Well, in case you haven't received your email yet, the swarm is going bye, bye. While I know there are people on both sides of this subject, I do appreciate the effort that Brad and his staff made to attempt to stay competitive given the circus that "supposed NIL" created. I still don't think it was the fans job to "pay" players, but I can appreciate his attempts.
The SWARM is no more
- Thread starter Kceasthawk@77
- Start date
I was a proud swarm member. Where can I allocate the money that was going to Swarm to best help Iowa bring in talent? Are flight funds now the best option?
Supposedly that's where the remaining funds are being distributed
I think the bottom line is that modest member donations just weren’t enough to move the needle in terms of meaningful NIL deals for players — even more so as the landscape evolved. At the end of the day, it’s corporate partnerships and deep-pocket donations — along with university revenue-sharing — that really provide the kind of funds needed to competitively pay players.
I know fans like to feel like they’re “doing their part,” but the reality is that the best way to support the team (financially) is by buying tickets, purchasing school merchandise, and supporting the companies that partner with the university and its players. Pretty much as it always has been.
Fans should be consumers of college athletics … not the ones expected to finance the payroll.
I know fans like to feel like they’re “doing their part,” but the reality is that the best way to support the team (financially) is by buying tickets, purchasing school merchandise, and supporting the companies that partner with the university and its players. Pretty much as it always has been.
Fans should be consumers of college athletics … not the ones expected to finance the payroll.
For anyone that's interested... Brad is scheduled to be on Travis Justice and Ross Peterson's show "The Rush" Thursday around 7am. It's on YouTube and other podcast outlets.
Probably, but in truth this really is where this had to go, as Max Rebo said in post#4, and for many of the reasons that Brad posted in his email.
Tigerhawk beer is my preferred option
My money stayed where it belongs. For my later life and to pass down. Not to this nutty idea of buying players to play for your favorite team. Maybe for a year maybe just for a few games as the case with Emily Rodriguez. It’s a joke right now what's going on with college athletics
Come on, what’s more important your retirement or the ability of a kid, you don’t know, to buy a Land Rover and transfer out after a year anyway?
I, and others too, expressed sentiments a few years back when this NIL noise got started that I would much prefer to drop extra bucks into my grandchildren's college fund than to "up the ante" for players, that I don't know, on sports teams that I gain nothing from personally, etc. Credit to whomever tried to help...but it was always nutty to me that people would send in their checks so we could get a better PG or QB, instead of helping to fund worthwhile endeavors in our own families.
I know a fair number of current Hawk athletes and while there are many super young people on the various teams these days...they are WELL taken care of financially in return for playing their sport. I wish people were as eager to fund a regular kid getting braces, etc, than they are a very limited number of standout athletes.
1000% this. We heard forever from some superfans that if we didn't pony up we weren't doing our part. Lol. While a few of these guys are still true student athletes, you just can't go play for 4-5 schools in 5 years and call yourself a student. Even though we know it had been going on under the table for years, and yes we know it went on at Iowa in a big way back in the 80's in both bball and in other ways fball, the whole NIL thing is just unsustainable. I'll still watch for the most part, but it's just clearly not the same for me watching the minor leagues and watching certain schools just outspend others.
The SWARM is no more
As long as the players come onto the field in a bunch holding hands The Swarm lives.
True enough.....I wonder when Kirk leaves if the Fry tradition holds out? We'll know in a few years.....
Brad's email stated recent regulatory changes to NIL funding approval was delaying payments to the athletes, some were already out of school, and he was paying them out of pocket to get them their money. Time to end the Swarm because of this.
I am a Swarm donor, albeit a one-time gift, and a very modest amount. I wonder why I didn’t get an email. In the name of transparency, you would think you would want to spread this message as far as you can.
Then again, I never received a single word of word of correspondence from the Swarm following my gift (aside from the automatic email), so I guess I’m not surprised.
The brand name, the logo, and the general concept were all good.
The "business model" was weak though. Begging for money and selling memberships didn't work.
Should have been set up similar to Newman's Own, where they focused primarily on selling SWARM merch and all profits went to support the program through the collective.
The "business model" was weak though. Begging for money and selling memberships didn't work.
Should have been set up similar to Newman's Own, where they focused primarily on selling SWARM merch and all profits went to support the program through the collective.
I appreciate Brad’s efforts sincerely but this ended how I suspected. The target demographic was never going to move the needle. If you don’t have a deep group of 8 figure net worth folks that care (I.e. Mich, PSU) then you need a few 9 or 10 figure sugar daddies. The average fan(s) even in large numbers and what they can give is futile in comparison.
Jamie just announced he is retiring next June.
Yes futile, and misplaced. Fortunately some of these new guidelines are at least putting out a roadmap of what NIL is SUPPOSED to be. While verifying that these players are actually doing something for the money will be difficult, NIL was never supposed to be just giving players money. Joe fan should not be asked to directly pay players, and that was never the intent of NIL. Yes, there will be schools who cheat this system just like they have in the past. At least there are some guidelines now where companies can legally reward players through endorsements and players can obviously be compensated handsomely with the new rev share program.
Wow, big news. I had a feeling that TJ was about done at ISU with how much of a sweetheart deal Pollard gave him on the buyout. Makes sense now. I’m now 90% sure this is his last year there.
If I was a new coach at any school I wouldn't get rid of a 50 year old tradition. Sounds like a great way to make the fanbase instantly hate you.
This should be interesting. With that much notice fans will have plenty of opportunities to give him the business. It should put Otzelberger on the market.
True...and...it's not like the average Iowan was going to move the needle v. the average, say, Kentuckian, etc. When everyone, everywhere was contributing to their local college NIL it's not as if Iowa was going to gain on any other college...especially at $20/month. That so many did not realize this was mildly concerning to me.
I certainly agree, that the storm is an integral part of Hawkeye football. I just said I wonder. In the same way you'd think the Wave will always be part of our tradition.
Assuming Iowa is a 60/40 split between Hawks and clones, if all the Hawk fans donated $20 a year that's about $39,000,000. That's 25% of the Iowa AD's gross revenue, but unlike gross revenue this would be 100% profit. Its not public how much Mark Cuban has donated to Indiana during their meteoric rise, but I've seen estimates in the 10-20 million range. Swarm definitely could have moved the needle.
The issue is getting everyone on board. Someone in here earlier said they should've done merch like T Shirts and such. I probably would have gone with that too. That way people get something out of it. I never donated because I didn't think paying players was my responsibility, but if I'd gotten something back I probably would have. Hell that's why I've been buying a lot of Tigerhawk beer since that came out.
Sounds great. Of course thinking your going to get $20 bucks from every man, woman and child of that 60%, (probably more like 70%) wouldn't happen in a million years. At one point I think the swarm only had a couple of thousand members. No doubt because most realized , as you said, paying players should not be up to Joe average fan.
That’s assuming 100% of the people give a **** about college sports. I would bet less than half the state cares about college sports in general.
Passing-
There are a lot of assumptions in there at vastly skew your numbers. First off it looks like you are using the total population of Iowa, this would assume every man woman and child would make the $20 donation. This assumes a family of 5 donates $100, probably not realistic. A better figure would be using $20 per household which cuts your dollar figure down to about $15,000,000. Nice but again does not tell the whole story.
This would include non-sports fans, people that have moved to the state with other teams they support, people located along the borders that have loyalties to neighboring states/teams (NE, MO, IL, MN), and those that are on public assistance/fixed incomes. When you take those households out you probably cut that figure to below $10,000,000 (by a lot in my estimation). Granted you will get some alumni that are out of state but I don't know how much that moves the needle.
I think the more realistic way to look at it, and I think similar to the initial SWARM idea, is if each football game attendee incurred a charge of $10 or $20 per game. You would have to exclude student tickets, visitor tickets, and comps so say 60,000 per game which would be between $4M and $8M a season. Not bad but far from the rainmakers many schools have.
There are a lot of assumptions in there at vastly skew your numbers. First off it looks like you are using the total population of Iowa, this would assume every man woman and child would make the $20 donation. This assumes a family of 5 donates $100, probably not realistic. A better figure would be using $20 per household which cuts your dollar figure down to about $15,000,000. Nice but again does not tell the whole story.
This would include non-sports fans, people that have moved to the state with other teams they support, people located along the borders that have loyalties to neighboring states/teams (NE, MO, IL, MN), and those that are on public assistance/fixed incomes. When you take those households out you probably cut that figure to below $10,000,000 (by a lot in my estimation). Granted you will get some alumni that are out of state but I don't know how much that moves the needle.
I think the more realistic way to look at it, and I think similar to the initial SWARM idea, is if each football game attendee incurred a charge of $10 or $20 per game. You would have to exclude student tickets, visitor tickets, and comps so say 60,000 per game which would be between $4M and $8M a season. Not bad but far from the rainmakers many schools have.
Who was dumb enough to send money to college kids already getting free school and unlimited free food?
The point of that number wasn't too say it was realistic - it was to show that SWARM did have high potential, and wasn't a useless endeavor like some made it out to be.
I don’t disagree, but I think it’s worth noting that the NIL world was completely uncharted territory when the Swam was launched, and I give kudos to Brad for feeling his way through this thing when nobody else was stepping up.
But remember the original idea behind the Swarm — where every participating player was going to be paid the same amount, whether they were a starting QB or a fourth-team lineman? Given what we know now about how the NIL world has evolved, is that concept not complete insane? (Obviously, hindsight is easy.)
But here’s what I see as the biggest problem with the Swarm’s model: Most players now make more money than most everyday fans. Sometimes dramatically more. And this is on top of a free college education and all the other perks that come with being a D1 athlete. It makes absolutely zero sense to ask poor and middle-class people to donate money to the rich, so they (the rich) can get richer. Any model based on that concept is doomed to struggle mightily.
Fans are consumers. The way to get them to give up their money is by giving them things to consume. It’s basic economics.
Respectfully, I think you are grossly over-estimating how many people in Iowa would even be "in the market" as potential athletic donors. I really don't know, as a percentage, how many people donate to university athletic departments...but it can't be anywhere near the number you are assuming to come up with $39MM.
Ones that enjoy the efforts of those kids and the entertainment they provide.
Certainly not the average fan when the starting QB, even right out of high school is making what Joe average fan makes in 35-40 years of hard work, (not playing a game) if you pay the kid 2million a year, and there were players supposedly making twice that.
Tigerhawk from Big Grove. No idea on the proceeds but just saw it at Casey's this week.
Average Joes paying 15 bucks a month or whatever it was, were never going to put a dent in getting big time players. It’s always going to be big time money donors. Questionable model.