|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
PAC-12 MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 16, 2019Commissoner Larry ScottChancellor Philip DiStefanoLas Vegas, Nevada COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Welcome everyone. Delighted to see you all here, our annual opportunity to meet, press conference on the day of our championship game. We're looking forward to a really exciting game today between Washington and Oregon, both teams with a lot to play for today. Joined by Chancellor DiStefano who is in his first year of chair of the Pac-12 CEO group, which is our board of directors for the conference and are the ultimate decision-makers. And together we'll give you an update on the state of the Pac-12 and also the meetings that we were able to have today. We're culminating now two weeks in a row here in Las Vegas for the first time. This has been a great week for the men's tournament. Again, we're delighted to see the enthusiasm of our crowds that came out. Very compelling play on the courts, and Las Vegas has proven to be a great destination for this event. Our fans love coming here. The teams have a great experience, and it's a tremendous showcase for Pac-12 basketball. The week before, many of you know, we had our women's basketball tournament here for the first time at the MGM Grand. And that was a great success, as well. We moved out of Seattle with the renovation of Key Arena; Las Vegas proved to be a great host for women's basketball. The feedback from our coaches and our teams was excellent, and we're delighted to see the way our fans reacted to being here. So a couple of great weeks in a row for Pac-12 basketball. And of course with what's going on with the Raider's stadium, as you've all been able to see across the street, there's some real exciting possibilities of upgrading our bowl arrangement for football here in Las Vegas and possibly other events, as well. This has certainly been an interesting year of Pac-12 basketball, below par, by Pac-12 standards, no doubt, but we are very bullish on the future, and next year in the trajectory we've got great recruits, great young student-athletes on our teams, some terrific coaches, and we like the classes that are coming in. It's also notable the last two years we've had the No. 1 draft choices go to the NBA from the league. We've had a lot of great talent come in and go out. But looking forward to not only our team doing well in postseason this year, but feel the future is bright for Pac-12 basketball. I want to give a short update on meetings we had this morning, and then I'll turn it over to Chancellor DiStefano, and he can add. We did something a little different with our normal board meetings this year. Our board of directors of presidents and chancellors meet several times a year, under the leadership of Phil, who is the 6th chair of the board that I've worked with during my tenure. There's been a decided shift toward much more openness and collaboration with our athletics directors and others. So in addition to our board meeting this morning with presidents and chancellors, we had an additional meeting with athletics directors where we were able to discuss some of the most important strategic and policy issues facing the conference that was very well received. We wanted to update on what was a major focus for our meeting this morning. We spent a good couple of hours on it. We got an update from the Raine Group who we're working with to possibly identify a strategic partner to work with us on our media rights going forward. We've announced that previously, and we got an update on the very strong interest from a lot of different parties that are intrigued, feel this is an innovative approach to really achieve three things for us, and this is the reason we're exploring it. One, to consider having a partner by our side to help us navigate and evaluate the opportunities we have going forward; secondly, to achieve that while keeping all of our optionality and flexibility with our rights expiring in 2024; and, third, to try to be responsive to some of the concerns we've heard from our schools about revenue gaps with some of the other conferences to try to come up with some creative ways that they might be able to generate increased media revenue short term while preserving all of our options going forward. Second major item we reviewed was football officiating. Several weeks ago we announced that we would conduct an external, independent review of our football officiating. We've done that from time to time. The last time was 2011 when we had Mike Pereira come in and evaluate our football officiating program. But in light of some of the challenges last season and the fact that it's been a while, we thought it was an important time to bring in an outside third-party group, Sibson Consulting, that's doing the work for us. That work internally is being led by a committee of athletics directors led by Ray Anderson, the Arizona State athletics director, who many of you know was a former executive at the NFL where he oversaw football officiating. We're going to be conducting similar reviews for men's and women's basketball officiating as well, which we just feel is a good hygiene, good governance, something we should probably do every few years anyway, as we're constantly looking to improve, be as good as we can, in the area of officiating. Third major topic of discussion was our Football Championship Game, another thing that was previously announced earlier this year, was that 2019 will be the last year in our current agreement with the San Francisco 49ers and Levi Stadium. And so we're currently going through a process. We're evaluating what we might do after that. We've got a lot of very interesting options including the fact that two of the newest, most significant new football stadiums in the country are being built out here, one in Las Vegas for the Raiders; one in Los Angeles for the Rams. So there's some very interesting options and possibilities for us as we evaluate. No decisions on that yet, but this meeting was an important opportunity to update our CEOs, ADs, on that and the other topics I mentioned to get some great feedback as we move forward. At our board meetings with our presidents and chancellors, we regularly review things like our student-athlete health program, various NCAA matters, matters related to the College Football Playoff and other standing items. But I wanted to touch upon some of the topics that got the most this morning. Chancellor DiStefano? CHANCELLOR PHILIP DISTEFANO: Thank you, Larry. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with all of you. After a great meeting today among the chancellors and presidents, athletic directors and the commissioner, and Larry briefly mentioned the Raine Group earlier, and I, too, want to express my enthusiasm for where we stand today in exploring the addition of a strategic equity partner for our media rights. I would say that we're, after today, just beyond exploring. We're actively moving forward reviewing serious offers for this opportunity. And we heard from Joe Ravitch, co-founder of the Raine Group, today about the work they've done in recent weeks to find us potential partners. He told us that there's significant interest for multiple parties. And we see this as a good sign in the process. And in the next month or two, Joe will be asking for more detailed, formal offers from these various groups. And when and if we reach a deal, as Larry pointed out, this would benefit the conference in a couple of ways. First of all, as we heard in the next round of media rights negotiation, we would have a strategic investment partner to help us maximize our value for years to come. And, secondly, as Larry mentioned, the universities would have an immediate infusion of revenue that would close the distribution gap that we face with our peers and the other Power 5 conferences. And this would help our campuses tremendously in meeting unfunded needs. So while we're a couple of months away from receiving formal offers, I can say that the chancellors, the presidents, the ADs are all aligned with each other in continuing the process with the Raine Group with Larry as our commissioner. And from my perspective, I also agree with Larry and feel good about where we're heading strategically as a conference. I'm enthusiastic about our future opportunities for growth and success on behalf of our student-athletes and athletic programs. And part of the reason that I feel so positive about where we are is that the CEOs, the ADs, and the commissioner are aligned behind our strategies and we're working really together in a collaborative way and with a high level of positive engagement among all groups. And you're seeing I think more collaboration today than what you've seen over the past few years. And that's good for the universities, and that's also good for the conference. And while we're working collaboratively, I just want to make the point that the management structure has not changed at all. The presidents and chancellors make the strategic decisions. We're the decision-makers for the conference. And of course, if we want to be more visible as a conference, our teams need to perform better, especially in the areas of football and basketball, men's basketball. And there's no question that success on the field can be cyclical, and we're amid a really challenging time when it comes to those sports. We're in this cycle. And if you think about it, three years ago our basketball teams were doing really well. We've had a downturn, but again it's cyclical, and I expect us to come back. We have strong coaches. We have great programs, great facilities. And we're not the first to experience this. And I believe, like my colleagues, the other presidents and chancellors, that our fundamentals are strong, we'll bounce back in these sports. In the meantime, we remain focused on our mission to support our student-athletes on the field and in the classroom. And we shouldn't forget all of the incredible successes of our student-athletes, of what they're having in so many different sports and also in their non-sport endeavors. As I look at the conference and the successes, I really believe that we have to take this whole holistic view of our performance. Everyone talks, of course, about football and men's basketball. And of course those are our two big revenue sports that are the most visible. But also it's important to remember that in the last year our Pac-12 schools won 12 national titles, including Oregon State in baseball. And while we all believe in winning and we want to see our conference and universities earn revenue, there's a lot more to sports than just those things. At our meeting today, we talked about initiatives to increase health and wellness for our student-athletes. And that includes robust mental health programs, because we know that the need continues to grow for student-athletes and actually our entire student bodies. And we're here to support student-athletes on and off the field. And if they're getting an education and they're learning life lessons, then we feel good about their future and the future of the conference. Again, I want to thank you for being here. With that, Larry and I would be happy to take questions that you have. Q. The numbers I've seen in terms of the equity partnership are five hundred million for 10 percent. How do you have an evaluation that's so much higher than the other power conferences? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: I'll go first. I think the first thing I'd say is our structure is different from our peer conferences in that we own and control the Pac-12 Networks, ourselves, in addition to the license contracts we have with ESPN and Fox. Secondly, we have not finalized evaluation or amount of money that would be involved. That's one of the things that we're working on and discussed today with the Raine Group or our advisors in this endeavor. So the numbers you've read and heard are not official numbers, not something that we've settled on, and that's part of the process we're going through. CHANCELLOR PHILIP DISTEFANO: I would just add that -- I've used this term previously about strategic patience; that we're in a good position right now. We have until 2024. We're starting early. We're looking at being much more innovative and entrepreneurial. As Larry points out, the asset that we have is the Pac-12 Networks that we own a hundred percent of. I think that's where there could be some enthusiasm and excitement about working together on some of these things. Q. So are you looking for five hundred million at whatever valuation you get, or is that still up in the air as well? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: No, what I meant to say is we haven't finalized an amount of money that we're trying to raise, or a valuation. Those are things that we're still working on with the Raine Group and having different types of discussions with different partners about. So the numbers that you've read in terms of what we're trying to raise and valuation are not confirmed numbers. That's where we're at. The other thing I should add, I'm sorry, is something we've said before, the amount of money that we raise and the valuation are very important details, but they actually are secondary, from our perspective, to the strategic value that a partner would bring side by side. We still have all of our rights available till 2024. And as important as anything is going to be having a partner by our side to help us navigate this very interesting time, with all these opportunities as the media market is so rapidly changing with more streaming and over-the-top and technology companies being involved, not just domestically but internationally as well. That's actually the primary focus, a partner that could really help us navigate the course in front of us with all of our rights available till 2024. The amount of money we raise as part of the process, the valuation are important; but I'd say they're secondary to the strategic partnership considerations that we have. Q. I'm not sure I heard you correctly, but did you say you did have offers on the table you were reviewing for equity partners? CHANCELLOR PHILIP DISTEFANO: Right now there are no firm offers. There's been interest from a number of groups. Q. Is there any way prior to football season that either an online service or DirecTV could get in place a deal to get the distribution out there a little bit more? There's bars down here that we're hearing don't have the Pac-12 games on, sports books don't have them. Is there any way this could get rectified? I know you're always working on it every day, but is there a way, a possibility this could get rectified prior to football season? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Certainly it's possible. Our team would do a deal with DirecTV tomorrow if they were willing, but they haven't expressed any willingness to enter into an agreement with them. But our team is out there all the time talking to the online services. Yes, the offer is open to DirecTV if they want to take the service. Q. From my understanding, athletic directors have asked to see the Pac-12's budget and financials and whatnot; have been told that that's information for presidents only. Is that true? Will athletic directors be able to see the budget at some point? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: That's certainly a mischaracterization. We have several layers of member input into our budget setting and our review. And there have been a few other things misreported. So I appreciate the question; it's a chance to clarify. But I think everyone should know. First of all, the Pac-12 Conference, like you're peer conferences, has an auditor and are audited. The expenses, the revenues, everything is audited every year by a blue chip accounting firm. There's an audit and finance committee, like all organizations that subscribe to good governance have. We have an audit and finance committee which is chaired by a university president and a university chief financial officer. So the top financial people at our universities are on our audit and finance committee and involved in reviewing our expenses, reviewing our submissions of our 990s and work with the auditors, with management present, without management present, to be satisfied that everything is handled at the utmost of prudence. There is a budget and finance committee of the CEO group, also with the university presidents, university chief financial officers, and there's a budget and finance committee of what we call our council, which involves athletics directors, faculty representatives and senior women administrators, that all touch the budget setting process. So that's kind of structurally and process-wise what we have in place. There is a very significant focus on expenses, in particular right now, for a couple of reasons. We still have quite a few years until our revenue agreements come up, our television revenue agreements come up, during a time that other conferences have had a chance to reset their agreements, and that timing has resulted in some conferences moving ahead of us in terms of media. I think this is somewhat cyclical, timing. There was a time not too long ago that we had the largest TV agreements in the country. That's not the case a few years later. It may be again in the near future. That's led to an increased focus on expense management. And so we regularly review our expenses compared to our peers. We are right smack in the middle of Pac-12 Conference expenses compared to the SEC, ACC, Big Ten, and Big 12. In fact, that was one of the areas that we reviewed this morning, because recent media reports questioned whether Pac-12 Conference expenses are in line or not with our peer conferences. So this morning was a great opportunity, with athletics directors, with presidents, chancellors, to go through a thorough analysis and with a committee that we put together to walk through that. So it's a constant focus. Certainly at the Pac-12 Networks, constantly looking for ways to produce more efficiently. And, yeah, appreciate you asking the question because there are certain processes, procedures, checks and balances that are in place that people might not be aware of and certainly haven't been reported. And there's a level of visibility and exposure and involvement athletics directors and CEOs will have, and will increasingly have. One of the things that Chancellor DiStefano is moving us in the direction of is more collaborative work with our athletics directors and CEOs. In the past, some of this work was done more by CEOs and university CFOs; it will increasingly involve athletics directors, as well. CHANCELLOR PHILIP DISTEFANO: I would just add, I served as chair of the audit committee the last couple of years before chairing the chancellors and presidents. And Larry is exactly right. There's -- at each one of our meetings, there's -- a part of the session is to talk about our audit and where we are with expenses and revenue. Q. Just wanted to gauge your thoughts on the attendance this week. I know historically Arizona fans travel pretty well; they were eliminated in the first round. Are you content with the turnout these last few days, the crowds have fluctuated a little bit? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: They were strong. Anyone that was here last night felt the excitement, felt the energy. Both games were pumping. Loved the atmosphere. There's no doubt Arizona fans have traveled extremely well to this event. And our Arizona fan turnout is down, understandably. But we're very pleased with the attendance. CHANCELLOR PHILIP DISTEFANO: I would say for Colorado, we had a huge snowstorm on Wednesday and flights were canceled. And I was really impressed by the number of fans that made it yesterday for the game that we had despite a blizzard in Denver. And I mentioned to Larry earlier, I was here last week for the women's tournament, and I was very pleased with the attendance for our Colorado game, even though we were in last place. We had many more fans than we've had in Seattle. Q. It's been two full basketball seasons now since the FBI corruption thing hit the news. And with Sean Miller getting subpoenaed, reportedly, next month and whatever follow-up will come from that, what concerns does the league have about what might come out of that and how it will affect the basketball brand? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: We're certainly concerned about when any of our schools are embroiled in an investigation like that, there are accusations like that, that's a concern. Our schools that were involved took some swift action in certain instances, but there still are some lingering issues, as you mentioned. And certainly been a big distraction for that program and unwanted attention for the conference, there's no doubt about that. I think we're all eager to see that process play out and there be resolution and clarity for the Arizona program and Pac-12 basketball, more broadly, to move forward. So, yeah, we're looking forward to it all progressing any doubt about the future direction of the program and its impact on the conference being clear. Q. I think if Oregon wins tonight there's a pretty good chance you'll have three NCAA Tournament teams. Is that kind of the best scenario for the conference given where the teams were in the non-conference portion, and not having anybody really ranked for most of the season? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: I think realistically that's probably a fair assessment. Washington and Arizona State have very strong resumes, different kinds of resumes, but very, very strong resumes, and we think they've earned their spot in the tournament. And Washington is playing for seeding probably tonight. And it's kind of an exciting moment in the tournament because we haven't had in recent years an opportunity for one of our schools to essentially earn a bid with a win here. So it's going to be just fun to see the intensity in the game tonight and I think as you all know the winner of this tournament gets an automatic bid. If that happens I'm expecting we'll have three teams. Q. You had three schools that were in football involved in this bribery thing. Your thoughts on that and have you talked to presidents of the school or how to close this hole, I guess? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Are you talking about the news from last week, related to admissions? Q. Exactly. COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Just wanted to clarify. Certainly it was a great concern when we saw the news and how it impacts the integrity of the admissions process at our schools. And I was immediately in touch with the presidents of each of those universities, athletics directors, to try to understand what happened, see how we could support in whatever ways. Each of those schools has taken swift and decisive action and articulated the very, very high standards of integrity they stand for. I've got no doubt that each of those schools is going to continue to deal with the situation with the utmost importance and take whatever corrective measures they need to take so that something like this were not to happen again. And of course as Chancellor DiStefano was with those presidents this morning. Q. The YES Network sale recently, what does that do to help set the value for the Pac-12 network? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: Really, we were discussing that this morning, in fact. That question was asked by one of Chancellor DiStefano's colleagues to our advisors from the Raine Group. And I think our feeling is it doesn't really tell us much about what we're thinking about doing because we've got all of our rights available in 2024. We're not wedded to a particular business model. The regional sports networks sale, the YES Network and the other Fox RSNs being sold are a particular type of channel that has to buy rights from different entities and that's not what we are. We're a conference that owns the underlying content from our schools and come 2024 we're going to assess what's the best way to license our content or offer it directly to our fans in a world that undoubtedly will look very different from what it looks today. But we're not wedded to an RSN or any other structure. And every indication we continue to see is that the value of premium sports rights keeps going up. I'd say the only other thing that was particularly notable about it from our perspective was the significant investment that Amazon made as part of the purchasing group. There's been speculation for some time that they're looking seriously at sports and live programming. I think this was a very significant indicator that they are serious about it and that Amazon is going to be a player in the live sports rights ecosystem going forward. And from our perspective that's a positive development. Q. Based on what you saw this week at the women's tournament, what do you foresee about the future? Is it going to stay here or do you think it will go back to Seattle after Key Arena is renovated? COMMISSIONER LARRY SCOTT: We were pleased. I don't know our coaches or programs knew exactly what to expect. Las Vegas doesn't have the same tradition for women's basketball that it does for men's basketball. We were excited to know that the Aces are here and there's a commitment to a WNBA franchise and there's a fan base. But we really didn't know what to expect. And Chancellor DiStefano referenced the response of our fans was terrific and the environment that created at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was excellent. We're enthusiastic about the prospects going forward. We made a two-year commitment to coincide with the renovation period of Key Arena. So we were quite pleased with our relationships in Seattle with the Storm and Key Arena and the Seattle Sports Commission. We wanted to leave back the possibility we could move back to Seattle in a renovated Key Arena or stay here if there's momentum building. And I think next year will be a good indicator. First year we're very pleased and there's the possibility that it can continue to build through word-of-mouth about what a great experience was it. Certainly the feedback we got from our coaches, as well, was quite positive. Q. You described the state of the men's hoops as just in a cycle. What to you indicates that considering that it's kind of unprecedented these last couple of years? CHANCELLOR PHILIP DISTEFANO: Unprecedented? As I mentioned, I believe it was three years ago we had three teams that did fairly well in the NCAA. We've had a couple of down years. I think, as Larry mentioned, if we could get three teams in this year, and I look at -- I look at Colorado, but I also look at other teams in the Pac-12 all very young teams, many of them. Colorado, for example, we have one senior who hasn't played most of the year. And if you watched the game last night many sophomores, freshmen, juniors on the floor. So I really, again, have confidence not only in my team but as I talked to the other presidents, chancellors and ADs and their teams as moving us forward and I believe they will do well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|