Montlake Futures Interview - KJR/Softy
1/23 Podcast - Hour 3
I'll follow-up with my thoughts summarizing the interview and my takeaways
Comments
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Please don't.
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I heard it live driving up for a Kraken game last week. It’s worth a listen if you want to know where UW’s NIL stacks up.
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Key information that I found in the interview:
- Number of people giving money through Montlake Future is quite low … membership is at about 10% of the top SEC levels (Ole Miss was cited)
- We're driven primarily by some big donors … particularly true for hoops (I suspect that that's Ballmer)
- Numbers framed against seating capacity at Husky Stadium
- NIL fund for this year for football is projected at about $15M and includes when schools can start paying players directly about halfway through the year
- Top programs in 2024 were north of $20M paid through collectives
- Called out that some of the top-end spending was linked to watching rivals have success … in other words the spending isn't rational
- Once the programs themselves are able to pay directly it will establish a soft cap … UW appears to be committed to pay to the top end of what is allowed with an allocation of funding to football consistent with the top end of the market
- Recognition that we're a market with a lot of options whether it's other sporting interests, what we do with our time/money, and other charitable interests
- Recognition that corporate dollars needs to be unlocked better
My Key Takeaways and Observations
- There's a massive disconnect between the Collective and the general fan and/or alum in terms of awareness and engagement
- Current approach by Montlake Futures (and the Athletic Department) of "we need money" is dated and doesn't reflect the changing environment
- There is a lot of competition for money flowing into the football program and athletics in general … a compelling value proposition needs to be established that explains why money flowing to UW is a prudent use of the donator's resources
- An understanding that by asking for supporters to fund the payment of players in the program that by default those supporters are now stakeholders of the program that want to see some kind of return on their investment … there's a different level of accountability in the past
- With the freedom of player movement and lack of overall player investment in programs in general, the prior value propositions that supporters were asked to buy into through Athletic Departments (funding facilities, academic services, the education/growth journey of the athlete) are ever evolving and are changing … this has to be recognized by all
- Speaking of value propositions, if you're struggling to get corporate money to invest then that means that you're not offering a compelling return for them on their investment … corporate dollars aren't throwing money around like its charity
- A market that has a foundational element tied to irrational spending for spite, dick measuring, etc. is not a sustainable market … trying to shame or guilt trip your fanbase based on "how badly do you want to win" is at minimum going to be poorly received by some portion of your "customers"
- Clear need for public education as to how Collectives fit in come the 25-26 Academic Year when programs can pay directly through Athletic Departments … if you're asking the "customers" to effectively be investors and financial stakeholders in the program then you have to make sure that they understand what is being asked of them
My Recommendations
- Need to clearly communicate what the financial targets/needs are for the key programs and ensure that there is education/transparency as to what is required … must move away from "we need money"
- Regular communication from the Athletic Department and Collective is required … think something similar to how a public company is tied into quarterly financial results and having earnings calls where they are accountable to their shareholders
- Clearly link asks to season ticket holders as part of their annual payment processes
- Integrate "donation" opportunities at home games through POS for concessions and merchandise … pilot a program on this ASAP
- Better understand the uniqueness of this market and be aware that a value proposition matters to both individuals and corporations … if you're not unlocking it then the starting point is looking in the mirror
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My dad said they're spending 15 million this year.
No gay wannabe ChatGPT output needed.
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Context matters
They are expecting $15M which includes half a year when the Athletic Department is able to pay (the $20.5M max for the AD at roughly 70% allocated to football
The quick math looks like:
Collective: $7.8M (solve)
AD: $7.2M ($20.5M x 70% x 0.5 years)
Total: $15M
For perspective, the estimates/rumors this year were that Oregon, Ohio St, etc. were spending $20M+ via their collectives
So yeah, UW is behind from a collective standpoint
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POS was my idea. I’m lazy and more willing to donate money when I’m drunk. Everyone wins but my meager bank account.
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All the collective numbers are bullshit anyways.
Fuck radio interviews.
Shut up about context.
Imagine spending time on this.
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Wilner had a decent interview today on iheart … mentioned UW paying the $15 million/yr number to the players but if they want to compete tOSU, Michigan, Penn St plus Nike University - Montlake Futures will need to pony up an additional $10 million/yr on top of the $15 million players salary ($25million in total)
He made some good points about keeping the Apples Cup and that their fans that don’t want the game on principle are retarded. I’d rather watch the Apple Cup but dictate 1 game in Pullman equals one in HS and 1 neutral game 50/50 in the link or quest whatever it’s called these days and I’m sure many west side cougar fans would rather not drive 5 hours in each direction.
If Tequila mentioned any of this apologyies because I haven’t read his long post yet. Wilner also mentioned WSU got a home and home with Arizona and he expects the former pac schools including Cal/Stanford to schedule these games do to pac familiarity and west coast fans would mostly prefer rather than Eastern Michigan types. This maybe unpopular but I would like to see the Apple Cup not go poof.
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One thing I remember being a frustration with past ADs and people in the NIL staff positions and collectives was being frustrated for not tapping into the corporate opportunities in Seattle enough. Can remember if that was here or in a Twitter group I'm in. I'm curious how that's going.
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We're behind Ohio State's version of the 2023 UW football team?
Damn, I hope our 15m roster doesn't run into them this coming season.
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Wait I thought Pat Chun's best attribute was that he's an amazing fundraiser?
The same thing was said about Sundress Jen
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It's a good idea and they indirectly are already doing it with the tips that are going to local area booster clubs (i.e. youth football)
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I'm not against keeping the Apple Cup but it's important that we also recognize the following:
- Wazzu is a B game at best in the A-B-C scheduling matrix
- That game will almost always mean more to the Coug than it does to us going forward … there's not a ton of upside for UW in this game
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How many times has Chun been public facing since taking the job? It doesn't seem like it's been often
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Based on the interview I'd categorize that as progressing "not well"
The way I see it the value proposition that Montlake Futures (and honestly the AD as well) is making to raise funds is to pull at heart strings and kind of guilt trip people into donating
Why would a business (particularly a publicly traded one) be swayed by that type of value proposition? If there are business opportunities that would offer a positive ROI to a business they would be visible (see Adidas with Penix and Odunze)
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The way I see it the value proposition that Montlake Futures (and honestly the AD as well) is making to raise funds is to pull at heart strings and kind of guilt trip people into donating
The AD is run by retards. Hope this helps. It's only been obvious
We have our very own guilt monger here Husky new york or whatever
People don't invest in shitshows. I wonder how many phone calls were made to keep DeBoer
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The “pulling on heartstrings” approach is primarily pointed at fans. Trying to get Joe Blow grocery worker to pony up $25/mo to help fund players salaries. I’d highly doubt that this is the tact used for Fortune 500 companies. That said, whatever method they’re using for those businesses is not entirely successful and there should probably be a pivot in philosophy to leverage the big money that’s close at hand.
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@HFNY true?
At any rate, as several of posters said before, it doesn't seem as though UW is as poor as the dawgman crowd would have you believe. Maybe we? just don't know how to spend it well.
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I sure as hell hope Joe Blow grocery worker isn't paying into college football collectives, even $0.01. Those people need subsidies just to live within 50 miles of Seattle and need financial aid for their children to attend college. College football is an indulgence for those with discretionary income and time. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, you should be focused on other shit, like a second or better job, and not try and save the crumbling edifice that is the game of college football.
Ok, I'll TITTT. Rant over.
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"With the freedom of player movement and lack of overall player investment in programs in general, the prior value propositions that supporters were asked to buy into through Athletic Departments (funding facilities, academic services, the education/growth journey of the athlete) are ever evolving and are changing … this has to be recognized by all"
This is a key point and something that needs to get fixed. If we're? investing in players then they need to commit to the institution and not get to move around willy nilly chasing bags and following coaches. Make these kids sign 2 to 4 years deals out of HS.
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With corporate I was thinking, doubling down on things like boxes for games for corporations given Seattle has a shit ton more than the markets where the schools UW is competing against do. I guess that's season tickets though and not specifically NIL and I don't really see the benefit of NIL things for companies, especially if they're national. Penix did some light stuff with Amazon I assume came from being local but I don't think there's much appeal for them with anything UW.
I guess the World Of Warcraft shit might be the biggest score with that and I wonder how that worked out for Blizzard? Does their audience give a shit about football, let alone college football.
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The issue with NIL and what they want the average fan to do is when pussies like "Coker" say stuff on X like "It's really frustrating for the AD when fans tell them to just go to the boosters."
For real? A ton of the non-booster fans have spent tens of thousands of dollar on the program the last couple of years.
They aren't even offering anything for the money, just 'Please hook your credit card up to our website for auto-payment'.
Beer, coffee etc is a good start, but they need to start getting creative.
Does anyone think the UW AD is run efficiently or that or that they've done everything they can to prepare for the revenue sharing? Have they cut any sports or departments or spending? Probably not. So asking fans to bail them out just comes across like your typical university begging for money shit that every alum has grown tired of.
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Agree with you. The idea of a true collective built by average fans is a nice idea but ultimately a pipe dream. A few issues. This town is a ridiculously expensive city to live in and there are many people here who are making a couple hundy and hanging on by the skin of their asses to their little $1.3 M 95 year old house that needs shit done to it and paying Seattle's 20 mile long list of taxes. If they have season tickets and are buying $9 beers and $7 hotdogs and $95 Adidas sweatshirts, that's about all you're going to get out of them. So then it's guys like me, and some of us are working on the second home or a bigger boat and helping kids live in Boston and paying for Pomona and winery weddings and other stupid shit and we? are only going to give so much to a machine that should be running itself. And then you have the tech bros. Some of them went to UW, but many did not. This town is full of people from somewhere else, and they just DGAF. And among all Tech Bros, you have a healthy population of scarf-tards (not being funny; that's a real thing) and guys who @YellowSnow and his band of goons beat up behind Kane Hall or had sand kicked in their faces in high school by football players and thus are hostile towards sports. Don't even bother soliciting that crowd.
So, yeah, go after more big boosters, ask more of them and lick their toes clean; and run the department better. All of this evolution should result in fewer non-revenue sports across the board at many schools.
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Begging and guilting common fans for money just show how busted the sport is getting. My family already buys 10 season tickets, merch, concessions, gas to and from the stadium, parking, cable and YouTubeTV fees to watch away games. It's enough. It also just shows a real and enforced salary cap and a player union type of thing needs to be installed. The players won't want the union because now they have a great setup where JAGGY players are getting a bunch of money because of artificial scarcity so it would kind of have to be forced on them.
The rivals driving up costs thing is real too. For example, had we just stayed in a Pac-12, we would have probably been able to get away with spending less except that we'd constantly be fucked with having to compete with Oregon overpaying. Michigan is probably in the same boat with Ohio STate.
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It's depressing to me to consider how much money is required to field a competitive college football product in 2025 vs, say, 1993.
What was DJ making in 1993 - like $400K? According to my beloved BLS.org CPI calculator (hi @pawz ) that's like $888K in 2025. So less than $1 million for a HOF coach and $50,000 loans for Billy Joe. Now we're paying $7 million to get a coach "on the cheap" and $15 million a year to talent acquisition. It's a sad state of affairs if you ask me and poor allocation of our nation's collective wealth. And all because some rich fucking alumnus wants to talk shit to some other rich fucking alumnus.
People forget row boat was the canary in the coal mine here. Back in my day, there were no schollies for men's crew and almost all the top athletes were US nationals. Along comes Rick Cronk, the Dreyer's Ice Cream Barron, who asks Cal corch Steve @Gladstone what he needs to quit losing to hated Washington. Steve says give me an endowment to fund 16 full rides so I can recruit elite HS rowers from Canada, Australia, Germany, UK, etc. Next thing you know, CAL reels off 4 Natties in a row and the sport was never the same. Axe @whlinder what those dark times were like until UW followed suit.
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I transcribed it the other day…
WE WANT MORE OF YOUR MONEY
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It's not like @Joey is driving a brand new fucking bus down to Husky Stadium.
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Actively trying to find this segment on Softy's show and it's reminding me of when I surfed through a bunch of old Tom Leykis episodes trying to find when my friend was on it 20 years ago. I feel stupider for having listened to this and like I'm in a time warp back to 2004.
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And Ohio State and Oregon who were loaded up, it's-now-or-never type of rosters this year that exceeded 20 million and people talk like that is the baseline for fielding a competitive team. So now that's what every fanbase talks about in terms of pass/fail which is why I hate even discussing the collectives.
I mean I'm seeing that Penn State's all getting fluffed like that now because Franklin sees this as his window next year, and their own fans are reminding everybody how shit changes when you have to invest 700 million to renovate your stadium on top of everything else and how they pretty much need to reach out for corporate partnerships to handle all of it.
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Hey, Leykis ruled!
Admittedly in my 40s, it's hard to get through more than 30 minutes of it. Some of the callers, or possibly 99%, are mouth breathers.
