It’s easy to bash consultants and for sure there are plenty of examples of them being overused. But I would maintain that for these media negotiations, they are likely justified. As a conference, you’re negotiating something like this once every 5 years or whatever, so you can’t possibly hope to match the expertise of these networks which are negotiating deals all the time with other conferences, other sporting leagues, other networks, etc. Bringing in an expert for a short period of time is far more effective and less expensive than trying to maintain that little used expertise on staff.
I did not realize that the Pac 12 had hired a consultant for expansion a year ago. I id do not think they will expand unless they lose two more schools, if you can call that expansion. Media consultants sure, but Coaching hire consultants ridiculous. AS for smaller stadiums in the right place it works. The price San Diego States Football tickets are through the roof but they have enough wealthy San Diegans to fill the stadium. Most games will be a sell out.
Where are the years that coaches were hired for their knowledge, integrity, of deciding what’s good for their teams. Maybe there never were those years. But, it seems to me that EVERY sport has gotten so big and important in their own rights that no one can think for themselves. Ok, I know it’s big business in modern times but come on….those fees and what the companies do to receive them is ridiculous.
Any chance that's the same Endeavor that was just forced by the MLBPA to divest themselves of investments in ten minor-league ballclubs because they were both player agents AND team owners? Or is it just coincidence they share a name and like sports?
A Consultant is a great role, no final responsibility or accountability. Just provide information. At the end of day, the client makes the call and bears most of the responsibility. See USC and their Consultant and the hiring of Steve Sarkisian. Many suspected Steve had a drinking issue at UW, but USC chose to ignore it. Did the Consultant provide that intel? Sadly, Oregon's public colleges show little fiscal responsibility with regard to Consultants with taxpayers money.
It saddens me every time I here the name Larry Scott..I wish I was at liberty to spend other peoples hard earned money with no feeling of guilt..Boy or boy what a piece of work that guy is.........
A) Those consulting fees are cheap, compared to the value gained from successful expansion (or the bullet the Pac would've dodged had they not added the Buffs and Utes)
B) Part of the value of consulting is market knowledge/awareness, but more of the value is honest assessment. It's borderline impossible -- no matter the corporate culture/structure -- to get human beings to put aside petty grudges and have honest self-awareness.
(Yes, I work in consulting; not related to college athletics.)
The large Beaverton-area sports company that I used to work for regularly paid consultants big bucks to make fancier internal PowerPoint and Keynote presentations. Such a waste of money.
Seriously, what Cal spent on renovating Memorial Stadium was absolutely insane. Cal isn't making any principal payments at all until 2032 and the payments go on for about 100 years. They're essentially renting the stadium for about $18 million a year for six or at most seven games. That's $9 million in rent to host UC-Davis, UNLV and Arizona in their first three games, which will probably draw a total of about 90,000 fans. That's like throwing money off the Golden Gate Bridge.
It's rough. And yet Cal has managed to keep it's athletic program in the black in recent years, unlike UCLA. And somehow UCLA is being rewarding for that lack of financial stewardship. Cal seems to have basically defaulted on its basketball program as a way to stay in the black and keep its other programs in tact.
“Cal is subsidized” feels like a talking point supplied by the UCLA Athletics comms team. The truth of the matter is Cal gets a very small portion of it’s overall budget from campus, and I believe only fairly recently. Look at its 990s. Cal has stayed in the black partially by being cheap. Cal has stayed out of the high paying coaches game for a reason, because the university has prioritized financial stewardship over athletic performance — period. With football they play the game just enough to keep one foot in and one foot out.
Main campus is paying half the interest on the stadium debt. That is never going to end. UCLA has never built a stadium. Justin Wilcox has now surpassed Chip Kelly as the highest paid public employee in California with his contract extension. Is Cal being cheap?
Wilcox's extension, which earned after five years of service mind you, come out to $4.75 million/year, just short of full million less annually than Kelly takes home. Kelly deserves to be paid more, but UCLA has been far looser with its wallet -- irrefutable fact.
Hope Oregon St. has a better plan for paying for all this than Cal did.
It’s easy to bash consultants and for sure there are plenty of examples of them being overused. But I would maintain that for these media negotiations, they are likely justified. As a conference, you’re negotiating something like this once every 5 years or whatever, so you can’t possibly hope to match the expertise of these networks which are negotiating deals all the time with other conferences, other sporting leagues, other networks, etc. Bringing in an expert for a short period of time is far more effective and less expensive than trying to maintain that little used expertise on staff.
I missed my calling. I should have been a sports consultant.
“Why yes, I’d be happy to share my opinions on your conference over lunch for $250k a year.”
I did not realize that the Pac 12 had hired a consultant for expansion a year ago. I id do not think they will expand unless they lose two more schools, if you can call that expansion. Media consultants sure, but Coaching hire consultants ridiculous. AS for smaller stadiums in the right place it works. The price San Diego States Football tickets are through the roof but they have enough wealthy San Diegans to fill the stadium. Most games will be a sell out.
Where are the years that coaches were hired for their knowledge, integrity, of deciding what’s good for their teams. Maybe there never were those years. But, it seems to me that EVERY sport has gotten so big and important in their own rights that no one can think for themselves. Ok, I know it’s big business in modern times but come on….those fees and what the companies do to receive them is ridiculous.
Coaches never played those roles filled by consultants.
Part of corporate world of which D1 FBS football is a member.
Any chance that's the same Endeavor that was just forced by the MLBPA to divest themselves of investments in ten minor-league ballclubs because they were both player agents AND team owners? Or is it just coincidence they share a name and like sports?
Either way, they seem like nice folks.
A Consultant is a great role, no final responsibility or accountability. Just provide information. At the end of day, the client makes the call and bears most of the responsibility. See USC and their Consultant and the hiring of Steve Sarkisian. Many suspected Steve had a drinking issue at UW, but USC chose to ignore it. Did the Consultant provide that intel? Sadly, Oregon's public colleges show little fiscal responsibility with regard to Consultants with taxpayers money.
It saddens me every time I here the name Larry Scott..I wish I was at liberty to spend other peoples hard earned money with no feeling of guilt..Boy or boy what a piece of work that guy is.........
JC did an amazing job exposing Scott, what a disaster that the university presidents let him do so much damage.
Boy you nailed that alright.............
Pathological
New stadium looks great!
Hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be the “class of the Mountain West”
A) Those consulting fees are cheap, compared to the value gained from successful expansion (or the bullet the Pac would've dodged had they not added the Buffs and Utes)
B) Part of the value of consulting is market knowledge/awareness, but more of the value is honest assessment. It's borderline impossible -- no matter the corporate culture/structure -- to get human beings to put aside petty grudges and have honest self-awareness.
(Yes, I work in consulting; not related to college athletics.)
The large Beaverton-area sports company that I used to work for regularly paid consultants big bucks to make fancier internal PowerPoint and Keynote presentations. Such a waste of money.
Seriously, what Cal spent on renovating Memorial Stadium was absolutely insane. Cal isn't making any principal payments at all until 2032 and the payments go on for about 100 years. They're essentially renting the stadium for about $18 million a year for six or at most seven games. That's $9 million in rent to host UC-Davis, UNLV and Arizona in their first three games, which will probably draw a total of about 90,000 fans. That's like throwing money off the Golden Gate Bridge.
It's rough. And yet Cal has managed to keep it's athletic program in the black in recent years, unlike UCLA. And somehow UCLA is being rewarding for that lack of financial stewardship. Cal seems to have basically defaulted on its basketball program as a way to stay in the black and keep its other programs in tact.
The Cal athletic program isn't in the black. It's being subsidized by the main campus.
“Cal is subsidized” feels like a talking point supplied by the UCLA Athletics comms team. The truth of the matter is Cal gets a very small portion of it’s overall budget from campus, and I believe only fairly recently. Look at its 990s. Cal has stayed in the black partially by being cheap. Cal has stayed out of the high paying coaches game for a reason, because the university has prioritized financial stewardship over athletic performance — period. With football they play the game just enough to keep one foot in and one foot out.
Main campus is paying half the interest on the stadium debt. That is never going to end. UCLA has never built a stadium. Justin Wilcox has now surpassed Chip Kelly as the highest paid public employee in California with his contract extension. Is Cal being cheap?
Wilcox's extension, which earned after five years of service mind you, come out to $4.75 million/year, just short of full million less annually than Kelly takes home. Kelly deserves to be paid more, but UCLA has been far looser with its wallet -- irrefutable fact.
I might also point out that Cal ended up having to eat the final years of Jeff Tedford's expensive deal. That wasn't cheap.
Nope.