(for those of you without a yahoo account)
It's Official! Students Were Stiffed for $2.4 Mil - The MSG Varsity (Cablevision) Contract Proves PSAL/DOE Incompetence
It has been a few months since I wrote the
PSAL/DOE Incompetence Diaries. The reason for the long wait is because the Official Contract between the DOE/PSAL and MSG Varsity, which I requested months ago, had been delayed every 30 days. But the good news is, the Official contract has just arrived. The bad news is, it is now confirmed that the schools and students did get stiffed, and the PSAL/DOE appears to be more incompetent than I originally thought..
After reading the contract in its entirety it is confirmed, in my opinion, that the DOE and PSAL Executives in charge of negotiating with MSG Varsity, are seriously incompetent. The schools and students were stiffed out of $2.4 million in direct funding and scholarship dollars, while the DOE/PSAL gave up ALL rights (copyright & revenue) to its own events and has no copyright ownership in any PSAL game footage.
MSG Varsity (Cablevision) also owns ALL rights to ALL revenue generated from commercials that would air during any and all PSAL game broadcasts. MSG Varsity does not run commercials at the moment but I am sure they will in the future. The PSAL/DOE should have shared in commercial revenue, which is what I proposed to the DOE/PSAL/Octagon when I was there. They did not understand that you could actually share in commercial revenue during your own event broadcasts, which shows deeper incompetence. I just needed to see the official contract to see if they screwed that up, and yes, they did. MSG Varsity/Cablevision took the PSAL/DOE/Octagon to school in so-called "negotiations".
The students and schools have been stiffed once again by the DOE/PSAL because of incompetence, pure and simple. This is simply unthinkable and should not be tolerated by the citizens of NYC. Just to think that Octagon is actually going to be paid for consulting on this poor contract, which leaves out all schools and students and their client (PSAL/DOE) got completely outsmarted. Remember, MSG Varsity was all set to give $2.4 million to 200 PSAL schools and students, in the form of real scholarship dollars and school funding. The PSAL/DOE/Octagon stopped MSG Varsity from working thta deal with the schools, instead opting to "negotiate" on behalf of the NYC School System. If this is not incompetence then something sinister has gone down. In either case the schools and students have been hoodwinked.
So here's a quick re-cap of the entire situation:
MSG Varsity approached approximately 200 NYC high schools to offer them the following:
- $800,000 in scholarship dollars to go directly to 400-800 students (Athletics or Academic)
- $400,000 in video equipment to use for the Free Media Training that MSG Varsity was offering
- $1.2 million to go directly to the schools
- FREE Media Training for 8,000 students
- THIS TOTALS $2.4 MILLION OVER 2 YEARS Plus Media Training for 8,000 students
The PSAL/DOE sent an email or message in the Principal's Newsletter telling the Principals NOT to work with MSG Varsity because the PSAL/DOE was negotiating a citywide deal that would be good for the schools.
So here's the deal the PSAL/DOE "negotiated", with the assistance of a paid Marketing Consulting Company, Octagon:
- $750,000 (peanuts) to go to the PSAL and Octagon receives a percentage
- No Scholarship Funds for students
- No Funds for schools
- No Media Training for any students
- No Commercial revenue
- No share in copyright revenu if MSG Varsity ever decides to ssell any of the footage
- No media coverage outside of the Bronx or Brooklyn (MSG Varsity can only be accessed in Brooklyn and the Bronx), so no college coaches can see the players in action unless the college is in Brooklyn or the Bronx, so the student's college exposure is weakened because this is an exclusive deal for MSG Varsity only
- The PSAL/DOE does not own any rights to any of the footage from their own events.
There is no logical reason why the students and schools should have been stiffed out of the scholarship funding, school funding and media training. This has to be incompetence, pure and simple. So let's do the math, since we are talking about school. Would you want
a) $2 million in direct funding for students and schools, plus $400,000 in video equipment plus Free Real hands-on Media Training for 8,000 students
or
b) $750,000 that goes only to the DOE/PSAL?
Correct Answer is "A" all day. If you chose "B" then you failed. The PSAL/DOE decided to choose "B", so they failed miserably.
If you wanted to divert the funds from the schools and students, to your own PSAL/DOE bottom line and you wanted your marketing company to get a piece of the action then you would surely choose "B", as was done by the PSAL/DOE. The problem is the DOE/PSAL could have received both if it was not for incompetence.
This is a sad day, when the largest Public School Athletic League in the United States negotiates deals that completely denies their own students and schools access to much needed resources (financial and career training).
It looks like this incompetence will continue since there has been no word from the Chancellor or the Mayor on this subject. The information above are all facts that are documented in the public space. I can only say good luck to the schools, students and parents, who are a part of the NYC Public School system. You have no advocates inside of the system to fight for you, so you must fight for yourselves. I feel sorry for you all.
