Arizona Sports Enterprises

New Entity to Generate Needed Revenue for Wildcat Sports

By Steve Rivera

In the ever-changing landscape that is NCAA athletics, Desireé Reed-Francois is prepared to pivot as needed.

She’s actually more than ready, given her swift and definitive moves to make the University of Arizona’s financial situation more manageable and back in the black. One move – and a not so subtle one – is pivoting from longtime media partner Learfield IMG College to newly created Arizona Sports Enterprises.

Reed-Francois called it a “methodical” decision but “innovation is part of who we are.”

“We have to look at things differently,” she said. “We respect our Learfield colleagues and have contracted (with them) to do our national sales, but we felt we can enhance that connectivity with our community, which would strengthen our overall corporate partnerships but give us some flexibility in the evolving landscape.”

Essentially, the move would cut out the middleman for local sponsorships.

Reed-Francois added it was a difficult decision but “whenever you are taking on something new, you are taking on a risk.”

Betting on yourself means banking on the block A, and betting on the championship-level sports and people that Arizona has. It meant something when she was a UA student in the mid-1990s and perhaps has heightened as she’s now the athletics director.

“College athletics is evolving and it’s our job to stay above that line,” she said.

UA “represents $266 million in annual economic impact to our state,” Reed-Francois said. “We are a prominent brand, and we have a storied past, but we have to continue to evolve into the future. And this is one of the things that’s going to help provide resources so we can continue along that championship road.”

She said the athletics department looked at different models and approaches to help Arizona become more financially successful when it came to media rights. It was prompted by a university-commissioned report by Ernst & Young that recommended changes. 

“Based on that analysis, we made the decision we wanted to bet on ourselves,” Reed-Francois said. “We recognized 81% of our corporate partners are local. We wanted to enhance the connectivity.

“It’s a massively changing athletic landscape, and that flexibility we thought would be something important as we continue to navigate the evolving college landscape.”

So, in comes Arizona Sports Enterprises, an in-house entity, to gain sponsorships and more to keep the money coming in. Learfield was a third-party partner responsible for the school’s media rights outside of network TV. For years, Arizona received about $7 million of guaranteed revenue from Learfield. 

According to the Ernst & Young report – which was 49 pages detailing many suggestions to help Arizona financially – it said, “Arizona Athletics, under its new leadership, should consider opportunities to improve core business processes, strengthen internal controls, and increase transparency around spending trends and budget-to-actual performance − ultimately leading to both cost containment and additional revenue generation.”

Reed-Francois admits Arizona Sports Enterprises will take time to take hold, generate a profit, and get to a projected $18 million a year. 

“We’re being conservative,” she said. “We are relying on the EY (Ernst & Young) information to kind of give us the financial performance. In the first year, we’re building a brand-new business from scratch. So, the first year, we’re not expecting massive returns. But we know that this is a long-term play. EY projects $18 million but definitely not this first year. That’s our long-term plan.”

Ernst & Young wrote, “Implementing these opportunities could take one to five years and would leave Arizona Athletics better positioned to respond to the increasingly complex demands of running a high-performing athletics department in a fast-changing collegiate athletics landscape.”

Soon after the announcement about Arizona Sports Enterprises, Reed-Francois invited local heavy-hitters, boosters, student athletes, coaches and more to the Sands Club at Arizona Stadium to discuss the future and gauge support for UA’s much-needed revenue-generating efforts.

“It was fantastic,” she said. “I think we had between 200 and 250 people there. It was phenomenal to get out and talk to different corporate partners and hear what was important to them, but also share our enthusiasm. We’ve got a lot of good momentum going.”

Nikki Barry, Arizona’s multimedia operations and brand manager, said, “It’s been an exciting time and cool to meet with the partners and be in the community to see how they are excited to be part of this. It’s a good chance to see how strong University of Arizona athletics and the Tucson community are. I’m excited to see how this grows over the next six months, year and five years.”

Lamonte Hunley, a fan, booster and former Arizona football player, also liked what he heard. “That meeting was very encouraging and insightful to see the direction Arizona is taking with the community business partners,” he said.

“We are encouraged,” Reed-Francois said. “The future is bright. We are thankful for the corporate partners we’ve retained and to the people who have come on board who were not part of us.”

Looking forward, it’s possible that Arizona may sell naming rights for Arizona Stadium and/or McKale Center–possibly in the next three to five years. “We have to be creative and have to be aggressive,” she said. “We have a brand-new revenue share coming and we’ve got to create that business model. This is one step to do that.”

Arizona plans to keep the longtime Voice of the Wildcats, Brian Jeffries, who has been part of the program since the mid-1980s. Additionally, KCUB 1290 radio will continue to broadcasting the games on the radio and streaming.

“Brian Jeffries is a big part of our future,” she said. “We have a contract out there and that is in the process (of being signed). It was important that we kept (1290) the same, so our fans won’t see any difference there.”