Lyke on the ACC Network, Heinz Field, season tickets and more

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Heather Lyke spent some time with local writers on Wednesday to talk about the ACC Network and a lot more. Here's a full rundown of what she said.

Lyke: This is really an opportunity for us to talk about the ACC Network launch that’s coming 78 days from now. The ACC Network will launch and I want to be sure that our Pitt fans and Pitt nation and, really, all sporting fans understand how to get the ACC Network. Between now and August 22nd, I think it’s really important that Panther fans and people that want to watch ACC sports know how to get the network. So there is a website; it’s GetACCN.com, and that certainly has all the information. It has the list of current cable providers. But most importantly, if I were you - like I’ve done - I would call your cable company and not ask if they’re going to get the ACC Network but demand, because every person’s call matters.

You might think, ‘Oh, I’m just one person living in Hampton’ or wherever you might live in the city of Pittsburgh and your phone call doesn’t matter, but it does, because every cable company - when you call and demand the ACC Network, they’re recording that. So right now, ESPN is working with us very closely in negotiating all the distribution rights and the relationships with those cable companies matter. ESPN, they’re doing a terrific job, but it will be very intense between now and August 22nd to see which cable companies pick it up. We feel we’re in a really good position and ESPN has done a tremendous job, they’re a great partner.

Most importantly, just so people understand what the ACC Network will do: it will televise 24 hours a day, seven days a week ACC sports. So there will be over 450 live sporting events. They’ll have 40 football games and over 150 men’s and women’s basketball games. So if you want to watch ACC sports, which I would argue is the best conference in the country athletically and academically, you’re going to want to get the ACC Network.

We’ve learned a lot from what the Big Ten did, we’ve learned from the SEC Network, and I think this network is going to be even better.

Why is it important to Pitt?
Lyke: Well, it’s important to Pitt because it’s important to the ACC. There’s a number of reasons. One, exposure of our universities, all the 15 schools in the ACC. The quality of exposure that we’ll have across the board, not just for football and men’s basketball, but the other sports as well. It’s a national network, so your brand goes nationally across the country. Economically, the revenue, as it relates to television, is significant and real, and we’re behind, frankly, at the ACC up until this point. Now, obviously, we’re going to catch up pretty quickly with the successful launch.

And it gives our teams an unbelievable platform to showcase what they’re about. It tells the stories, it gives us a chance to tell the stories of who our kids are and who our coaches are in a much more transparent way.

Can you quantify the economic impact for Pitt?
Lyke: Well, we can’t - we have conservative projections from the ACC, but right now, it’s a lot dependent on distribution, so certain cable companies will drive that number significantly. It’s just a matter of who signs on and at what point.

Certain companies like Comcast - they didn’t sign on to the Big Ten Network for 18 months after launch. So they’re a major player in what we’re trying to accomplish; obviously, they have a big footprint in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in Boston. So certain cable companies are - they’re all important. Don’t get me wrong; they’re all important. But certain ones will really kind of lift the economics.

You mentioned the conservative projections and you might not be at liberty to share those with us, but ballpark -
Lyke: I’m not really at liberty to go too far down that. But I think this year the Big Ten distributed about 52 million per school; we’re not going to be in that ballpark range to start. That’s a little bit unprecedented because of the time and how far they were ahead of us. But it’s going to help significantly in our distribution amount.

Are you confident that what you get in the first year will cover what you spent to build the studios?
Lyke: It doesn’t really exactly work like that. We invested in the studios certainly to be ready for the ACC Network, but it wasn’t, ‘We’re going to do this in order to pay off this project.’ Pitt Studios is a lot more than just helping the ACC Network. We will produce 78 live events from Pitt Studios this coming year. Not all of those will be on the linear network; they will be on the digital network and we’re required to do that.

Pitt Studios has been great for our University as well, because now we have actually the ability to teach classes and kids to learn how to do video production through the academy, through the College of Education. So kids will have hands-on experience on our productions through Pitt Studios as well.

Basketball and football always get the attention when it comes to broadcast, but what can this network do for the sports that don’t get as much publicity?
Lyke: They will televise all the conference championships. There’s 27 sports in the ACC, so they’ll televise all of those championship events. And it just creates awareness and exposure. We added women’s lacrosse, as I mentioned awhile ago - we’re hiring a coach; we’ve got a coach on campus today, a prospective coach on campus, I should say - but in the spring, women’s lacrosse is going to be on the ACC Network. So this gives us a chance to get Pitt’s brand out there in the spring and all of the sports have additional opportunities to be exposed. And the better you are, the more you’re going to be on. That’s the reality of television. So our competitive success and our focus on that is incredibly important so we can get the additional exposure for the University of Pittsburgh.

You said all conference championships - including football and basketball?
Lyke: If they have previous agreements, then they’ll be televised under - they can always be picked up under different networks.

You’ll have 78 live events; will there be studio shows out of Pitt Studios?
Lyke: We will do some segments. We may do a series on - we can come up with our own content. Whether or not the ACC Network picks that up and shows it on the live linear network will be their decision. But we certainly can do things on our own ideas. We can put them on the digital network. And we can pitch them to the ACC Network.

The Big Ten has done this already, the Pac-12 has done this already, the SEC has done this already; what do you feel like the ACC has learned from those other conferences that might allow you to not have the same lag buildup time that the Big Ten did?
Lyke: I mean, you know, we’ve been able to partner with ESPN, which is different than the Big Ten Network; you know, they have Fox. But the reality is, having that kind of leverage with Disney behind you is quite strong. It puts you in a stronger negotiating position with regards to the cable company. They’ve built studios - they’ve required the universities to invest in the infrastructure, which is a huge benefit. For example, the cost of doing production for an ESPN game - you know, they have to bring the truck out, everything like that. Now our production studio essentially is what you would find in a truck. We’ve invested in it so it saves on expenses in the overall production of certain events.

I think that requiring institutions to be more prepared and understand what that production looks like, we’ve learned from the other conferences.

You mentioned about a lag time with the Big Ten of 18 months that it wasn’t picked up by all the cable companies; did the SEC encounter any similar problems like that?
Lyke: There was some lag time, but the reality is, they had - sometimes it’s not luck but a lot of their cable arrangements and agreements timed up to expire right when their network was launching. We’re not completely aligned in that way. It’s hard because ESPN has a lot of agreements with cable companies that expire in different years, so those just generally expired at the right time with the SEC.

I think we’re in a good position. I don’t think it’s going to deter the successful launch. Our launch right now is set to be very successful; it can only get more successful, if you will.

You’re playing a football game at 11 am this year; I’m assuming that has a lot to do with the network and wanting to get that game televised. How much has this network been a factor when it comes to scheduling future opponents, game times, all that stuff?
Lyke: The 11 o’clock start is definitely because of television. They have to get 40 football games on, and so they’re going to do four games in one day on that particular day. I did agree to go - we agreed to go to an 11 o’clock kick. There’s an afternoon Pirates game that day, so we couldn’t play much later anyway. So 11 or noon. And to be a good partner to the network, I thought it made sense right out of the gate.

From a scheduling standpoint, right now, we’re going to kick off with an incredible ACC opponent. We’re going to play Virginia on the network. So a lot of the scheduling has shifted. I think it’s in two years…2022, for example, we’re going to open up with West Virginia at home; that game will be on the network. So we’ve scheduled certain games at certain times as marquee matchups that the network has targeted as, ‘We want to put that on and that’s going to be a marquee game.’

How do you balance that with your coach’s desires for whatever they are competitively or whatever they are looking to get in a scheduled game?
Lyke: Yeah, it’s a collaboration. I would never agree to an 11 o’clock game without talking to Coach Narduzzi, and it’s a collaboration. We talk about those issues and he’s an early riser, so he doesn’t mind playing at 11, as you all know. But no, it’s a collaboration. We obviously have a philosophy that we work together on and there’s strategy behind game times and dates and locations and such.

In 2019, with people’s viewing and consumption habits changing, how well-prepared do you think the network is to meet that changing landscape and changing demands?
Lyke: You know, I feel that, in all the conversations - we’ve met with ESPN representatives and executives for two years now, and all of their data and information shows that there is a huge demand for live sporting events still on traditional linear networks. Because you can Tivo it but you already know what happened, so there’s always going to be a demand for live television.

But we have varying - you know, Hulu is carrying the ACC Network and PlayStation Vue and…also, as an athletic department, it gives us the flexibility for people to have interaction during a game on their mobile devices and watch it from wherever they are.

ESPN Plus and ESPN3, those will be carrying all of the ACC Network content as well?
Lyke: Only the ones that they pick up that the ACC Network does not. So the ACC Network will be its own network, so you can watch all of those certain games. ESPN may pick up ancillary ACC games that they do not carry on the regular network.

But everything that you’ll be able get off the network on a traditional TV, would you also be able to get online, as far as streaming goes?
Lyke: I’m not 100% sure on that. I don’t know what you’ll be able to actually stream on your phone. If you have the ACC Network app, I think you’ll be able to watch it on your phone. You’re not going to be able to watch it off the ESPN app; you’re going to have to have the ACC Network app. If you go to ESPN right now, you can scroll down to SEC, Big Ten and then there’ll be an ACC Network and you’ll have to have the ACC Network - you’ll have to put in your cable company’s information to be able to watch it. So if you don’t have the right cable company, you’re not going to be able to watch it in a streamed mode.

But the Hulu Live, that’s available to anybody, regardless of what cable company you have, so if the game against Virginia comes up and somebody’s cable company is not carrying it, they’ll still be able to have access to the game?
Lyke: Right.

(To clarify: as long as you are authenticated with the right cable package, you can stream ACC Network content on the WatchESPN app.)

You talk about all of these new ways to watch games, but everybody - pro and college - is trying to figure out how to get people to still come to the games. So what’s this offseason been like for you and your staff finding ways to get Pitt fans to Heinz Field?
Lyke: Yeah, we had a retreat yesterday and we did it in the Champions Club at Heinz Field, specifically because we wanted to focus on football attendance and football ideas in generating - you know, just a brainstorming session on ways we can improve that experience. Because we want people to come, to your point exactly.

It’s been so much focused on a marquee matchup and, ‘That’s the game that we’ll all go,’ and then the rest of the season is just kind of your diehards that come. How do we make it more consistent? There’s probably not one simple answer in any situation, but I would say that this year is exciting because four out of our first five games are at home. This is a team coming off the ACC Coastal championship. Last year, we started 2-4, and I know everybody was a little concerned. But that team showed incredible resilience, incredible togetherness and played very tough down the stretch.

That’s certainly indicative of the kind of coach Narduzzi is; he’s never going to give into anything ever. He’s tough. He’s stubborn. He’s hard. They’re not going to give in, and that’s indicative of the kind of team that he’s going to build. And this year, I think this season is set up really well for us: playing four out of the first five games at home, we’ve got a big game on the road second game of the year, and we were 6-2 in the Coastal last year. We have a chance to do that just as much this year, if not improve on that.

The kids got a taste of what it’s like to play in that ACC Championship Game. I think our fans got an awareness, kind of like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to be in Charlotte but I had something planned.’ So right now, December 7th, hold the date; that’s the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte again and we want Pitt to represent in there. I think they have every shot to get there and we have great expectations for the team this year.

I heard you say on the radio that you’re going to improve the tailgating experience. How do you improve that?
Lyke: For example, when I first got here - I don’t know if you guys know where the student tailgate lot was? I didn’t even know where it was. It was so far away that you couldn’t even - I was like, why do we put the students there? Who made that decision? Is that a good setting? So we moved them up last year to the Clark Bar lot. This year, I said, ‘It poured down rain how many games? One too many, right? So they’re not going to go because it’s totally exposed; you can’t even stand under a tent.’ So this year, we’re going to be able to put tents up and make that atmosphere for students better.

So one of the things with regards to tailgating - we obviously have Tailgate Guys on the lawn, and that’s beautiful; those are prime spots, but there’s only so many of them. What I see when I go to a football game and having done this for a lot of time and a lot of games, people want to tailgate outside of their car and they want to put up tents and they want to have that destination place. Right now, we can’t put tents up down there; we have to work on that issue. And that’s one of the things that we can do slowly is - because, from a branding standpoint, you should drive up and get off the expressway and all you see down in the parking lot is Pitt-branded tents. You don’t see that right now, right?

That’s simple; I’m talking 101. But that creates the brand awareness, that creates the destination place. ‘Hey, stop by my tailgate. If it’s raining, you can stand under the tent. I don’t have to be parked under a bridge in order for us to tailgate.’ Those types of things, where people really feel - you feel like you’re taking your kitchen downtown and you are, in a way, that’s a part of the social piece of it that connects people. We have a lot of fans who want to do more of that and I think that that’s important.

Most of your coaching hires are one season into their tenure; how did those coaches and those programs meet or match your expectations that you had when you first hired them?
Lyke: It’s hard to look at them all in a totality, but I would say, as a whole, we’re headed in the right direction. Some of them further along than others. But there’s no question that we are going to be better in two, three years with these caliber of head coaches. They’re just recruiting a different caliber of athlete, they’re selling belief and vision and, ‘Come and be a part of building something,’ and that’s something special under the kind of coaches that we have.

You saw some bright spots, whether it was baseball upsetting North Carolina or obviously a few early wins under Capel’s tenure were good signs. Women’s soccer is bringing in 22 new freshman kids; that team is going to look totally different, and we have great expectations for men’s and women’s soccer this year.

So yeah, by and large, I’m thrilled with their commitment, their level of expertise, their level of recruitment and really the expectations and new accountability that they’ve built into their programs and where they want to take them.

You’re expecting great improvement with your men’s basketball program this year, obviously; when that happens, what are you going to do to keep other schools away from your head coach?
Lyke: Coach Capel came to Pittsburgh and I think he’s done an incredible job connecting with the city. The city loves him. Pitt certainly is very fond of him. And my expectation is, he’s very committed to the University of Pittsburgh and wants to build something special. I mean, he wants to build something under his own name. It’s really exciting to see where he’s going to take this program. We’ve got some key pieces to build into it. He’s excited about - he’s telling me about the 2020 recruiting class and the 2021 group, so it’s going to take a little time to get where we want that program to go, but I’m very - he does not lack confidence in his ability to do that. And we’re right there with him.

It’s been about two months since they unveiled the new brand and logos and all of that. What’s been the reception that you’ve received, merchandise sales, how has that rollout carried on over the last couple months?
Lyke: It’s hard to get - there’s been a serious uptick, they’re selling out a lot in the merchandise; it’s been very well-received, I think by young people, by older generations where it kind of connects to the past. I think the younger generations really like the colors. I love the fact that it ties very closely to the University, you know, the Cathedral stripe, the Panther head that’s the fountain outside the Cathedral - all of that, there’s meaning and there’s depth behind the new look and the new colors. It’s not just, ‘Hey, we found a panther.’

The sales have been strong and good and solid, so thank you to Panther nation for changing with us. Frankly, the Panther head has done much better than I expected. I was a little nervous about it; you know, because that’s the one thing - everybody knew we were going to the colors, right? It wasn’t a surprise. My boss said, ‘Heather, that’s the worst-kept secret in Pittsburgh.’ So that was no surprise. But just the script Panthers, I think you’ll see some fun things with that coming up. And the Panther head itself has been selling really well. Wait until you see the new helmet stickers.

Season tickets for football; I’m guessing they’re not where they were last year, just because of having the Penn State game, but how are you doing right now and how does it compare to maybe two years ago with where you were at this point?
Lyke: I would say that the renewal rate percentage right now is holding steady. Right now we’re holding steady. I agree with you: I don’t think our overall season ticket sales will be as strong as they were last year because of the Penn State game, but it’s very comparable to the previous year. I think the fact that we have a lot to look forward to for this football season, I think it’s teed up really nicely for our program to make a run early and get some momentum and people to come out and realize that when you come to Heinz Field - I mean, we need Pitt fans. We need Heinz Field to be electric. It’s one of the reasons why Coach Capel came to Pittsburgh, is the environment in the Pete. He was so happy with what it ended up looking like at the Pete; it’s louder and bigger than that other place he came from. We need that environment at Heinz Field.

I’m really happy with the way Coach has adjusted with coaches in the offseason. I’m incredibly impressed with the commitment of our team and the leadership that’s growing in that group. And we need Pitt fans to be there and be a part of it. So that game day experience is important for us.

Nine ACC games inevitable or on the horizon?
Lyke: We haven’t talked about it, honestly, at length, at all, but if it happens, we’re still going to have some marquee matchups; I’m not worried about that. It would not be bad: the ACC football conference is really strong. We’ve won more championships since 2013 than any other conference in the country, so it would not be a bad thing. But that’s yet to be - football scheduling is so far in advance that it would be a little ways out.