DRC: UNT announces deal with Learfield (updated with info on impact on BTG, radio talent)

Arkstfan · April 20, 2017

Learfield is the rare time where out-sourcing makes sense.

There is no ceiling. You get 100% up to the guaranteed amount, if Learfield can't make the guarantee you still get 100% of the guarantee and they have to bid more than you are getting to get the contract otherwise why bother.

They place staff in your building and they work as part of the athletic team.

Once they hit whatever target, you start splitting revenue. Basically you get 100% of the guarantee, they get 100% from the Guarantee +1$ and then at some other point you start getting a cut. The people assigned to your account want to sell as much as possible because they want to keep their job and they want to maximize their own personal income. Sure some of the people they hire are duds, everyone ends up hiring some sales people who are duds. Learfield has two people on campus but if sales warrant they have said they might place one or two more on campus.

You'll keep your announcers unless their employer blocks it or there is some reason the school wants a change.

Learfield opens doors that aren't always open to you. Ford isn't going to deal directly with UNT, a regional dealers marketing group will but not the guys in Dearborn. Learfield goes to Dearborn and offers them a national buy and they allocate it out to their clients and they go to the dealers marketing group with a bundle of schools to get more money as well.

AState has added some sponsors who used to only do the Razorbacks thanks to Learfield also having the Hogs.

They can't do a lot for TV because of the conference contracts. After the first few weeks of the season the 12 day selection window kicks in. If you have a game on November 25 none of the TV partners has to make a decision on whether to show the game on that day until November 13. That just isn't enough time to get an outlet to agree to carry the game, line up a truck, crew, announcers and sell the thing. Our local ABC affiliate is Sinclair owned and despite that connection they had dropped their ASN affiliation for the second broadcast window on the .2 subchannel. When ASN picked up our game at UL Lafayette the station had to scramble to clear the slot. Sinclair rubber stamped it of course but they had to clear the time from the folks holding the programming in that window. They got that cleared on the Friday before Thanksgiving and the game was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and got it 50% sold but in 2011 with more than a month lead time they were actually turning away sponsors for a telecast and that was Freeze's first year, when we were coming off a 4 win season. Friend at the station said the only mistake they made in 2011 was not setting the ad price high enough.

So don't hold your breath on getting extra or better TV exposure even though you can generally sell anything allocated to ESPN3 locally. The logistics get messy.

Learfield won't be approving shirt designs (CLC and the school do it) but they might do some logo work if they see an opportunity though it'd be unusual. They also don't spend a lot of effort on merchandise but you may start hearing that "XYZ is the official store for UNT merchandise" with a nifty sign in the window and mention of that on billboards and such.

As to KNTU, it holds a public license so it is bound by the FCC restrictions on ads. In general that means you can have "Come Visit Billy's GMC-Buick" but not "Get a new truck for $38,000 from Billy's GMC-Buick".

BeIN is a well run operation but the reach isn't very good 22 million or so homes. Roughly a third the reach of CBSSN and less than a fourth of ESPN/ESPN2/FS1 but a bit better than double Fox SW but I'd wager BEiN's reach in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana is south of 3 million probably barely 2 million considering that BeIN is generally only offered as an add-on or in a higher package and the heavy dose of European soccer suggests it's strength is going to be in the Northeast and the west coast with the high immigrant populations. They are showing the top leagues from France Italy Spain and Russia and the second tier league in England. They carry the big tournament for Korea and World Cup qualifying for North and South America that doesn't involve the US or Mexico. Texas is second in US population but the fourth most popular legal immigrant destination behind California, NY, and Florida and not that far ahead of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I didn't catch any of their football telecasts but watched a few minutes of their pre-game show and it was quite well done.

Edited April 20, 2017 by Arkstfan
extra detail

VideoEagle · April 21, 2017

On 4/20/2017 at 0:48 AM, Arkstfan said:

Learfield is the rare time where out-sourcing makes sense.

Thanks for the direct information. I've heard good things about Learfield but it was all third hand. The only real negative I've seen was that tweet from the LaTechReport and to be honest I don't know who they are.

Arkstfan · April 21, 2017

26 minutes ago, VideoEagle said:

Thanks for the direct information. I've heard good things about Learfield but it was all third hand. The only real negative I've seen was that tweet from the LaTechReport and to be honest I don't know who they are.

I've never known a La Tech fan to think anything was good.

Could well be that having an FCS across town, an FBS 30 miles away, the bulk of the state's population and business interests well south with no easy drive to Ruston had a greater impact on their Learfield outcome than Learfield simply doing the least it could. Tech re-upped with Learfield last June for $650,000 a year so their administration must not hate the deal. The existing deal was set to expire in 2018 so they renewed after eight years.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/college/la-tech/2016/06/26/la-tech-athletics-faces-fiscal-challenges/86412228/

Edited April 21, 2017 by Arkstfan

VideoEagle · April 21, 2017

3 minutes ago, Arkstfan said:

I've never known a La Tech fan to think anything was good.

Could well be that having an FCS across town, an FBS 30 miles away, the bulk of the state's population and business interests well south with no easy drive to Ruston had a greater impact on their Learfield outcome than Learfield simply doing the least it could. Tech re-upped with Learfield last June for $650,000 a year so their administration must not hate the deal. The existing deal was set to expire in 2018 so they renewed after eight years.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/college/la-tech/2016/06/26/la-tech-athletics-faces-fiscal-challenges/86412228/

True! I've seen a number of them still blame the Indy bowl for their administrations screw up that caused them to be sitting at home after a winning season. And why would the Louisiana legislature put a better road into Rust-on!

Arkstfan · April 21, 2017

As luck would have it. I was talking to a friend who is a suite holder about the spring game and wondered if the school was going to use it to fine tune the use of the video board. He said that one of the Learfield guys had visited with him during a game last year pointed out how wrong we were in how we use the video board, said we were not getting maximum revenue and it was too jarring for fans but they couldn't do much with it for the 2016 season because of the ad contracts in place but said they could make better use of it in 2017.