Even though the Univ. of Arizona "will receive an average annual package" of about $3.8M from its newly extended partnership with Nike, the school will "actually take home only about $500,000 in cash," according to Bruce Pascoe of the ARIZONA DAILY STAR. Still, compared with UA's old contract, "that’s a pretty good deal" because the old cash figure "was often a negative one." School AD Greg Byrne: "There were years we were writing a check." Arizona "often significantly overran" a $1M annual allowance for Nike gear and equipment, "which quickly mopped up the $25,000 in cash Nike also offered." But now, the new Nike deal "gives the school" $2.15M worth of gear and equipment, with escalators that raise the amount to $2.6M by '23 plus the $500,000 in cash. Byrne said that he "was more than satisfied with the Nike arrangement, in part because UA would have been locked into the old money-losing deal until 2019 anyway." Byrne said Nike "had us for another four years but they gave us more than double and sped up the process" by tearing up the old contract. Byrne: "We really appreciate it" (ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 8/29).
