ARIZONA STATE FOOTBALL

ASU’s Graham Rossini on revenue generations in Big 12: ‘MLB is a really good comparison’

Oct 10, 2024, 9:20 PM | Updated: 10:56 pm

Graham Rossini...

Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini on Burns & Gambo. (Arizona Sports photo)

(Arizona Sports photo)

Arizona State athletic director Graham Rossini said he has seen similarities in revenue generations between the Big 12 conference and Major League Baseball.

“I look at Major League Baseball as a really good comparison for what we are trying to do at ASU,” Rossini said on Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo Thursday. “Sometimes in college sports you kind of get in conversations and understand that a lot of universities are so reliant on the conference for their media rights and their distributions and we are lucky to be in the Big 12 and it beats the alternative in many situations.”

Rossini worked 13 years for the Arizona Diamondbacks as Vice President of Special Projects and Fan Experience.

Rossini said while revenue generation is a focus for ASU, they have focused more on broad affinity in their athletics department.

“I think it’s less about revenue generation as a sole focus. We are focused on broad affinity,” Rossini said. “I think affinity becomes a tool for revenue generation but more importantly it’s a tool for value creation and we want to just drive value for our alumni, for our university, for our fanbase, partners, etc.

“Major League Baseball is a lot of the same way. The league revenues matter but each of the 30 clubs is hyper focused on their backyard, servicing and creating great moments and we are trying to do the very same thing.”

Rossini said ASU football’s game against No.16 Utah that will be broadcasted on ESPN on Friday is something that will help revenue generation and will get more eyes on ASU as a whole.

“It’s huge. There’s no replacement for being on that national platform and that’s been one of the key benefits of the Big 12 out the gate is that our fans can watch us anywhere in the country and there’s a reason you take the Thursday at Texas State and sign (up) for a Friday night (game) against Utah because the eyes of the nation are on ASU as of a result,” Rossini said.

“We got a great test tomorrow. We know Utah is going to be ready. (Our) coaches talked about that Utah is the type of program that we aspire to grow into, their entire athletics department for that matter is a great example (of) what we want continue to grow into that incredible passion, to dominate the region, to have this community support around it. The eyeballs of the country are on ASU tomorrow and it’s going to be a heck of a matchup and we are pretty fired up.”

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