I never expected ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips to release a full blown revenue plan Tuesday, but he left big clues on that subject. If you think the ACC’s Media Rights revenue doesn’t increase more than current projections at some point in the next few years then you simply are not paying attention. Whether this assures the ACC’s long-term viability we can’t say. We don’t even know the numbers, or exactly how it will grow but is more revenue going to be generated?
You can just about count on it. There is simply too much pointing in that direction.
The ACC is already looking at additional increases in 2027, and now Phillips’s comments point further in that direction at some point.
Here is a full transcript of Jim Phillips speaking at ACC Media Days from Louisville’s 247 site.
Let’s look at some of his most revenue-relevant quotes.
“We remain in constant communication with Disney and ESPN, as no single business partnership in our industry is valued more than with a conference’s media rights holder. In one of the most turbulent times in history for both media and college sports, I and the ACC have never felt better about our relationship than we do today. Our commitment to collaborate from a revenue and exposure standpoint has been unwavering.
“The work that’s been done over this past year, particularly in the last six months, as the Disney leadership and ESPN have been solidified, has been incredibly important to our partnership. We have agreed on a comprehensive, mutually beneficial growth and innovation strategy moving forward. And, second, put in motion several priority initiatives, the combination of which we believe will transform our conference for years to come.”
The ESPN partnership is really strong, and ESPN and the ACC are completely motivated together to generate additional dollars. Revenue generation continues to be a priority.
So you have a lot of mutually beneficial outcomes in this thing, so staying together, working collaboratively, working strategically, and we have some other things that we’re working on I can’t address with this group right now, that are pretty exciting to try to address that revenue gap.
Phillips has never been this forthcoming on the revenue topic, other than it had to be addressed and vague references to talking with ESPN.
It would have been nice had Phillip’s opened up a bit more on the details of what ESPN and the ACC are working on, but it wasn’t entirely necessary yet. He said just enough that is clear it’s his top priority, and something is happening in the background. It has the feel of the ACC Network when we kept getting hints dropped for a couple of years, that those that paid attention caught.
At the end of the day, this tweet sums it up perfectly, but let’s not forget the ACC needs to keep moving football forward in 2023 after some gains were made last year.
Jim Phillips saying a lot of great things about the partnership with ESPN/Disney. None of which should be mocked. But, the key will be whether or not any of it leads to a significant increase in revenue.
— Adam Gold (@AGoldFan) July 25, 2023
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