Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [89]
When it acquired a majority stake in ESPN in 1984, ABC management reached out to television guru Don Ohlmeyer for some consulting. Ohlmeyer, who had recently left NBC Sports, founded and ran the Ohlmeyer Communications Company with funding supplied by his friend Ross Johnson—he of Barbarians at the Gate fame and head of RJR Nabisco. The consulting deal with ESPN was $2.5 million for five years, but when Johnson heard about it, he asked Ohlmeyer, “Why don’t you demand some equity?” Ohlmeyer went back to ABC and asked, but they weren’t about to give away a chunk of the company for nothing. So Ohlmeyer Communications, with Johnson’s funding at its back, bought 20 percent of ESPN for $60 million. It just so happened to be the same 20 percent that Texaco had inherited from Getty, and in which they had lost all interest. As part of the deal, Ohlmeyer got a seat on the ESPN board and a stake in ESPN. Indeed, once Nabisco got the “average return on investment” from ESPN it enjoyed with other business deals, Nabisco and Ohlmeyer would split the remaining profits. As it happened, ESPN wasn’t making any profit in 1984—but Ohlmeyer was playing long ball and was in no rush to cash out.
BILL GRIMES:
The entire Ohlmeyer thing was crazy.
I remember I once got a call from Granath, and he said, “Bill, I understand you guys aren’t going to put that bathing-suit show on that was pitched to you.” I said, “No, we don’t want that show.” He said, “Well, it’s Don’s show; he’s producing it.” I told Granath I didn’t care if it was Don’s program—I had already talked to Steve and Roger about it and we didn’t want it. But he just kept saying, “Oh, Bill, it’s Don’s program.”And we ended up putting the fucking thing on because Ohlmeyer got in Granath’s face and I got huge pressure.
When Ohlmeyer wanted something, he would never go to me with it; he would go to Steve and work on Steve and then he’d go directly to Granath. I really didn’t exist in Ohlmeyer’s mind, but I had to be careful because his business partner, John Martin, was running the ESPN board! And those board meetings were awful. They would start by yelling, “We don’t like the fact that the anchor guys are wearing different ties; they should all be the same, with blue sport coats that say ESPN on them. And why don’t you do this, and you’re 22 percent over budget.” His name never appeared in our directory, but Ohlmeyer was a big presence at ESPN during my time, believe me.
STEVE BORNSTEIN:
Don Ohlmeyer made more money out of ESPN than anybody else. Hey, he’s a smart guy.
BILL GRIMES:
I knew Johnson had bought a piece of the company and he and Ohlmeyer were close buddies, but I thought he was just given handsome compensation. I didn’t know Ohlmeyer had actual equity. Oh, goddamn it, that’s awful. That’s going to push me toward my evening cocktail. When I get to that part in your book, I’m not reading it. It just makes me sick.
ROGER WERNER:
At the end of 1987, I was still the COO of ESPN, reporting to Bill Grimes, and I got called into Tom Murphy’s office, not knowing why. He said, “Here’s what’s going on at ABC. I want to put you in there as the executive vice president and John Sias’s [ABC network president] understudy. I want you to spend a year or two learning the business, then run the TV network business for us.” I was kind of dumbfounded, but you can