The most important ISP number floating around Arkansas these days has nothing to do with the Internet.

It has everything to do with increased revenue for the Arkansas athletic department.

On Aug. 12, 2008, Arkansas and International Sports Properties, or ISP, a sports marketing company based in Winston-Salem, N. C., signed a letter of agreement giving the broadcast and marketing rights of the Arkansas Razorbacks to ISP for $ 73 million over the next 10 years.

Arkansas will realize a nearly 100 percent increase in revenue generated by the marketing of its athletic department in the first year of the contract, according to the letter of agreement.

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Arkansas generated $ 3. 4 million in 2007-2008, according to its records. The payment schedule listed in the letter of agreement for 2008-2009 calls for Arkansas to be paid $ 5. 56 million, with one-third coming by Dec. 15 and the remaining two-thirds by May 31.

Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long said that he sought out the agreement to obtain a steady, reliable stream of revenue for a growing athletic department.

“It took the uncertainty out of the equation and gave us a rapid growth in terms of revenue,” Long said.

Previously, the university’s athletic department and KATVTV, the prior broadcast rights holder, were responsible for marketing the Razorbacks.

Long said having a trained sales staff, independent of the athletic department, was another aspect he desired.

“At the university, we had KATV doing television and radio, with basically one person selling those broadcasts,” Long said. “Then, in the athletic department, we had basically one-eighth of a person in Matt Shanklin — because he was also handling his other responsibilities in the department — selling signage and sponsorship. We’ll go from having just a couple of people to a full staff of people.” Five people, including Todd Curtis and Lindsay Young — who both worked for KATV with Arkansas Razorbacks Sports Network in Little Rock, are listed on the ISP Web site as contacts for Razorbacks Sports Properties. “While KATV was doing a nice job, it was a side business for them,” ISP President Ben Sutton Jr. said. “This is all we do. They also had a TV station to run. Our core business is sports and conference marketing. This is all we are thinking about every day. They don’t have a newscast to worry about.”

THE LETTER ITSELF An unedited version of Arkansas’ letter of agreement with ISP was released to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette two months after an initial state Freedom of Information Act request for the documents.

The letter of agreement shows how ISP plans to generate the funds necessary to pay the University of Arkansas its guarantee over the next 10 years.

Arkansas originally sent the Democrat-Gazette a copy of the letter of agreement with all monetary figures redacted, citing the competitive advantage clause of the Freedom of Information Act.

That clause, Sec. 25-19-105 (b )(9 )(A ), states that parties subject to the act may withhold certain information that “if disclosed, would give advantage to competitors or bidders.”

However, after Arkansas refused to release the complete ISP letter, the Democrat-Gazette obtained several similar ISP contracts from other schools, including SEC schools, that included all financial details. Attorneys for the University of Arkansas released a copy of the letter of agreement without redaction to Democrat-Gazette attorneys after several discussions on the applicability of the competitive-advantage clause. Arkansas and ISP have not signed an official contract yet according to the university’s associate general counsel Scott Varady. Therefore the letter of agreement acts as a general outline of the contract between the two parties.

WHAT ISP GETS The licensing agreement allows ISP the rights to “radio, television, print, signage, Internet advertising and content subscription, at-event impact, game entitlements [naming rights for events ], Fan Fest areas, etc. which currently exist, or advertising / sponsorship opportunities which may be developed, as well as the title sponsorship of neutral site games, and the spring football game.”

But Long said Arkansas has retained control over all ticket sales and stadium concessions.

“We felt that those were things that we could handle better internally,” Long said.

Long said he felt good about Arkansas’ chances of landing a deal as soon as he started shopping around.

Eyes were opened in 2005 when LSU signed a 10-year deal with CBS Collegiate Sports Properties for $ 74. 5 million, similar to Arkansas’ $ 73 million deal.

Arkansas’ agreement is favorable compared to contracts several other SEC teams have with ISP that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette was able to review.

South Carolina signed a nineyear, $ 50. 6 million contract in February. That was as the school’s previous five-year, $ 9. 5 million deal with ISP / Learfield was set to expire in June.

Learfield Communications, another leading sports marketing firm based out of Jefferson City, Mo., and ISP joined in a joint venture with Alabama known as Crimson Tide Sports Marketing in July 2008. That group has agreed to pay Alabama $ 75. 8 million dollars over the course of the next 10 years.

The fees are going up industrywide. Auburn signed up with ISP in April 2006. That deal calls for Auburn to be paid $ 55 million by 2016.

Arkansas became the sixth SEC school to contract with ISP to provide sports marketing. Vanderbilt and Georgia also have agreements in place with ISP.

By contract, UNLV, a member of the lower-profile Mountain West Conference, is scheduled to receive $ 32 million over the term of its 10-year deal, signed in January 2008, about $ 4 million a year less than Arkansas.

ISP is the exclusive rights holder for 48 NCAA Division I athletic programs in 23 states. The company also represents the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big East Conference, Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference. They also provide the sports marketing for the FedEx Orange Bowl and the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

The letter of agreement calls upon the university to assist ISP in selling itself.

The university must provide 64 seats over the course of a year on charter flights to Razorbacks football games and 32 seats over the course of a year on charter flights to Razorbacks basketball games for use at ISP’s discretion. Plus, four private offices in the Razorbacks athletic offices are available for use by ISP employees.

WHAT ARKANSAS GETS Arkansas’ compensation from ISP increases annually over the 10-year deal. The amount rises to $ 6. 2 million in 2009, $ 6. 4 million in 2010 and caps out at $ 8. 3 million in 2018, according to the letter of agreement. The deal includes a revenuesharing threshold that, when reached, calls for Arkansas and ISP to split any money above that level. The threshold between ISP and Arkansas is $ 8. 9 million in the first year of the agreement, just $ 3. 2 more than ISP is guaranteeing Arkansas. That means that in the first year of the deal, ISP can make $ 3. 2 million above what it has to pay Arkansas before it has to start sharing profits.

By the 10 th year of the deal, when Arkansas is guaranteed $ 8. 3 million, the revenue-sharing threshold rises to $ 14. 3 million, allowing ISP to pocket more than $ 6 million before it has to start splitting profits with Arkansas.

And there are bonuses if Arkansas succeeds on the playing field, ranging from $ 6, 250 if the Arkansas baseball team wins the SEC championship to $ 100, 000 if the Razorbacks win the national title in football.

On top of that, ISP pays Arkansas $ 400, 000 for tickets annually, without donating to the Razorback Foundation, and has pledged to make a one-time facilities improvement payment of $ 1 million in 2012. How is the revenue generated ?

ISP licenses anything and everything. The letter of agreement gives a few examples of the extent to which ISP will go to generate revenue: Corporate sponsorship of the clothing of ball boys and sideline employees at Razorbacks football games; Seatback and cupholder signage at Razorbacks basketball games; Ticket mailer inserts; Coaches headsets; Marching band, pep band, dance team and cheerleader sponsorships.

Beginning in 2009, ISP will produce and sell an athletic department newspaper.

Most of the things outlined in the letter of agreement, including signage at football games and product mentions on broadcasts, are already in place. What distinguishes ISP and what, according to Sutton, allows it to make enough money to pay these high licensing fees is the ability to consolidate the advertising and package the university as a whole.

“We try to be all-encompassing in regard to how we generate revenue for our schools,” Sutton said.

That said, in this economic climate, generating a nearly twofold increase over what Arkansas was able to make last year and then generating nearly half a million dollars on top of that annually for the next 10 years seems like a difficult task. But Sutton doesn’t think so.

“To say that we won’t make much money or anything else the first year or two is probably a gross understatement,” Sutton said. “This industry isn’t for the faint of heart.”