Arizona State and IMG College officially parted ways today, and ASU Associate VP and Chief Business Development Officer Greg McElroy will oversee the transition to a new multimedia rights partner. McElroy, who left the Cowboys after eight years to join ASU in May, said today that his goal is to make the transition as seamless as possible for ASU’s radio broadcast team, as well as the Sun Devils’ corporate partners. Long-term, ASU will seek a third-party multimedia rights holder, McElroy said, but he did not say how or when the school will begin its search. The candidates already in the multimedia rights space would be Learfield Sports, JMI Sports and CBS Collegiate, which had ASU’s rights before the '09 deal with IMG College.
“My entire career has been focused on maximizing revenue through sponsorship sales, and we have other senior staff members with significant sponsorship experience, so we have the right team in place to make this transition smooth for all of our partners and our fans,” McElroy said through an athletic department statement. “The timing is less than ideal because we aren't only in the midst of football season, but we are also less than a month from the men's and women's basketball seasons tipping off. ... We have also been contacting our on-air talent and have no plans to make any changes to our teams for football, men’s and women’s basketball or baseball. Our focus is on making the process as seamless as possible to retain all current partners and deliver high quality experiences to our fans both through our radio broadcasts and gameday experience.”
For more, see tomorrow’s issue of THE DAILY.
