[Quack Attack]

Terms revealed in UO sports promotion deal



7/24/2008, 2:35 p.m. PDT
The Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The University of Oregon has completed a 10-year agreement worth more than $65 million from sports advertising, promotions and endorsements. The deal with the Oregon Sports Network and IMG Communications was announced last February. The contract was signed last month. The university released details after a public records request by the Eugene Register-Guard.

The agreement is the university's most lucrative ever.
is one of the country's largest sports, media and entertainment companies and represents 11 other large universities.

All told, the UO will receive $58.7 million in guaranteed payments, capital improvement payments and naming rights for its new baseball field.
The OSN+IMG joint venture will be responsible for production costs, video board programming, ticket purchases and other costs and services.
It is unclear why it took so long to sign the agreement, announced Feb. 12 after the parties signed a letter of intent spelling out the financial terms.

The agreement gives OSN+IMG wide latitude for marketing almost any aspect of Oregon sports through print, broadcast, live events, video boards, signage, tickets, corporate sponsorships, product endorsements by coaches and other means. It will have to make enough to cover the guaranteed payments to the UO, cover its production costs and make a profit. Joe Giansante, a senior associate athletic director at the UO, said that will bring pressures to find as many ways as possible to sell Duck sports.

"Fans will see way more programming than they've ever seen because IMG just absolutely has to have it to meet the guarantee they've given us," he said. The UO will have the authority to sign off on the use of its logo and other trademarks, and it will retain control of the term Voice of the Ducks. The agreement also contains language barring the company from any actions that could damage the university's reputation. The deal played a role in the debate over the financing of the university's new basketball arena.

The university used it as an indication the arena would generate enough revenue to justify using state-backed bonds to cover the $227 million cost. Under the agreement, OSN+IMG will make guaranteed annual payments to the UO totaling $52.2 million. It will also pay $4 million over two years to the university for capital improvements to its sports venues and at least $2.5 million for naming rights to the baseball field.
The guaranteed payments start out at $3.2 million this year and increase each year, rising to $7.6 million in 2017-18. Also, the UO and the company will split any profits above $6.5 million this year and rises each year to $13.75 million in 2017-18.

That's up from the $2.15 million the UO received through a one-year contract with the Oregon Sports Network that expired July 1. Before last year, the UO had a contract with ESPN Regional for marketing rights.