Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507030042
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Hokies today will announce a four-year contract with ISP. The deal, which will guarantee Tech a minimum of $1.5 million profit over four years, turns over the school's athletic advertising sales and promotion to the Winston-Salem, N.C., firm.
The contract also will include Tech's radio network and coaches' television shows starting with the 1996-97 season. The Hokies have one year remaining on an existing radio-TV contract with Paxson Networks for the coming school year.
The multi-media rights arrangement with Tech is the second for ISP with a Division I athletic program.
ISP, in addition to handling Wake Forest's sports marketing, also has deals with the Greensboro Coliseum, the Great Eight basketball doubleheaders and the Vantage Senior PGA tournament.
The Hokies chose ISP after taking bids from four companies. The arrangement is similar to one created at Virginia a year ago, when Capitol Sports, Host Communications and Clear Channel Communications combined to open Virginia Sports Marketing to sell the Cavaliers' program.
``We're going to be innovative, creative, and we're going to do some things that Tech supporters and fans haven't seen in the past,'' said ISP president Ben Sutton. ``We will be doing some things that you usually see at pro arenas, like rotating signs, things that will be unique in Cassell Coliseum.''
The deal, primarily negotiated by Tech assistant athletic director Steve Horton, ``is the direction we need to go,'' said Tech's athletic business manager Jeff Bourne, another assistant AD. ``More and more big-time college programs are going this route.''
What ISP will give potential Tech advertisers is one-stop shopping. ISP will be selling the networks and advertising for programs, facility signs and billboardsin addition to printing brochures, schedule cards and media guides.
The contract goes into effect today and runs through the 1998-99 school year. Tech has an option year in 1999-2000. The radio-TV rights, after the Paxson contract expires, runs three years with an option year.
Paxson is scheduled to pay Tech $133,000 for its football and men's basketball radio network rights this season and also deal with football coach Frank Beamer and men's basketball coach Bill Foster directly on their TV and radio shows.
Last season, Paxson paid Beamer $100,000 and Foster $40,000. Once the ISP contract becomes effective for TV and radio, that firm will pay Tech, which will then pay the coaches a talent fee.
Beamer's fee in the ISP deal will be 38 percent of the net sales on his shows, or $108,000, whichever is greater. Foster's net and minimum still are being negotiated with Tech.
Over the course of the ISP contract, should net profits exceed Tech's $1.5 million guarantee, ISP and the Hokies will share additional revenues equally, Bourne said.
In 1995-96, because the TV and radio rights are not included, Tech and ISP will split net profits 50-50 after a $10,000 up-front payment, which Tech received Friday.
The Hokies will share the net with ISP when their guaranteed profits exceed $1.3 million in 1996-97 and $1.35 million each in '97-98 and the following year.
``We are making a heavy investment in Virginia Tech,'' Sutton said. ``There's a lot of promise there.''
Sutton said ISP will have two full-time sales staff members located in Blacksburg and another located elsewhere in Virginia, probably in Richmond.
One item ISP wants to try with Tech, particularly in football, is what Sutton calls ``hospitality programs,'' such as the ``tent cities'' that have sprouted at pro golf tour stops.
``Not much of the business-to-business entertainment has been tried in college athletics,'' Sutton said. ``There's a lot of potential networking available there.''
The Tech Radio Network shouldn't sound much different under the new arrangement. Bill Roth will return as the Hokies' play-by-play voice in the last year of the Paxson contract and is expected to remain in that role when ISP assumes the rights.
Bourne said Tech still will maintain its internal marketing in athletics as well.
``The ISP contract opens a guaranteed revenue flow for us,'' Bourne said. ``We've never had that before.''
by CNB