From The Athletic:
Brent Freeman has been a Georgia football season ticket holder all 32 years of his life. The tickets were passed down in the family, and now he and his father donate just more than $4,000 per year to UGA for the right to have four seats around the 25-yard line, about 50 rows up.
“It’s perfect,” Freeman said of the view.
Freeman, who lives in Evans, Ga., just outside of Augusta, describes himself as middle class. Spending thousands of dollars per year for tickets isn’t ideal, but it just always has been in the family budget. He loves the Dawgs. Two years ago, when a friend pointed him to Georgia’s new name, image and likeness collective, Freeman decided to chip in: $30 per month.
But now the dynamic is changing. The collectives are seen as the way to get players, and Freeman worries he and other fans will be asked for more. Meanwhile, he sees the SEC paying tens of millions each year to its schools, including Georgia. And he hears about the NIL payments — from fans like him, not the schools — going to certain recruits.
“No ill will toward the university or anything. My gripe is with the system,” Freeman said. “Asking us fans, I think, is wrong. I think it’s comical the money the NCAA brings in, and the fact they’re asking fans — and not just Georgia fans, but fans across the country — to give more, it’s just kind of comical. You can’t explain to me that this is the best way to do it.”
That is an emerging complaint from fans and one more factor that could create big changes in college sports, including revenue sharing in which schools directly pay their athletes, rather than asking fans to foot the bill through collectives.
There’s a term for it in the NIL industry: donor fatigue. Fans who are already asked to donate a lot for season tickets, not to mention the facilities arms race, are now being asked to essentially pay the players, while the schools are prohibited from doing so directly by NCAA rules.
Full article here, including a line about schools like A&M being desperate to get to prominence and more willing to donate.
theathletic.com
Brent Freeman has been a Georgia football season ticket holder all 32 years of his life. The tickets were passed down in the family, and now he and his father donate just more than $4,000 per year to UGA for the right to have four seats around the 25-yard line, about 50 rows up.
“It’s perfect,” Freeman said of the view.
Freeman, who lives in Evans, Ga., just outside of Augusta, describes himself as middle class. Spending thousands of dollars per year for tickets isn’t ideal, but it just always has been in the family budget. He loves the Dawgs. Two years ago, when a friend pointed him to Georgia’s new name, image and likeness collective, Freeman decided to chip in: $30 per month.
But now the dynamic is changing. The collectives are seen as the way to get players, and Freeman worries he and other fans will be asked for more. Meanwhile, he sees the SEC paying tens of millions each year to its schools, including Georgia. And he hears about the NIL payments — from fans like him, not the schools — going to certain recruits.
“No ill will toward the university or anything. My gripe is with the system,” Freeman said. “Asking us fans, I think, is wrong. I think it’s comical the money the NCAA brings in, and the fact they’re asking fans — and not just Georgia fans, but fans across the country — to give more, it’s just kind of comical. You can’t explain to me that this is the best way to do it.”
That is an emerging complaint from fans and one more factor that could create big changes in college sports, including revenue sharing in which schools directly pay their athletes, rather than asking fans to foot the bill through collectives.
There’s a term for it in the NIL industry: donor fatigue. Fans who are already asked to donate a lot for season tickets, not to mention the facilities arms race, are now being asked to essentially pay the players, while the schools are prohibited from doing so directly by NCAA rules.
Full article here, including a line about schools like A&M being desperate to get to prominence and more willing to donate.
‘My gripe is with the system’: Why some fans are resisting giving money to NIL collectives
Fans worry they'll increasingly be asked for more money in name, image and likeness era.
theathletic.com
