In your opinion, what should the average fan contribute to NIL

There’s no standard. Everyone should give to their means. But if you’re paying a UT sports message board, you should definitely be giving something to NIL. instead we have losers on here complaining without donating. It’s like complaining about politicians but not voting.

10-30% of take home pay

It doesn’t matter if they contribute or not. The average fan donating will not even move the needle. It probably won’t even pay for operating costs. Tennessee doesn’t have an issue with NIL cash. I wish someone with some clout (maybe a mod) would plant a seed on how healthy our NIL programs really are. They’ve been extremely selective and budget conscious, but money is no obstacle “currently”. That could change if prices keep increasing.

If every average fan gave $5 a month. We’d be set.

Casual_Fan said:

10-30% of take home pay

30% seems a little extreme to me…..the average family probably can’t put that much away for their retirement.

I feel like I’m somewhat of an average fan. We get up and go to work every day to earn a living. We’re saving and trying to prepare to have some security in retirement after growing up pretty poor and seeing many in our families before us struggle. We contribute about $500/year to the Volunteer Club NIL, about $6,000/year in donations and season ticket costs for football plus additional donations and season ticket costs for men’s and women’s basketball. I show up at the games early and support the teams through the end. I buy the merch and wear something Big Orange pretty much every day of the year. We try to travel to one away game and/or bowl game every year. I subscribe to VolQuest and help keep multiple mods off the unemployment lines. How much more should I be doing?

Casual_Fan said:

10-30% of take home pay

Tithe to the God of college athletics?

It will be very interesting to see how the fan/University/money situation evolves over the next 10-20 years. Obviously the more fans give, the higher the likelihood of on the field success. That said, the more Universities ask of their fans, the more the fans will feel slighted if they don’t get a return on their investment (i.e success). Also, the more money will cause the fans to feel slighted and disgruntled by the diminishing game day experience. My biggest gripe with UT over the last 10 years is how they’ve ruined the game day experience (I refer to pregame and postgame). They’ve ruined much of tailgating as well as getting into and out of the stadium. It’s made going to a game a terrible hassle, that for some isn’t worth it.

The fact that fans are being expected to fund this is hilarious what a scam. And you just knew it would end up this way. every season ticket holder is getting a 10 percent tax on every ticket for talent fee

Dezyvol said:

It will be very interesting to see how the fan/University/money situation evolves over the next 10-20 years. Obviously the more fans give, the higher the likelihood of on the field success. That said, the more Universities ask of their fans, the more the fans will feel slighted if they don’t get a return on their investment (i.e success). Also, the more money will cause the fans to feel slighted and disgruntled by the diminishing game day experience. My biggest gripe with UT over the last 10 years is how they’ve ruined the game day experience (I refer to pregame and postgame). They’ve ruined much of tailgating as well as getting into and out of the stadium. It’s made going to a game a terrible hassle, that for some isn’t worth it.

I don’t disagree with a lot of what you’ve said here. For me, the Georgia game was really the only game where the entry and exit was horrible. The other big games that were close until near the end caused some backups getting out but that is to be expected. I guess my biggest surprise is how much people are willing to pay for tickets to the biggest games. We have season tickets and don’t sell them but seeing some of the prices that are listed on TM, and hearing people say what they paid for their tickets, blows my mind. People talking about paying $500+ per ticket to see TN v OK or TN v GA. One thing I have noticed is how many different people are sitting around us game-to-game. It seems like alot less fans are attending most or every game but more fans are attending a game or two.

Utjay2 said:

Admitly I know very little about it but it just doesn’t seem difficult for Tennessee to generate a lot of money really fast….but I base that on the massive way we show up no matter where we play. Our fan base is huge and passionate like no other. How realistic is it for us to compete with the aTm’s, Texas Tech’s of the world in NIL and how much control of that does the common fan have?

Every fan, average or not, should contribute what they can afford to contribute if they want to. What is contributed goes more towards supporting the process and not how much is given to an athlete. My only thought is that those who do not contribute lose the ability to offer a reasonable argument about how the money is used.

Duluthvol68 said:

Every fan, average or not, should contribute what they can afford to contribute if they want to. What is contributed goes more towards supporting the process and not how much is given to an athlete. My only thought is that those who do not contribute lose the ability to offer a reasonable argument about how the money is used.

100% agree with you there.

VFF said:

The fact that fans are being expected to fund this is hilarious what a scam. And you just knew it would end up this way. every season ticket holder is getting a 10 percent tax on every ticket for talent fee

What does the average season ticket cost now?

Until there is some form of “Performance Based“ NIL program in place. I won’t give a penny. To clarify….. ”Here’s what is expected and what you’re getting paid for; if you don’t or won’t do the work… You don’t get paid“. It’s a pretty simple life lesson.

Duluthvol68 said:

My only thought is that those who do not contribute lose the ability to offer a reasonable argument about how the money is used.

Just like in politics, those who contribute the least are amongst the first and loudest to scream negatively.

Utjay2 said:

What does the average season ticket cost now?

Utjay2 said:

What does the average season ticket cost now?

they aren’t cheap let’s put it that way. I find it numerous people who give 25 bucks a month to the vol club think they can tell season tickets holders the way things are……

PoP-PoPVol said:

Just like in politics, those who contribute the least are amongst the first and loudest to scream negatively.

basketball ticket prices are getting up there. Especially for a horrific non conference schedule.

VFF said:

they aren’t cheap let’s put it that way. I find it numerous people who give 25 bucks a month to the vol club think they can tell season tickets holders the way things are……

The advantage we SHOULD have is in numbers. If 100,000 gave $10 month - a million a month. Add 12 mil to our budget and it gets you a few really good players.

McDonald’s does that thing where they ask customers to round up the price of their order to the nearest dollar to give to charity. If businesses did that for UT NIL for just one month of the year it would raise a lot of money. The customers don’t have to if they don’t want to but enough would probably do it to raise to get us a good defensive line or QB.

VOLiver007 said:

The advantage we SHOULD have is in numbers. If 100,000 gave $10 month - a million a month. Add 12 mil to our budget and it gets you a few really good players.

season ticket holders are already giving an extra ten percent talent fee. I just find it numerous people who don’t even buy tickets are telling season ticket holders this is how it is. yes season ticket holders can give extra to nil. But i find it hilarious people who give a few bucks a month to the vol club so that they can tailgate preach to people who already spend thousands every year

VFF said:

The fact that fans are being expected to fund this is hilarious what a scam. And you just knew it would end up this way. every season ticket holder is getting a 10 percent tax on every ticket for talent fee

Fans have been supporting sports programs for years. This is nothing new. The fan contributions via Spyre and the Vol Club is enough to pay expenses, advertising and marketing. and not much beyond that for the high-priced recruits. That money is coming from donors.

Duluthvol68 said:

Fans have been supporting sports programs for years. This is nothing new. The fan contributions via Spyre and the Vol Club is enough to pay expenses, advertising and marketing. and not much beyond that for the high-priced recruits. That money is coming from donors.

when Tennessee needs money they make phone calls. It’s just reality. 100 percent. they need money for an ament they just call Pratt the vol club stuff helps but the serious money comes from major boosters

PoP-PoPVol said:

I feel like I’m somewhat of an average fan. We get up and go to work every day to earn a living. We’re saving and trying to prepare to have some security in retirement after growing up pretty poor and seeing many in our families before us struggle. We contribute about $500/year to the Volunteer Club NIL, about $6,000/year in donations and season ticket costs for football plus additional donations and season ticket costs for men’s and women’s basketball. I show up at the games early and support the teams through the end. I buy the merch and wear something Big Orange pretty much every day of the year. We try to travel to one away game and/or bowl game every year. I subscribe to VolQuest and help keep multiple mods off the unemployment lines. How much more should I be doing?

From my point of view, season ticket holders contribute enough to the school. I’m unable to attend games so I give $100 to NIL each month. It my way of contributing to the cause

VFF said:

The fact that fans are being expected to fund this is hilarious what a scam. And you just knew it would end up this way. every season ticket holder is getting a 10 percent tax on every ticket for talent fee

Exactly. Fans shouldn’t be expected to contribute to NIL. Their job is to show up and support the team and buy merch.