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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Notre Dame Contracts – Sitting In The Catbird Seat


 Have you ever been in the catbird seat?  Knowing you have the upper hand, secretly knowing what no one knows, or sitting in a position of strength.  Jack Swarbrick is in the catbird seat thanks to Brain Kelly and the Fighting Irish football team.
Such is a position of negotiating strength –- 12-0 in 2012 and the promise of more to come with a strong recruiting class and a bevy of talent coming back in 2013.   We need to throw in the fact that the Irish are also playing of the National Championship as well. 

Lucky the Adidas and NBC contracts were not due in 2007 when Charlie Weis led the Irish to a 3-9 dismal season.
Notre Dame’s outfitter Adidas is not the most popular sports apparel company in town these days.  A number of schools have dumped them over labor issues coming out of Indonesia where they manufacturing faculties.   Russell, Champion, Nike and Under Armour are four other outfitters that come to mind.  Notre Dame has used Champion in the past.  

The contracts are close hold because Notre Dame is a private school and its records and legal documents are not open to public scrutiny.  However it is safe to assume that the contract includes outfitting all Irish sports teams from head to toe to include coaches, staff, players, trainers and miscellaneous hangers on.  A cash payment is also included.  Adidas gets in return its logo on apparel shown on national TV for 12 games.   Much more than any other brand and the exclusive right to stock the Hammes Bookstore with everything they manufacture.  Using Michigan as an example, the outfitting costs Adidas about six million with half a million in cash going to the Michigan tills as well.
It is suspected that Under Armour and Nike would love to have the outfitter contract.  Let the bidding begin.

The current NBC broadcast contract expires at the end of 2014.   NBC and Notre Dame have acknowledged that they are conducting preliminary negotiations and discussions to stake out bargaining positions and common areas of mutual interest and agreement.  The current contract is for 15 million per year and a good guess would be 20 million for a negotiating point.  The original contract started in 1991,
NBC is kind of shutout of sports right now.  ESPN/ABC pretty much controls what Joe-6pack watches on TV.  Olympics, hockey (not this year), Triple Crown and Breeders Cup, Notre Dame football and a small slice of the NFL on Sunday Night are about it.  Would ESPN/ABC be interested in Notre Dame?  Who knows however they would pretty much sew up the Notre Dame football audience if they did.  It memory is correct; CBS had one away game this year and ESPN/ABC the rest.  NBC has their own Sports Network now and needs programming.

It would be nice if Mr. Swarbrick got NBC to televise some men’s and women’s basketball as part of the deal.  Digital programming gets talked about a lot and will come into play somehow.  This year Notre Dame had cameras on the sidelines and in the locker rooms to produce some interesting clips and insight to the players and coaches.  Jack Nolan appears to be more prominently seen many of the clips and interviews.
We shall see who devours the cat or visa-versa. 

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