – and they didn’t lift a finger. Thank you UTAH!!
So I investigated it a bit and he's got a point.
- CSU is going on a $20 Million renovation and upgrade romp with Fairchild at the helm.
- TCU recently added luxury suites and is chomping to renovate their stadium. They recently hired Del Conte from Rice (where he raised $90 million for upgrades) to do the same at TCU.
- New Mexico is in the middle of $100 million renovation of their all of facilities headed by Paul Krebs (who worked with Urban at Bowling Green) and Tim Cass.
- EVEN the Zoobs have quietly dumped several million dollars to build the "largest IPF in the nation" and upgraded many of the existing facilities, to keep up with their big brothers up north.
- Seems every program in the MWC is talking about expansion and renovation, something that wasn't happening in previous years.
4. Big Biz Soap Opera. His guess is that the partnership that MWC/Thompson did with Mtn./Comcast has as much to do with getting cash in to the young conference as it is with getting aligned with the 'future' – aka fight the BCS/Disney blockade of big paydays. Comcast sees the big picture college football market and is quietly working in the background to secure as many regional/local football games with their "Comcast Sports Group" business model. I think that the future will probably see a college football playoff and dismantling/epic battle against the BCS-ESPN-Fox block led by Comcast-NBC-CBS. It's all pretty awesome drama to watch because we literally are in the "other side" of the BCS coin. Since we are 'technically' a Comcast product that the BCS wants to keep out, and because the BCS have to follow their own rules - boom, a Comcast school ends up on a rival channel taking in rival cash that a rival company makes money off of. It is a giant soap opera.
5. Hoops. He said basketball was a sleeping giant. I asked why and he mentioned that the venture is really well suited for basketball because the conference is situated well to becoming a basketball power conference. Basketball has more games and that translates to better ad revenues for them and with the natural tie-ins with CBS, which loves NCAA hoops, the strategic opportunities are better. The value of the Mtn. for MWC sports really shines in basketball because fans are seeing games today that they never had access to before. It gives fans a more 'global view' of each team and how they are doing because everyone who gets the channel gets a peek at other teams.
So even though the quality of the broadcast are still being improved upon, as well as reach, he said that a lot of fans/coaches get to watch games that they would've never been able to see in the past. To which my wiseass said.."Yea, because I REALLY want to see UNLV vs. UNM play bad football." To which he replied, in basketball you will. The impression I got was that basketball is like the 'counter-sport' to the ESPN+BCS+College Football block, like ESPN owns the Fall, but CBS owns the winter and March.
6. Da Future with Da Comcast. Ultimately the MWC will do what is best for itself and having its own channel is something that other ‘mid-majors’ can't say they have. He’s thinking MWC becoming a super conference highlighted by a championship game sponsored by a hotel group – Marriott? He expects that the WAC will lose schools to the MWC. Comcast may have a hand in helping cherry picking the schools that bring "content and customer value" to the programming of the Mtn. and Comcast, but the presidents run this boat.
I think they're going to have some influence in pointing the conference in the direction as to which markets Craig and Co. will be looking to expand. For example, Comcast is not a leading provider of cable services in Idaho - Cable One is, so you can pretty much guarantee that Boise State is very much on the radar even it is only 112th largest TV market in the country. You can pretty much bet your butt that this deal’s is going to be renewed and be even more lucrative in the future. Their production value will improve and chances are that the fans will eventually embrace this network. You can understand the kinks that are with this deal right now and frankly, in the scope of bigger things, they’re minor compared to dollar amounts that are out there associated with this.
That’s my dissertation for the day and all I have to say about that.
Go Utes!
Kill Cowboys!!
I'm a media whore, love it, and have friends in media. Chatting with one of them yesterday about life, the universe, the station, and the insanity that is Todd Christensen, but don’t take this as absolute fact – this was two dudes shooting the breeze over beers.
Anyhoo. Thoughts on the Mtn. and beyond.
1. Todd C. GREAT GUY and a bit like sushi, at first you're appalled and disgusted at the sight, smell, and sound of it, but with enough time you get to like and enjoy it. He is well-respected and a really bright football guy, knows what he's talking about and is on a different planet when he gets rolling. Talent for the MTN is improving and they're always looking to upgrade, however, the TV business is cutthroat and talent puddle jump like no tomorrow - always looking for the bigger network gig. I LOL when he said to just look at Todd as the Mtn's LDS/BYU version of Rod Burgundy...good guy though.
2. Comcast and the Mtn : Comcast is one of the MOST POWERFUL media conglomerates on the planet, and a few years ago tried to buy ESPN by way of Disney - I didn't know that. They own a lot of channels and content, and their M.O. is to develop regional content, programming, and everything in between to bolster (obviously) their cable business units and their library; they're rumored to be trying to buy/merge NBC Universal. The Mtn. is a baby business unit and with time, will mature to a really great channel, especially if the teams in the MWC continue to follow the "Utah blueprint" with football and improve both on, and off, the field.
3. "Utah blueprint" - What's that? The Utah BCS WINS made believers out of EVERY team in this conference that it can be done at any school, including theirs. He said that our success (due in great part to a new stadium, IPF, great coaches, and upgrades within the program) has created a new 'arms race' within the conference in the past 6 years and 'woke up' the schools. So the admins of many MWC schools and alumni base are NOW doing everything they can to replicate what we have here and it starts with renovation. Before it was 'wishful' thinking and fodder for 'what-ifs', but now it's the "Urban Legacy" to demand facilities upgrades as part of coaching hires. That dang Urban ruined it for every penny-pinching university president.
The formula is simple he said, "Good facilities bring the athletes you need to compete and win. Win and you get the fans in the stand and money." I replied, "That makes sense, but what about BYU, they've always had the facilities, cash, and success. Everyone should've been trying to copy them all these years, right?" He said that many schools probably looked at BYU's success as a function of the church's support and not incubated from the ground up. And in a warped way of 'academia' thinking, the level of BYU’s success held back immediate spending simply because the thinking was, why spend millions upon millions when the ultimate reward is a conference championship and a $200K payday to some bowl game? The ROI just didn't inspire them and their fans. So, when Utah busted the BCS and brought home a million bucks, that got a lot of presidents off the pot, because they saw what type of 180 it can do for a program (zero to hero overnight) AND the mass cash infusion the school and conference got. BCS Money is like Heroin, one taste and they're hooked.
Seeing Utah just pop and use their success to generate 'fan base revenue', that in turn help build more success, resulting in YET another BCS win, that gave the directors even more ammo and motivation. Now, the expectation is to go build, build, and build; get athletes, get competitive, win, hopefully get a BIG payday, and get fans in the stands. Team's winning conference championship is mostly rhetorical p.r. since we have no BCS auto, so the REAL focus for every school, is to get to a bowl game, maybe even the BCS – every year.
The gist of what I got was that TCU and BYU have plenty of "inside" money to build a winner, but Utah is the example for them to follow because they used the people's and alumni cash - which everyone in the conference can relate to. So now, everyone’s on the same page of “investing in your program” because everyone's to be the "Next Utah" and bust the BCS. Think about it, UNLV probably MADE more money staying home than some teams who went to a crappy bowl game last year – and they didn’t lift a finger. Thank you UTAH!!
So I investigated it a bit and he's got a point.
- CSU is going on a $20 Million renovation and upgrade romp with Fairchild at the helm.
- TCU recently added luxury suites and is chomping to renovate their stadium. They recently hired Del Conte from Rice (where he raised $90 million for upgrades) to do the same at TCU.
- New Mexico is in the middle of $100 million renovation of their all of facilities headed by Paul Krebs (who worked with Urban at Bowling Green) and Tim Cass.
- EVEN the Zoobs have quietly dumped several million dollars to build the "largest IPF in the nation" and upgraded many of the existing facilities, to keep up with their big brothers up north.
- Seems every program in the MWC is talking about expansion and renovation, something that wasn't happening in previous years.
4. Big Biz Soap Opera. His guess is that the partnership that MWC/Thompson did with Mtn./Comcast has as much to do with getting cash in to the young conference as it is with getting aligned with the 'future' – aka fight the BCS/Disney blockade of big paydays. Comcast sees the big picture college football market and is quietly working in the background to secure as many regional/local football games with their "Comcast Sports Group" business model. I think that the future will probably see a college football playoff and dismantling/epic battle against the BCS-ESPN-Fox block led by Comcast-NBC-CBS. It's all pretty awesome drama to watch because we literally are in the "other side" of the BCS coin. Since we are 'technically' a Comcast product that the BCS wants to keep out, and because the BCS have to follow their own rules - boom, a Comcast school ends up on a rival channel taking in rival cash that a rival company makes money off of. It is a giant soap opera.
5. Hoops. He said basketball was a sleeping giant. I asked why and he mentioned that the venture is really well suited for basketball because the conference is situated well to becoming a basketball power conference. Basketball has more games and that translates to better ad revenues for them and with the natural tie-ins with CBS, which loves NCAA hoops, the strategic opportunities are better. The value of the Mtn. for MWC sports really shines in basketball because fans are seeing games today that they never had access to before. It gives fans a more 'global view' of each team and how they are doing because everyone who gets the channel gets a peek at other teams.
So even though the quality of the broadcast are still being improved upon, as well as reach, he said that a lot of fans/coaches get to watch games that they would've never been able to see in the past. To which my wiseass said.."Yea, because I REALLY want to see UNLV vs. UNM play bad football." To which he replied, in basketball you will. The impression I got was that basketball is like the 'counter-sport' to the ESPN+BCS+College Football block, like ESPN owns the Fall, but CBS owns the winter and March.
6. Da Future with Da Comcast. Ultimately the MWC will do what is best for itself and having its own channel is something that other ‘mid-majors’ can't say they have. He’s thinking MWC becoming a super conference highlighted by a championship game sponsored by a hotel group – Marriott? He expects that the WAC will lose schools to the MWC. Comcast may have a hand in helping cherry picking the schools that bring "content and customer value" to the programming of the Mtn. and Comcast, but the presidents run this boat.
I think they're going to have some influence in pointing the conference in the direction as to which markets Craig and Co. will be looking to expand. For example, Comcast is not a leading provider of cable services in Idaho - Cable One is, so you can pretty much guarantee that Boise State is very much on the radar even it is only 112th largest TV market in the country. You can pretty much bet your butt that this deal’s is going to be renewed and be even more lucrative in the future. Their production value will improve and chances are that the fans will eventually embrace this network. You can understand the kinks that are with this deal right now and frankly, in the scope of bigger things, they’re minor compared to dollar amounts that are out there associated with this.
That’s my dissertation for the day and all I have to say about that.
Go Utes!
Kill Cowboys!!
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