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I can picture a commercial of a Blazer player in full uniform swinging a golf club across the field at Top Golf. Another person nearby reminds him that there was game about to start nearby and the Blazer player hurries out of Top Golf and runs over to Protective Stadium.

Shows drone shots of Top Golf and Protective Stadium next to each other

Then enter the narrator:
"Come to Top Golf after the game"
"Top Golf, an official sponsor for UAB Athletics"

(06-22-2023 11:52 AM)C-Finder Wrote:  I can picture a commercial of a Blazer player in full uniform swinging a golf club across the field at Top Golf. Another person nearby reminds him that there was game about to start nearby and the Blazer player hurries out of Top Golf and runs over to Protective Stadium.

Shows drone shots of Top Golf and Protective Stadium next to each other

Then enter the narrator:
"Come to Top Golf after the game"
"Top Golf, an official sponsor for UAB Athletics"

I like the idea.

Pretty sure I could crank out 100+ ideas in 10 minutes, as could several others on this board, all realistic opportunities that go far beyond promoting businesses. NIL is a lot more than that. Creativity is just one aspect. There has to be legwork involved and those kinds of deals don’t get done by just anyone.

(06-22-2023 11:52 AM)C-Finder Wrote:  I can picture a commercial of a Blazer player in full uniform swinging a golf club across the field at Top Golf. Another person nearby reminds him that there was game about to start nearby and the Blazer player hurries out of Top Golf and runs over to Protective Stadium.

Shows drone shots of Top Golf and Protective Stadium next to each other

Then enter the narrator:
"Come to Top Golf after the game"
"Top Golf, an official sponsor for UAB Athletics"

Nice idea, but real world circumstances would make that impossible.

Sure, such a video would be feasible, but it can not be an official sponsor ad and also include current student athletes under a seperate NIL deal within the same video. That would tie the athletes participation to the fact that they play at the school, which is still prohibited under NCAA rules. The video would have to use generic, non-identifiable players.

I will use an example from UAT as it is the only collective I have personally dealt with. UAT prohibits any student athlete from appearing at any NIL event or in any advertisement from wearing or otherwise displaying any official UAT logos, marks or uniforms due to that rule. The "advertiser" has to stipulate to that before any agreement can be finalized.

Top Golf could pay UAB to be the official whatever of UAB athletics and create a video and play it within the stadium. I'm sure UAB would go for that.

OR

Top Golf could choose to do an NIL deal and an associated video with a player or players while never mentioning UAB directly. They could use it as a televsion ad or social media post, but it likely wouldn't be shown at the games, because UAB (like most other schools) still see such NIL deals as cutting into potential athletic department revenues.

Email Top Golf Bham and UAB athletics, AD, all who needs to involved. Pitch them your idea. But make sure to include an invoice for you idea as well or tell them to take the idea for free but with some UAB and Top Golf perks.

That should be a no brainer.

As of Creativity being one aspect, I literally don't see them create any ideas at all. That's the problem.

(06-22-2023 12:08 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  Pretty sure I could crank out 100+ ideas in 10 minutes, as could several others on this board, all realistic opportunities that go far beyond promoting businesses. NIL is a lot more than that. Creativity is just one aspect. There has to be legwork involved and those kinds of deals don’t get done by just anyone.

It's not that simple.

Athletes can sell their
NAME
THEIR IMAGE
THEIR LIKENESS

that's it.

Everything else, including the school's name, logos, wordmarks, uniforms and related images inluding the fact the play for said school still belongs to the school. The athletes can infer but not directly reference their school.

As you stated, the issue is the legwork, which at this point can not be done by anyone employed by the school. The players, as a whole, are not willing to put in the effort and/or time to find NIL opportunities for themselves. So right now we have school specific collectives to provide the "legwork". They are not the long term solution and in my opinion won't exist for more than a year or two or five. The IRS just yanked the rug out from under all the collectives that were attempting to portray themselves as charitable 501 ©3 entities. "Donations" to such collectives are no longer to be considered tax-deductible. Thus there is no longer any incentive for a business to lean to the NIL world over direct contributions to a university and/or its projects.

These collectives could attempt to rebrand as 501 ©7 "social clubs" with "membership dues" providing "members" with incentives such as exclusive items and/or events." BUT at that point they will be in direct competition with a school's booster club or clubs. And universities don't like direct competition with their fund-raising entities.

I don't know where the solution is, but we're not there at this point. Most NIL deals are not returing near the investment at this point. Most college kids just don't have the selling power to demand the "big bucks". This initial NIL bubble is going to burst pretty quickly. Businesses won't continue to throw in good money after bad.

Personally, I think the better long term idea is to allow the schools and their memorabilia partners to sell items with specific players names and images through their licensing deals and share the money generated from those sales with the athletes. UAT is currently skirting this rule by allowing its collective to operate a store within the football stadium selling these types of items.

Anything outside of that should be up to the athletes and their personal marketing agents.

Love that idea.

(06-22-2023 12:48 PM)blazerjay Wrote:  

(06-22-2023 12:08 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  Pretty sure I could crank out 100+ ideas in 10 minutes, as could several others on this board, all realistic opportunities that go far beyond promoting businesses. NIL is a lot more than that. Creativity is just one aspect. There has to be legwork involved and those kinds of deals don’t get done by just anyone.

Personally, I think the better long term idea is to allow the schools and their memorabilia partners to sell items with specific players names and images through their licensing deals and share the money generated from those sales with the athletes.[b] UAT is currently skirting this rule by allowing its collective to operate a store within the football stadium selling these types of items.

Anything outside of that should be up to the athletes and their personal marketing agents.

Love this idea.

We've been asking for more just generic UAB Athletics marketing and that would fit that mold.
But yes, as you all lay it out, it wouldn't be for NIL, but we need overall athletics marketing too.

I would think a business could deduct as a business expense anything that the business deems that help market said business attract sales, boost public image, adds new customers and builds teams of employees and so on. Obviously those expenses have to meet IRS standards or they risk being challenged.

Current new and renewed partners for the 23-24 season:

NEW

Quote:Please welcome Wendy’s as a Proud New Partner of Blazer Athletics! Wendy’s will provide UAB Fans with a surprise product at Basketball games…so stay tuned! Wendy’s also sponsors some new social media content called Hot Takes. If you haven’t seen it, go check it out!
@Wendys

RENEWED