Highlights of Kentucky’s new marketing deal

HIGHLIGHTS OF UK’S NEW DEAL WITH JMI SPORTS

• UK is guaranteed $210 million over 15 years, including a $29.4 million signing bonus, beginning in 2015-16, in exchange for its athletics and campus multimedia marketing rights, excluding TV coverage of games.

• UK’s current deal with IMG was 10 years, $80.5 million and expires in April of 2015. It was a top-five deal nationally at the time, as is the new deal now. Only Alabama, Notre Dame and Texas are known to have larger deals.

• JMI Sports will help secure funding for capital projects including a new baseball stadium complex, public wireless Internet service, supplemental digital signage and a renovated video control room for Commonwealth Stadium (football) and a new video board and renovated video control room at Memorial Coliseum (women’s basketball).

• JMI Sports’ financial proposal to UK included revenues from “anticipated naming rights for Commonwealth Stadium and the new baseball stadium.”

• The deal is not tied to UK’s stalled negotiations on a new lease and renovations at Rupp Arena, home of the men’s basketball team owned by the city of Lexington, AD Mitch Barnhart said, adding that it is also not a sign the university is considering an on-campus arena. Barnhart said the preference is still to play downtown.

• JMI Sports’ proposal to UK said it should “explore the possibility of actually creating a UK (radio) station in Lexington and expanding coverage in Louisville.” JMI plans to retain current UK radio announcers Tom Leach, Mike Pratt, Neil Price and others.

• The proposal says UK will try to “recapture much of the audience that has been lost to bloggers, other websites and media personalities … and, of course, we want to fully monetize these efforts.”

• Also proposed in the new deal with JMI Sports: exploring a partnership with Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter or similar major Internet companies to “develop a first of its kind athletics website to boost its online content and traffic. Additionally, it will be important to develop our own network of bloggers.”