Tough day for EIU hoops hopes

1UNI2ISU

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I think Brad also grossly underestimated how much work it would take to raise funds. He's flat out said that the wealthier "older" fans aren't buying in like they expected. Sounds like it's been a real struggle.
I think it's a tough sell for everybody when the department is still asking for their chunk too.

Lots and lots of people near that point where it just isn't worth it anymore.
 

Kinch

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Curious what good does Brad going on KXNO really helps the SWARM. It hasn’t done much for him so far if he only has 400 football season ticket holders as members.
 

Remo Gaggi

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I think Brad's problem with Swarm is that he should have hired someone experienced in fundraising to run it. Just because he has a successful business of a different kind doesn't mean he can run a collective well. The other problem I think they encountered was it took awhile to get the University on board with backing it.
Brad is just a huge fan with a ton of money and thinks everyone should think like him. He clearly isn't a salesman because your sales pitch should never be to try and shame or guilt the fan base into trying to buy in to something.
They couldn’t come up with a better name than “Swarm”? What are they, insects or vermin?
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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Yes they will be pretty bad.... but I cannot entirely dogpile on them. It was not all that long ago the ISU won a whopping 2 games.

I have no shame dogpiling on Iowa. Fran has been a terrible recruiter for years but has been bailed out by three generational players. If it wasn't for Garza Fran would have been fired years ago. I also don't think you can over emphasize how much Fran has benefited from a really down B1G. He's gotten a lot of mileage out of beating the bottom half of a really bad conference.
 
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BillBrasky4Cy

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I think it's a tough sell for everybody when the department is still asking for their chunk too.

Lots and lots of people near that point where it just isn't worth it anymore.

Oh I don't disagree but Brad thinking he could do this as a side gig was a total miscalculation. In the long run these collectives aren't sustainable.
 

Mr Janny

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View attachment 128667

84% of those mentally deranged idiots won’t give any money to their NIL.
I don't blame anyone if they don't want to contribute to a collective. It's 100% their choice. But that choice, just like with any choice, comes with the potential for consequences. People might not like the way things work, now, but not liking it, doesn't change the fact that this is how it works.
 

BigTurk

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I think Brad also grossly underestimated how much work it would take to raise funds. He's flat out said that the wealthier "older" fans aren't buying in like they expected. Sounds like it's been a real struggle.
My wife is a professional fundraiser (and Iowa Grad) and I’ve been discussing this with her. She said We Will was really smart hiring Blum, whom she knows and knows he gets it, and how insulting it is when people like Brad think it is just so easy to raise money. It is hard and takes a lot of time and strategic effort. Shaming people ain’t the way to do it.
 

Jer

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I think people are overlooking the biggest part of the story. The FIRST people you start to solicit and spend the most time trying to get onboard are those with season tickets - those already investing in the program and with enough funds to spend several grand on season tickets.

The SWARM got all those contacts and out of 2 years of supposed "effort" only turned 400 of the 53,300 season ticket holders to give as little as $1. That's 100% a failure of the collective in effort, communication, and trust - it really has nothing to do with the willingness of their fanbase to support a collective.

That's a direct, traceable, indisputable indictment against the SWARM leadership.
 

Kinch

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Miller and Condon have a guy talking about the portal and Swarm. He was specifically asked if it was “dire” for the Swarm. The guy didn’t say no and reading between the lines, yes, it wasn’t a good situation. He is complaining about NIL, agents, portals. It almost sounds like the Iowa Athletic Departmen is whining about the situation, so yes, they are getting their rear ends handed to them.
 

Kinch

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My wife is a professional fundraiser (and Iowa Grad) and I’ve been discussing this with her. She said We Will was really smart hiring Blum, whom she knows and knows he gets it, and how insulting it is when people like Brad think it is just so easy to raise money. It is hard and takes a lot of time and strategic effort. Shaming people ain’t the way to do it.
Agree completely. I was involved in fundraising and the best advice i got is the best fundraising is done from the shoulders up, instead of shoulder down. Brad definitely is not doing it above the shoulders.
 

Halincandenza

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My wife is a professional fundraiser (and Iowa Grad) and I’ve been discussing this with her. She said We Will was really smart hiring Blum, whom she knows and knows he gets it, and how insulting it is when people like Brad think it is just so easy to raise money. It is hard and takes a lot of time and strategic effort. Shaming people ain’t the way to do it.
This, Fundraising is not easy.
 
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Halincandenza

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I think people are overlooking the biggest part of the story. The FIRST people you start to solicit and spend the most time trying to get onboard are those with season tickets - those already investing in the program and with enough funds to spend several grand on season tickets.

The SWARM got all those contacts and out of 2 years of supposed "effort" only turned 400 of the 53,300 season ticket holders to give as little as $1. That's 100% a failure of the collective in effort, communication, and trust - it really has nothing to do with the willingness of their fanbase to support a collective.

That's a direct, traceable, indisputable indictment against the SWARM leadership.
I also think until they hired Beth, it sounds like Barta was totally against the collective and probably actively working against it. He believed whole heartedly no players should be getting money, even NIL money.
 

SEIOWA CLONE

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EIU is facing a problem for a couple of reasons, the athletic department is not allowing their fans to donate to the collective and count that as a donation to the school, the success off the women's program and CC has made their fanbase choose between supporting the women's or men's program and they are choosing the women's. Fran fatigue has set in and until he leaves, they are going to be in trouble getting money from the fans. No large donors are stepping up to help and those that do want those funds to get to football and now women's basketball.
 
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nfrine

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EIU is facing a problem for a couple of reasons, the athletic department is not allowing their fans to donate to the collective and count that as a donation to the school, the success off the women's program and CC has made their fanbase choose between supporting the women's or men's program and they are choosing the women's. Fran fatigue has set in and until he leaves, they are going to be in trouble getting money from the fans. No large donors are stepping up to help and those that do want those funds to get to football and now women's basketball.
I thought the "Swarm" collective had the same non-profit designation as "WE WILL" collective. The school should have no say in this. Is that incorrect?