Posted by Bidders War on June 15, 2010 at 07:58:38:
In Reply to: Re: Wisconsin Badgers Flagship posted by Lawyer @ Large on June 13, 2010 at 21:57:45:
If a true bidding war heats up in Madison expect Midwest to go back after it again. Man on the street said at the last renewal they offered a lot to try to steal it from Clear Channel. In the ballpark of 1 million cash.
If Karmazin has the money at his disposal that Walker does this could get heated.
In Milwaukee not many people as a whole truly are die hard Badger followers. It's not a live or die must hear sport like it is in Madison and further North. That must be part of the logic to WTMJ management. You could argue they are more interested in UW-Milwaukee sports or Marquette sports than UW stuff.
: Does everyone know basically what "flagship" rights really means? Jeremy Andrews and Wisconsin Badgers Flagship don't seem to get the total picture of it.
: What college sports have done over the past few years is get away from stations owning the rights. So like Wisconin goes with a company like Learfield, which produces and distributes the game for the "flagship" and the university. This way the University owns the "rights" that are in the agreement of with the University. The agreement with Learfield and the agreement with WIBA have NOTHING to do with each other outside of the production of the game.
: Lepay is employeed by the University of Wisconsin in connection with Learfield, Lucas in this setting is employeed by WIBA. Just as Steve True is employeed by Marquette and McIlvaine is employeed by WAUK.
: The college agreements and the pro game agreements are totally different contracts minus the special situation with Uecker with the Brewers.
: If I remember the agreement with Learfield goes well beyond 2013-2014 with the University, but has no baring on the agreement with WIBA which I believe runs through the basketball season 2011.
: The reason WTMJ left the flagship rights a few years ago was because of two things, the deal with Learfield AND the other flagship stuff with the Bucks, Brewers, and Packers. And knowing both Carl Moll and Tom Land I know that the appeal of the rising costs paid to the Brewers and Packers makes carrying the Badgers a tougher proposition.
: I hate to be in Jeff Tyler's shoes at WIBA because Clear Channel has clearly decided to tighten the purse strings a little and Craig Karmazin is clearly got cash to burn.
: Prediction: UW stays with WIBA but a bigger price tag, which on one hand is great for the University and bad for affliates which will have to fork over more to carry the games. WTMJ, IMHO, is likely done with UW and those games in Milwaukee will end up on WISN or WSSP. If Karmazin doesn't gain the rights he will stick with Marquette.
: Should be fun.