At one point, I was all-in on the need for improving the facilities. At this point, it seems like a moot point. I have a hard time believing these kids give a hill of beans about the facilities relative to NIL packages.
- Do we have any actual indication of how much Valpo has in play for its NIL budget?
- We all recognize they are not remotely in the market for a large echelon of players. So, what is realistic?
- Realistically, I'd love to see some local businesses partner with VU MBB & WBB as I doubt there's that big of a pot of money at play.
- Ex: Local car dealer working out something that's a net positive or that is worth their time.
- Grieger's, Team Chevy, Currie Motors. Work out a lease option for some Valpo MBB / WBB players. Promote them. Run some ads. Cut a deal with promos during events, signage, on the website, etc.
- Ex: Restaurants, small businesses / chains (Ex: Stacks, Radius, Birdie's, Le Peeps, Pikks, Etc. + chains like Jimmy Johns, Starbucks, etc.
- Ex: Jewelers: Martin Binder, Kay, E & A, etc.
Certainly there's a team of people at VU working on these matters???? If not, why not? If so, where's the promotions???
From what I understand, VU has around 80k to work with. Fortunately, that number was growing as a result of the run to the semifinals this year. However, I would assume that number has all but stopped growing after the departure of All Wright and Cooper Schweiger
@rezynezy ...
Which is what leads me to believe there's gotta be some local businesses that can be leveraged to put packages together. Not necessarily going to be enough to keep the best talent (a la Cooper & Wright). But, could be enough to get / retain some key pieces.
Powell and the athletic dept already started those efforts to get local support for the school and NIL. New corporate sponsors in U chicago Med, or various locations offering special menu items and such. Unfortunately, success sells. Valpo doesnt have a large polulation of its own alumni from what I've seen, and with the name change and the media slander, people arent too keen on donating money (or cars)
There is no interest in the city of Valpo regarding the school or the basketball program.No one jums on the bandwagon of a loser and shrinking ship(the school)...Forget this
Let's play this out before being dismissive...
I'm not talking about the naming rights of a multimillion dollar arena a la a former pitch I had when the name change surmounted (Orville Redenbacher, anthropomorphic popcorn kernal characters, etc.) as the powers-that-be didn't give that idea a chance.
I'm talking about (1) car dealership leasing a few cars to a few players under (1) year term agreements ... can't that be a tax write-off of some sorts?
There is no car dealership or any other entity going to give anything to a bottom feeder program-you guys are out of touch if you think they will.I manage several restaurants and can tell you that no one is interested in supporting VU or the athletic department.This city only has interest in VHS and even there it is dropping off since the boys basketball team is awful
I do wonder if a more viable route is some kind of direct alumni-sports funding arrangement? I agree with Rez and Valpo15 that there is basically no local interest in VU's sports teams (making corporate sponsorship a dicey prospect), and a lot of the current campus community is totally disconnected from it (or at any rate just in no financial position to really support these programs as they require under the new NIL pay schemas).
So it seems the most existent source of emotional and perhaps financial support would be the alumni who care most about them. If somehow the teams were associated with the (legally separate ?) alumni association, I wonder if that could also offer some lifeboat of survival for the sports teams in the event that enrollment does continue to fall and the uni no longer exists to sponsor the sports. The VUAA has its own Board, so that inclines me to think maybe they exist as their own 501c3 or something, and could continue to exist even in a worst case scenario.
Evansville is losing Gabriel Pozzato and Sam Haffner
to the portal. So Valpo will have some competition in a "who are we putting on the floor" fashion.
Pozzato v Wright was much-watch bball this year in the Valley. He, like Wright, is a gamer.
A number of smaller universities are exploring special general student fees to support athletics programs, particularly player compensation. Some have already announced these additional charges for the upcoming academic year. For instance, University of Louisiana Monroe will impose an "athletics fee" to subsidize the Athletics Department. However, since many of the students there receive federal financial aid in order to pay to attend the university, some are indicating this burden actually will fall on local taxpayers. Kennesaw State has added a surcharge to all ticket prices, an "enhancement fee" that goes "direct to student-athletes." (Yes, they still use the term "student-athletes"!)
Similarly, LSU President William Tate announced last week the school would withhold 2% of every university department’s budget in a cost-cutting measure. However, this won’t apply to the athletics department because it is considered an "auxiliary" to the university. As the rest of the university gets ready for cutbacks, a spokesperson said the university is not asking for help from athletics.
Charging the general student body, including those attending with taxpayer funding, additional fees to pay athletes in specific sports (ie. basketball and football) or exempting athletics from cutbacks felt throughout the rest of a university seem to me sure ways to create further backlash.
I like the idea, as if the university wants to survive, it needs D-1 athletics exposure. Even a fee of $100 for each student will provide $250k in NIL.
Oh, that sounds totally viable. After all, if the general student body resents having to pay even higher fees to pay their athlete peers obscene amounts of money and subsidize the entertainment of out-of-touch alumni, what are they going to do - protest? There's an easy solution for that these days... deport them. /s
A number of smaller universities are exploring special general student fees to support athletics programs, particularly player compensation.
According to an AP article, larger universities, all of which have tens of millions in NIL funds, already are starting to add athletics fees as well to further distance themselves from mid-major budgets. Tennessee is adding a 10% "talent fee" to the price of sports tickets on top of a 4.5% inflation increase. At Arkansas, they will charge an "athletics tax" at the concessions stands. Clemson is adding a $150 "athletic surcharge" to all university tuition bills, which would bring a total additional spending of $4.5M for athletes each year.
Coincidentally or not, one of this year's Final Four teams, Florida, saw its University Athletic Association budget increase in recent years to about $200M, some donors contributing more than $10M each, and more than $10M from ticket sales. The UAA is a nonprofit alumni organization and legally separate from UF, but it cooperates with the university. Still, its total athletics funding is only fifth in the SEC conference.
Consequently, no matter what revenue individual mid-majors attain on their own, they are constantly falling even further behind. The 280 or so mid-major basketball schools need to unite as an alliance for greater leverage to negotiate better terms of rules, regulations, and funding with the major conferences.
