We’ve maintained here at this blog an ACC Network was going to happen. Comments back in November have led us to believe the discussions with ESPN were picking up steam, but we still haven’t received that definitive statement from the ACC that YES the Network is on the way. Some interesting comments were quoted by the St. PetersburgBlog regarding an ACC Network.
John Thrasher, president of Florida State University, said ACC presidents will meet next week and among the topic is an ACC Network.
“There is a lot of work that has got to go into it. You think of the number of states you would have to bring together; the cable networks and all of that,” said Thrasher. “It’s a very complex operation but we met with one of the consultants and we’re excited about it.”
“Revenue, revenue, revenue, you’ve got to look for revenue in this business and that (an ACC Network) is certainly one,” said Thrasher. “I think it has been pretty successful for the Southeastern Conference and the ones out west. So, we’re excited.”
How should these comments be interpreted? If you know the history of the ACC and their discussions of the ACC Network, the ACC presidents voted it down in the late 2000s. Now you can argue John Swofford wasn’t the visionary Jim Delaney was pushing the Conference Network concept at the time, but in the end it was the ACC presidents decision.
It certainly seems the ACC presidents are in favor of moving forward. We know the ACC and ESPN have been in discussions for well over a year.
Now this is purely my speculation… I believe the bulk of the investigations are over. We know with any conference network there will be startup costs, that schools must pay for. I think the ACC presidents are at the point of evaluating the financial costs to their schools and getting the final approvals. I think ESPN has priced out how much an ACC Network will cost to startup.
Think of it this way… in a normal business for a project, there is cost analysis, a price quoting process, budgetary calculations, then final senior management approval to move forward. I suspect we are at the point where the Presidents (Senior Management) are in that final approval phase.
Maybe I am wrong, but I get the feeling progress towards an ACC Network is a lot further along than some may suspect.
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