Just last month Syracuse University announced it was moving on from IMG, a marketing company the school had been associated with since 1999. Which effectively meant athletics director Daryl Gross, PHD, either had another deal lined up elsewhere or had enough leverage to make IMG pony up some more cash. Either way, Syracuse was expecting to get p-a-i-d.
And a little over thirty days later, I guess we have our answer.
From an email from ISP officials:
"As you are probably well aware by now, there has been some recent confusion as to the partnership between IMG and Syracuse for future years. Fortunately, IMG & Syracuse have restructred/renewed/reworked our agreement."
Meaning:
As expected. Likely more $ for #Syracuse MT @MatthewMcClusky IMG & Syracuse have restructured/renewed/reworked our agreement" IMG email.
— chris carlson (@ccarlsononSU) August 19, 2014
Obviously, details haven't been released yet, but it seems likely the university was able to pull in a better deal for itself. Broadcast rights and marketing options have exploded over the last few years and, like plenty of other schools across the country, Syracuse wanted in on all the loot.
The ramifications of more revenue could be far reaching. Could it help with the new indoor practice facility, possible Carrier Dome upgrades or maybe even become funds for a new arena somewhere down the line? I would assume we're talking about a pretty big chunk of change here, and coupling that with the ACC deal, SU is theoretically doing pretty good for itself.
Yet, aside from speculating where the money will go and which faction of the school will control it, we know this deal means that all IMG providers (including my own Fox Sports Radio 1410 WNER), will continue to broadcast games. Comforting news for fans who may not have access to ESPN 3 and who wanted to, you know, actually hear their team play on August 29. So fear not, fans, Matt Park, Voice of the Orange, will be on the call a week from Friday.
(Assuming Syracuse doesn't change its mind again.)
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UPDATE: Syracuse has confirmed its new deal with IMG via email. With its customary close-to-the-vest mentality, the school half-revealed details of the new deal.
"Under the new agreement, IMG will market and sell corporate sponsorships, and manage radio game broadcasts for the athletics' department sports programs, as well as produce coaches television shows and other programming and publications. IMG will also market other assets of the athletics department, including certain digital entities, venue signage, in-game promotions and other sponsorship recognitions in conjunction with university athletic events."
Seemingly, IMG (with its new parent company, William Morris Endeavor) will do everything it did before for Syracuse University athletics, it will just be giving more money over to the school to do those duties. And, for what it's worth, Daryl Gross, PHD, says the deal will, "maximize our interests, allowing us to further support our student-athletes on the field and in the classroom, and compete at the highest level in the ACC and nationally for years to come." (Yay for maximizing interests!)
Just how will all of that be accomplished? Is Syracuse actually looking to give some of the massive revenue generated by "student-athletes" to the actual "student-athletes"? Well, frankly, no. Furthermore, we have no idea what will happen with this new-found windfall of cash. That's because the email regarding the new deal ends, "Additional terms of the new contract will not be disclosed."
In other words, quit asking because we ain't telling.