Arizona State Univ. and IMG College parted ways Monday, and ASU Associate VP & Chief Business Development Officer Greg McElroy will oversee the transition to a new multimedia rights partner. Until that time, ASU will manage its rights in-house. McElroy, who left the Cowboys after eight years to join the school in May, said 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. ASU long-term 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 to SportsBusiness Journal. ASU officially served notice that it was terminating the contract with IMG College on Oct. 1, and IMG continued producing radio broadcasts through last weekend as a resolution was sought. “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,” McElroy said. “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.”
EVERYTHING IS ON THE TABLE: ASU AD Ray Anderson told SBJ in August that the school would look at all multimedia rights models in the future, and brought up the possibility of a hybrid model that would combine the sponsorship sales team within the athletic department with an outside agency. Anderson has charged his staff “to try new things, be innovative,” he told SBJ. McElroy oversaw sponsorship with the Cowboys. Anderson also has brought in Dave Cohen as Senior Associate AD. Cohen was selling premium products at the Vikings’ new stadium for Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment and is working on stadium sales, ticketing and Olympic sports for ASU. The school's deal with IMG College guaranteed the school an average of $7M annually and was scheduled to go through '21. ASU claims IMG College failed to meet contractual obligations, and that IMG College owed more than $5M in damages. IMG College countered with its own claim that ASU is liable for damages of $34M. IMG College told the school that it would take legal action if a resolution cannot be reached.
