ESPN deal to pad UNLV’s budget

Steve Carp

Thursday, Nov. 19, 1998 | 10:49 a.m.

The fledgling Mountain West Conference has taken a quantum leap forward in terms of credibility as well as visibility after reaching a tentative agreement with ESPN on a seven-year, $48 million contract.

The MWC presidents Wednesday gave their approval to the agreement in principle reached by the two sides. However, there are still a few details which need to be worked out, and the final contract will have to be viewed by the conference attorneys and officially signed by the presidents.

Commissioner Craig Thompson, in town to tour potential headquarter sites and to meet with Las Vegas Bowl officials, would not confirm or deny the numbers. But he did say there is an agreement in place.

"There's still some loose ends to tie up," he said. "We're recommending a proposal and the presidents have agreed in principle. I think it was very strong and it appears we're in very good shape."

Under the terms of the proposed deal, the eight-team Mountain West will appear on ESPN's Big Monday package seven times during the basketball season. It will also have three Thursday night football telecasts on ESPN as well as two additional TV games on ABC.

Financially, each Mountain West school (UNLV, Air Force, Colorado State, Brigham Young, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico and San Diego State) would receive approximately $857,000 annually over the life of the seven-year deal.

Suffice to say, the Mountain West athletic directors were thrilled by the new revenue stream. The per-school share of TV revenue from the WAC's current deal was approximately $300,000.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out this is a good deal," Wyoming's Lee Moon said. "Anytime you can cut the pie eight ways instead of 16, you're going to come out ahead."

The increased TV money will give UNLV A.D. Charlie Cavagnaro a chance to bolster the budgets of several sports, especially football.

"The cornerstone of this conference is football and for UNLV, football has been operating at bare bones the most of any sport," he said. "We will use that money wisely."

Cavagnaro also said the credibility which comes with being on ESPN is immeasurable.

"I'd rather be on ESPN than anywhere else," he said. "To be able to be on Big Monday with its tradition is extremely important to our program and it's going to be important to the entire league. What this does is it makes sure our relationship with the No. 1 sports network is maintained."

Meanwhile, the MWC had productive talks with the Las Vegas Bowl. There could be an opportunity for the Mountain West to send its champion to the Las Vegas Bowl in 1999.

Rossi Ralenkotter, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's vice president of marketing, confirmed that notion.

"I think they're aggressively looking at the image of the new conference," he said. "When you look at Las Vegas, we're a city of champions. To take the conference's champ is appealing to us."

Ralenkotter hopes to have an agreement in place to take to the LVCVA board by February.

As for the search for a conference headquarters, Thompson and Wyoming president Dr. Philip Dubois toured the city, looking at several possible sites as the Nevada Development Authority made its presentation. Las Vegas is competing with Colorado Springs to be the MWC's home.

They were taken to Summerlin and Green Valley as well as sites near McCarran International Airport and downtown Las Vegas.

"This city has really grown over the years," Thompson said. "And there's no question about the sincerity of the community about the future of the Mountain West. I'd be comfortable living in either city."

Dubois said the league is seeking some additional information from the NDA, which it said it will provide by early next week. A decision from the presidents could be made by the end of the month.