Well, I finally joined Dinkytown Athletes - whose with me, and whose already here?

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Mr. 131

Mr. 131

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I've been waffling for a while now - but despite the NW trainwreck that was, I have heeded Fleck's call to action and am now shelling out for the team.

Of course, like most of you, I am a season ticket holder, and I plan to buy Duck Duck beer as well (even though I think it tastes pretty bad).

That said, I am deeply frustrated that more corporate help hasn't shown up yet...but I was no longer feeling Ok moaning without voting with my dollar.

Do you contribute to Dinkytown Athletes yet?

If not, what is holding you back? I'm sure Dinkytown monitors these boards in some capacity, so it would be good for them to get a read on things.

Note - there is no sarcasm coming from me in any of this - I totally appreciate that times are hard and dollars are stretched. If you don't contribute, I have no beef with you.

Row, baby, row.
 


GopherPete said:
F that. Fans pay for tickets, merch, parking, tv/streaming subscriptions, etc. Now in order to compete fans have to pay the players too. What an effing joke. Losing interest by the second.
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Admittedly, I am doing a low budget option. I really want a competitive program - and I absolutely relate to what you said...I'm paying for all of those things and it feels like a lot.

But - the Gophers are still a far better sports value than any other club in town this side of MN United.
 






If you're not a whale, it is a complete waste of money. You cannot possibly make a difference. Even 10,000 "little guys" is worth next to nothing compared to what is needed. If it makes you feel like you're doing something, good for you. I judge you a sucker.
 

formerlybis said:
If you're not a whale, it is a complete waste of money. You cannot possibly make a difference. Even 10,000 "little guys" is worth next to nothing compared to what is needed. If it makes you feel like you're doing something, good for you. I judge you a sucker.
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Well, 10,000 at the second membership level of $275 is $2.75 million. That's a pretty damn good start. There's this little thing nowadays called crowd funding...
 



Mr. 131 said:
I've been waffling for a while now - but despite the NW trainwreck that was, I have heeded Fleck's call to action and am now shelling out for the team.

Of course, like most of you, I am a season ticket holder, and I plan to buy Duck Duck beer as well (even though I think it tastes pretty bad).

That said, I am deeply frustrated that more corporate help hasn't shown up yet...but I was no longer feeling Ok moaning without voting with my dollar.

Do you contribute to Dinkytown Athletes yet?

If not, what is holding you back? I'm sure Dinkytown monitors these boards in some capacity, so it would be good for them to get a read on things.

Note - there is no sarcasm coming from me in any of this - I totally appreciate that times are hard and dollars are stretched. If you don't contribute, I have no beef with you.

Row, baby, row.
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Made a “…one time small donation…” with no designation, for both men’s & women’s athletics a while ago. Will do so again. I follow both men’s sports and women’s sports at the U and just want to support all athletes at our Big Ten school in what ever small way I can.
 
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As I've said before on another thread - My wife and I put two kids through the U...no student loans; just hard work and some scholarships. We sacrificed some things, but in the end it is a great gift for the people that mean the most to us and we have no regrets.
So, after all of that, I can't justify paying somebody else's kid to attend college to play a sport. I've done enough and am comfortable with my decisions.
I don't like where NIL, open transfers, giant conferences for TV money, etc. is taking college athletics. IMHO, the rich will get richer, and the schools like Minn. will fall behind, and exactly as PJ said, we will become a AAA club. I guess we'll see, but I don't have my hopes up.
 
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formerlybis said:
If you're not a whale, it is a complete waste of money. You cannot possibly make a difference. Even 10,000 "little guys" is worth next to nothing compared to what is needed. If it makes you feel like you're doing something, good for you. I judge you a sucker.
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Please - this isn't a black or white situation, it's both/and.
Corporate big money donors are the most important, AND small money donations absolutely can be impactful en masse - and are in fact needed for the culture shift.

I'm judging you too homeboy...
 

formerlybis said:
If you're not a whale, it is a complete waste of money. You cannot possibly make a difference. Even 10,000 "little guys" is worth next to nothing compared to what is needed. If it makes you feel like you're doing something, good for you. I judge you a sucker.
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I’m pretty chubby…
 





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I’m 6 numbers away from being their biggest donor…

I’ll likely sign up. Two young kids doesn’t help my overall donation total. But I waste a lot of money on dumb shit.

I’ve waited to do more with DTA to see how they have done stuff. I like their approach. Doing unique things and staying vocal and active. Easy to say “we’re a collective. Give us monies” but they are partnering with known entities (Parlour, The beer deal, etc) to try and scrape together what they can.
 

FredCoxRocks said:
As I've said before on another thread - My wife and I put two kids through the U...no student loans; just hard work and some scholarships. We sacrificed some things, but in the end it is a great gift for the people that mean the most to us and we have no regrets.
So, after all of that, I can't justify paying somebody else's kid to attend college to play a sport. I've done enough and am comfortable with my decisions.
I don't like where NIL, open transfers, giant conferences for TV money, etc. is taking college athletics. IMHO, the rich will get richer, and the schools like Minn. will fall behind, and exactly as PJ said, we will become a AAA club. I guess we'll see, but I don't have my hopes up.
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I certainly understand where you're coming from.

I paid most of my own way through college with little outside help, and part of me is, F that. But I do contribute to help the team I root for.


Better than buying Green Bay Packer stock and calling yourself an owner
 

I have a hard time with the way this is being done in major CFB.

Imagine if the NFL asked fans to donate money to (help) pay for the players’ salaries??? People would laugh. We’ll, isn’t that what’s going on here??

Schools want to keep all TV money themselves, by way of excuse of claiming they are ideologically opposed to S-A employees. Smells like a cheap excuse.

But actually, the major programs probably don’t want schools like Minnesota, et al. to be able to use TV money to pay athletes. They want to keep the cabal small. Only the few elite programs realistically generate enough NIL donations/revenue to pay the biggest bucks to the elite recruits, right now.
 

I have a hard time with the way this is being done in major CFB.

Imagine if the NFL asked fans to donate money to (help) pay for the players’ salaries??? People would laugh. We’ll, isn’t that what’s going on here??

Schools want to keep all TV money themselves, by way of excuse of claiming they are ideologically opposed to S-A employees. Smells like a cheap excuse.

But actually, the major programs probably don’t want schools like Minnesota, et al. to be able to use TV money to pay athletes. They want to keep the cabal small. Only the few elite programs realistically generate enough NIL donations/revenue to pay the biggest bucks to the elite recruits, right now.
 

GopherDog1 said:
I’m in DTA at a low monthly payment level. You are either part of the solution or part of the problem. Season ticket holder too.
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And which "solution" exactly are you part of? Are you sure that your contribution is actually a good thing in the grand scheme of all of this? I suspect we won't know the answer to that for many years. Your statement would better read "we are all part of the experiment".
 


salzie said:
Better than buying Green Bay Packer stock and calling yourself an owner
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I thought this might come up. In the case of the Packers, they issue stock - like once a decade or less - as a way to finance upgrades to their facilities. This is akin to having taken part in the fundraising campaign to pay for the U's Athlete's Village. Granted, the worthless stock part of it is hokey, but it's not unlike buying a brick.
 


MplsGopher said:
I have a hard time with the way this is being done in major CFB.

Imagine if the NFL asked fans to donate money to (help) pay for the players’ salaries??? People would laugh. We’ll, isn’t that what’s going on here??

Schools want to keep all TV money themselves, by way of excuse of claiming they are ideologically opposed to S-A employees. Smells like a cheap excuse.

But actually, the major programs probably don’t want schools like Minnesota, et al. to be able to use TV money to pay athletes. They want to keep the cabal small. Only the few elite programs realistically generate enough NIL donations/revenue to pay the biggest bucks to the elite recruits, right now.
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The bottom 2 paragraphs are my issue with this. Schools claim they’re “paying” by giving tuition but making VASTLY more off these players. Make it so you can either sign as an employee and go from there. The schools can choose to “fund” however they say works for them and they are responsible to the employee in reverse. They get agents and negotiate their contracts. Might as well make it like the minor leagues and just be done with it, negotiate for salary caps and collective bargaining, and just be the nfl. Instead they’re putting it on fans while schools continue to reap massive benefits off the players with zero change to their cost other than what they choose to dump into facilities, which can end up being taxpayer and donor funded, while they allow the bloat plaguing universities in a silly facilities arms race (no college needs an effing lazy river nor departments dedicated to ridiculous things with 10 admins making stupid money). At some point universities have to take the responsibility to survive and for what they want to stand for. Not just ask for money from donors to make it work
 

I totally get the frustration on how CFB has turned into the wild west right now. It's going to take a while to figure this out. To the points above, schools really should be paying for the athletes directly because the only reason D1 football and basketball exist in their current form is for school marketing and income purposes.

On a side note, it seems to me that schools themselves could benefit greatly by using popular student athletes for marketing (they already do that in many ways) and thus pay them for that service. It fits the classic definition of being paid for NIL. Why can't the UofM benefit from paying, say, BSF to stream his barbershop bit and use it for school advertising? Do NCAA rules forbid a school from paying a student athlete for advertising services under NIL?
 


We gave $29k to the U last year—three more years of future contributions. This year, we started contributing to an MIAC school...and in a few years, it will be some other lucky college. There's no chance I'm paying for someone else’s kid, who already receives a free ride, to play sports.

Your money, you do what you want. No judging.
 


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