AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2008 > December > 19
Friday, December 19, 2008
Contract minutiae
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some odds and ends from Paul Johnson’s contract that didn’t make it into today’s story.
1) It wasn’t merely the season or the apparent direction of the team that factored in the negotiation. Johnson’s agent Jack Reale and AD Dan Radakovich noted that the “very tangible, demonstrable excitement” (Reale’s words) that Johnson has created within Tech’s fan base was a factor. It was leverage for Johnson, as his popularity and the buzz from the team’s success have a tangible effect on Tech’s fund-raising ability.
“As I go out to do my job, whether it’s to sell more tickets or to increase contributions to the overall athletic department, when you have a successful football program, the door opens, the phone call is taken. Just because of the magnitude of the program, as far as how it’s covered in the media and television and radio, all the different media outlets, there’s a value to that.”
2) Radakovich acknowledged it’s possible we all might be going through another re-structuring again next winter. That said, Radakovich said he was “absolutely” confident that Johnson will be here a long time, and Johnson has made statements along the same lines.
Said Radakovich, “Again, it goes to the market and the success of the program. There’s nothing that says it can’t (happen) and there’s nothing that says it can.”
3) It’ll be interesting to see what happens with ticket prices and the Tech Fund giving levels. This has been in the works for awhile, well before the re-negotiation came up, although that could impact prices. At any rate, and you might know this better than me, but evidently in some sections there’s a lot of demand for seats and not so much in others.
So Tech may boost the requisite Tech Fund donation level in the sections with a lot of demand and drop it in others. And if ticket prices go up, it doesn’t sound like they’ll go up a lot. I’m guessing they’re counting on a larger season ticket base for 2009.
Said Radakovich, “I can tell you what it’s not going to be: It’s not going to be a straight ‘X’ percent increase for each of the categories.”
4) I’m not sure how much you can trust the coaching salaries you see published. I’ve seen Bobby Bowden’s salary anywhere from $2.5 million to just under $2 million. We put enough stock in a lower figure to determine that Johnson, for now, is the highest paid coach in the ACC (although we wrote previously that Bowden’s salary was $2.5 million, which was based on a reported figure). But it might not be long before Johnson gets passed if Bowden or Frank Beamer re-do their deals.
5) There apparently weren’t any one or two other coaching contracts that were a benchmark for Johnson’s. Reale said it was based on “a general knowledge of the market.”
6) There are plenty of incentives for Johnson to hit. We’ll hopefully publish those when we can get a copy of the contract.
What do you think?
