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COLLEGES Oregon scores with big sports licensing deal Comment By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard MailTribune.com By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard Posted Jun. 6, 2016 at 8:23 PM By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard Posted Jun. 6, 2016 at 8:23 PM » Social News EUGENE — Deciding the Duck athletics brand is worth much more than the Athletics Department was getting from its multimedia licenser, the University of Oregon reopened negotiations in the middle of its 10-year contract — and scored. Now, IMG College has agreed to pay the Ducks at least $57 million over the next six years, and maybe considerably more, depending on how royalties stack up. That’s at least a 40 percent boost from the old contract. “For the last few years, we’ve been way undervalued in our old deal,” athletic director Rob Mullens recently told the UO Board of Trustees. North Carolina-based IMG College is in the business of selling college sports to sponsors for the maximum dollar, according to the company. For the UO, IMG sells sponsorship to everything from the Autzen Stadium scoreboard, to radio play-by-play broadcasts, to one half of the GoDucks.com website, to game tickets, ticket envelopes and parking passes — absolutely everything except Gatorade cups at the sideline or Nike shoes on team feet. The 56-year-old company is owned by talent agency William Morris Endeavor and a private equity firm called Silver Lake. The conglomerate’s endeavors range from representing Oprah Winfrey to buying the exclusive rights to promote soccer in India to owning the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin, Istanbul and Australia. IMG College holds licensing contracts with 75 college sports programs, allowing it to sell access to campuses to top brand national sponsors. But, in the past three years, IMG College has faced stiff competition from a startup headed by its own former managing director, Thomas Stutz. In 2014, Stutz poached the University of Kentucky from IMG in a 15-year, $210 million deal that made athletic directors across the country — including Mullens — wonder whether their licensing was worth more. In 2008, the UO signed a contract with IMG that called for payments of about $67 million over 10 years — which more than doubled the university’s previous contract. But in the past eight years, the UO’s square footage of advertising space on new sports facilities soared, and the Ducks' brand kept growing with elite team performances. The football team became a regular contender at top bowls and national championships. Basketball is ranked in the top five nationally. Women’s softball won a fourth-straight Pac-12 championship and reached for the national championships. The men’s and women’s track and field teams won the latest indoor and outdoor team championships. Men’s golf won its day in the sun last week with its first-ever national team title. With the success, the brand had “shifted,” Mullens told the trustees. The department hired an independent contractor to establish the current value of the brand, even though the licensing deal with IMG wasn’t up until June 30, 2018. IMG had to renegotiate, or “we’ll suffer through the last few years” of the contract, Mullens said, at which time the university would be free to seek a deal with a competitor. The negotiations were “intense,” Mullens said. “Many of these deals have been done for 10, 12, 15 years, but because of what’s changing in this space we opted for a shorter-term deal,” he told the trustees. The shortened term was key, said Bryan Dearinger, UO assistant general counsel. The athletic department demanded the flexibility to not be wedded to a decade or more with IMG. The university held out for an unusually brief six-year contract — through June 30, 2022 — with 60 percent revenue sharing after earnings clear particular thresholds, which are set annually. The thresholds are trade secrets and exempt from public disclosure under the Oregon public records law, according to the UO and the company. So is the amount of the signing bonus the company will give the university, the UO said. UO General Counsel Kevin Reed reviewed the proposed contract. Reed worked at the University of California-Los Angeles last year when it negotiated a 10-year contract extension with IMG worth $150 million. Under the contract with the UO, IMG will manage radio broadcasts, coaches’ shows, publications, corporate partnerships and venue signage. The deal is so exacting, the UO had to carve out room for existing contracts with Gatorade for sideline drinks and Nike for team apparel. The deal is so finely detailed that the game drink exception for Gatorade doesn’t preclude an IMG sponsor’s protein drink, Muscle Milk. The UO’s own admissions office and alumni association are allowed to use audio recordings of games as long as it’s not for commercial purposes, the contract specifies. IMG agreed not to sell sponsorships to purveyors of liquor (wine and malt beverages are OK), any UO-branded credit cards in deference to the UO Alumni Association, feminine hygiene, male sexual enhancements, escort services or tobacco. IMG negotiated that it would receive free athletic department office space, seats on team charters — and a lot of free tickets to use as perks for sponsors. That includes: 400 football season tickets, 346 men’s basketball season tickets, 144 women’s basketball season tickets, 50 baseball season tickets, 20 track and field season tickets, 12 softball season tickets and 40 all-sports passes. By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard MailTribune.com By Diane Dietz Eugene Register-Guard Posted Jun. 6, 2016 at 8:23 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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