24 Comments
Aug 10, 2022Liked by John Canzano

Hope Oregon St. has a better plan for paying for all this than Cal did.

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Aug 10, 2022Liked by John Canzano

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.

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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.”

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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.

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Aug 10, 2022Liked by John Canzano

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.

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Aug 10, 2022Liked by John Canzano

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.

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Aug 10, 2022Liked by John Canzano

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.

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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.........

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New stadium looks great!

Hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be the “class of the Mountain West”

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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