[Paint Touches] Big East Financials

[PaintTouches]

So apologies ton the actual tax pros but all this $ talk for the Big Ten and SEC had me curious so I took a swim around the Big East 990s.

There are lots of interesting nuggets to pick out, but the Big East paying MSG over $2M, how valuable the BET is and the rate of growth v football conferences stuck with me.

Just something for you to chew on in doldrums of July.

https://painttouches.com/2022/07/21/big-east-financials-how-does-it-make-money-and-where-does-it-go/

[muwarrior69]

So it looks like tap city for the BE if we don't get an equivalent media deal like the last one.

[The Sultan]

So it looks like tap city for the BE if we don't get an equivalent media deal like the last one.

Nope.

[muwarrior69]

Nope.

Nope? Two-thirds of the leagues revenue is derived from the media contract and according to the OP FOX overpaid.

[GOO]

As long as the tech companies are looking for live sports content, I won't worry about it.

[The Sultan]

Nope? Two-thirds of the leagues revenue is derived from the media contract and according to the OP FOX overpaid.

Right but most of the expenses are distributions to the members. The members are the same nes who will have to figure it out. The conference will be fine.

[PaintTouches]

Didn't want to start another thread, so just plugging part 2 here, looking at payouts and expenses at an individual rather than a conference level. This is where the conference revenue disparities really show up.

https://painttouches.com/2022/07/28/big-east-financials-how-much-do-conference-payouts-cover/

[brewcity77]

That article was about as scary as watching Stranger Things in the dark. Doesn't bode well for Marquette or other Big East schools going forward.

[Herman Cain]

Objectives of the League need to be:
1. Get as many teams as possible in NCAA tournament. This means everyone needs to do very well in non conference.
2. Need Villanova to not fall off much and then have three teams emerge as top 15 type teams.

That should position the league with multiple bidders  when new TV deal is negotiated 

[Shooter McGavin]

That article was about as scary as watching Stranger Things in the dark. Doesn't bode well for Marquette or other Big East schools going forward.

Agreed.  I do not like the long term ramifications.

[Billy Hoyle]

Agreed.  I do not like the long term ramifications.

the long term ramification is we will be at the top of the not Power 5, 4, 3, 2, conference rankings when those leagues break off.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Didn't want to start another thread, so just plugging part 2 here, looking at payouts and expenses at an individual rather than a conference level. This is where the conference revenue disparities really show up.

https://painttouches.com/2022/07/28/big-east-financials-how-much-do-conference-payouts-cover/

My first instinct is that this isn't an apples to apples comparison between the Big East and Big 10. I don't think comparing the end of a media rights deal (Big East) to a freshly negotiated one (Big 10) makes sense. I could be wrong but my guess is that some of this gap will be corrected when the Big East gets a new deal in a few years.

I'm curious about the jumps in expenses at Marquette. I assume a big chunk of it has to do with the shift from the BC to Fiserv. My understanding is that the Fiserv deal is significantly less MU friendly than the BC deal was. So while expenses jumped significantly from 2014 to 2019, I'm not certain we should expect that kind of jump moving forward.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

the long term ramification is we will be at the top of the not Power 5, 4, 3, 2, conference rankings when those leagues break off.

Break off in football, maybe. I don't think they are going anywhere in basketball.

[PaintTouches]

My first instinct is that this isn't an apples to apples comparison between the Big East and Big 10. I don't think comparing the end of a media rights deal (Big East) to a freshly negotiated one (Big 10) makes sense. I could be wrong but my guess is that some of this gap will be corrected when the Big East gets a new deal in a few years.

This isn't the new B10 deal, that one will be $100M+ per team. And that's why I included the other chart in the article. It's not just a B10 thing. The BE has lost a lot of ground compared to the other 5 major conferences where on average, the conference payout covers at least 35% of expenses. For the Big East it's in the teens.

Doing quick math the new media deal would have to be triple the current one or around $13M per team per year for MU to be able to get to 30% coverage. And I'm still not done with that portion, but I'm guessing it's closer to half that.

As for expenses, MU is in the bottom half of BE in terms of % increases (because it had a higher baseline). Just costs a lot more to compete at this level then it had in the past.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

This isn't the new B10 deal, that one will be $100M+ per team. And that's why I included the other chart in the article. It's not just a B10 thing. The BE has lost a lot of ground compared to the other 5 major conferences where on average, the conference payout covers at least 35% of expenses. For the Big East it's in the teens.

But it does include the 2017 deal that was negotiated 3 years after the Big East's deal. The reason other conference's payouts have gone up and the Big East's has remained stagnant is because they have had new more profitable deals negotiated since the Big East's was signed. I don't know if it will be triple, but the Big East will likely have a more profitable deal in a few years.

Your point about MU being in the bottom half of the BE for % increases is a good one. Move to FF can't explain everything.

[PaintTouches]

Since media rights are such a crucial component to the Big East's financial future, I took a deep dive at how the Big East TV ratings were holding up in Year 9 with FS1.

https://painttouches.com/2022/08/05/big-east-financials-how-have-tv-ratings-performed/

I was pleasantly surprised.



And if you want to play around with the numbers yourself, I built an interactive dashboard to make it easier for you to do so.

https://painttouches.com/2022/08/02/2022-big-east-tv-ratings/

[muwarrior69]

What stood out to me in your post was that St. Johns seems to draw the most eyes. Can you imagine what the ratings would be if St. Johns performed like Villanova over the last 8 years?

[The Equalizer]

What stood out to me in your post was that St. Johns seems to draw the most eyes. Can you imagine what the ratings would be if St. Johns performed like Villanova over the last 8 years?

St. Johns doesn't draw the most eyes--and it's not even close.

The data only includes games that had audiences of more than 200K viewers.

St. John's only had six games that reached that level, compared to Villanova that had 20 games that hit that mark.  The total audience of those high-rated games shows more than 12 million for Villanova, and 4.5 million total for St. Johns. 

Plus, the January 16 St. Johns/Georgetown game is an outlier because it was the only Big East game with  NFL Playoff game as a lead-in, resulting in an abnormally large one-time audience for both teams. 

[PaintTouches]

St. Johns doesn't draw the most eyes--and it's not even close.

The data only includes games that had audiences of more than 200K viewers.

Yup,  they can't carry a game, hence the lack of FS1 games over 200K. The weird part with both them and Georgetown, is even if you exclude the post-NFL playoff anomaly, they had really strong FOX numbers. There are a lot of Olds that will watch them if they make it easy to find, but won't search them out, IMO.