ISP Sports to take over Seminoles’ rights

Florida State will become the seventh ACC school where ISP has rights. ISP Sports Among the 37 schools for which ISP owns the marketing and multimedia rights: ACC Boston College Clemson Florida State Georgia Tech Miami (Fla.) Virginia Tech Wake Forest BIG EAST Cincinnati Pittsburgh Syracuse Villanova SEC Alabama Auburn Georgia South Carolina Vanderbilt PAC-10 California UCLA Washington BIG 12 Baylor Note: ISP also has marketing rights with the Big East Conference and radio rights with the ACC. Source: ISP Sports

ISP Sports has acquired the exclusive marketing rights to Florida State University athletics with a 10-year deal that will pay the Seminoles $6.6 million per year in guaranteed money.

ISP and the school are in the final stages of negotiations, but a deal could be announced as soon as today at Florida State.

“Every deal is good, but this one has tremendous upside,” said Ben Sutton, ISP’s president and CEO. “Florida State is an outstanding brand with a very strong history.”

Host Communications has held the Seminoles’ rights for the past 17 years and was one of four companies to present a bid.

“I don’t know that there was one overriding factor, but it did mean a lot that ISP has a lot of other ACC schools and has done a good job at peer schools,” said Florida State athletic director Dave Hart.

ISP, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., holds the Atlantic Coast Conference’s radio rights and full multimedia rights to six other league schools. It also has the rights for five Southeastern Conference schools as well as the FedEx Orange Bowl.

“They matched our footprint,” said Kim Record, Florida State’s senior associate athletic director. “They bring a true national sales force. If you look at the market, there are very few national buys. Most are regional buys. But with the strength of ISP’s collective schools, they’ve got more bargaining power.”

Like many of the multimedia marketing deals struck from school to school, Florida State will turn over all of its inventory to ISP, with the exception of signage in Doak Campbell Stadium and the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center. CBS Collegiate Sports Properties still has two more years on its deal to sell that signage.

ISP will sell ads for Florida State’s TV and radio programming not owned by the ACC, game programs, FSU’s athletic Web site and corporate sponsorships, as well as coordinate at-event hospitality. ISP also will have the right to market promotional events, at-event product sampling and title sponsorships.

“This is a guaranteed revenue stream for the school and it secures our program financially,” Record said.

The deal, which takes effect July 1, provides for revenue sharing for Florida State if revenue tops a certain threshold each year.

Florida State’s property will be an ISP-Learfield joint effort, but ISP will operate and manage it.

ISP also announced last week that it has signed rights deals with Miami (Ohio) and Kent State.