McMahon countersues Luck

[GregParks]

Again, landing the TV deal he did (sure there weren't any rights fees, show of how many startups/restarts normally have any) is his biggest plus, the longer this goes on the less visible that becomes and it flips to 'he just up and left when all broke loose', true or not.

Do we know what kind of role Luck played in landing the TV deal? I know he had his fingers in a lot of pies as CEO of the league, but a TV deal seems like it would've been Vince's playground given his experience in that department.

[MGB01]

Again, landing the TV deal he did (sure there weren't any rights fees, show of how many startups/restarts normally have any) is his biggest plus, the longer this goes on the less visible that becomes and it flips to 'he just up and left when all broke loose', true or not.

Do we know what kind of role Luck played in landing the TV deal? I know he had his fingers in a lot of pies as CEO of the league, but a TV deal seems like it would've been Vince's playground given his experience in that department.

Well there always was talk that Joe Foss, the original commissioner of the AFL, didn't really have as much to do with their deal with NBC as made out to be and it was really more Ralph Wilson.

But it isn't like having games on ESPN was in anybody's wheelhouse even when Luck was hired. Now granted the WWE/FOX negotiations were going on about the same time, but different animals.

There's always been an all-over-the-place neighborly relationship between WWE and ESPN (possibly going back to ESPN airing the AWA and WCCW in the 80s), ranging from die-hard adversaries on one side to Wrestlemania segments on ESPN Radio/John Cena hosting the ESPYs on the other (and Jonathan Coachman/Todd Grisham's stints at ESPN in between). But even at their best relations, there wasn't an actual business relationship until Luck came along. Besides, Vince's is more with NBC and FOX.

Another point for Luck is that he was with the Dynamo when MLS landed their first paying TV deal. Reaching, yes, and even using the relationships angle is a stretch considering how much ESPN turned over the company in 13 years, but with the P12 looking for some serious upgrades across the board in future years they really don't care how. These presidents and ADs all talk but at the end of the day it's all chalk or else Scott wouldn't be getting bounced (the infamous 'going home to spend time with family').

That vaults him over say Jamie Zaninovich (in which the P12 might as well hire Mark Few since that's who really gets the job).

[Tank55]

I mean, so much of Luck's value was in him just being a serious football person who wasn't Vince. Vince didn't really need him to land a TV contract, but he wouldn't get a TV contract without being able to convince everyone that it wouldn't be like 2001. And that's what Luck delivered. So it's sort of hard to separate the two. It was a symbiotic relationship.