BlockPack CEO Richard Oh on a mission to help Michigan NIL through community-based NFT program
Football is without a doubt the perfect community event, and BlockPack CEO Richard Oh believes it’s designed to be owned by the community. Ownership is exactly what Oh is attempting to give Michigan football fans with his community-based name, image and likeness NFT program.
Open to all eligible players, BlockPack’s latest endeavor will allow student-athletes who provide images to have their own digital token similar to a traditional trading card. The first run of this program is set to include roughly 30 Michigan student-athletes and will be transactionally live within the coming weeks.
There will be 500 NFT cards for each participant, and players can expect to receive 80 percent of primary sales and secondary royalties. Owners are able to trade in and out of the marketplace as well. Sale prices will settle somewhere around $250-400 per card (distributed in blind packs) based on the company’s fundraising period.
Oh spoke with TheWolverine.com recently to outline why he thinks thousands of Michigan supporters will get behind this digital asset and the ‘transformational solution’ it could potentially bring to the current NIL dilemma.
BlockPack’s community-based concept
Oh: “There’s a whole opportunity to create an ownership layer of the team. Should that be in the hands of boosters, or should it be in the hands of everybody? Well, that’s what NIL allows you to do if you think about it. That’s the NIL concept. It’s actually community. The community can actually contribute directly. […] As the community gets stronger, then the assets go up in value. You can trade in, trade out — that type of thing. You’re creating a connection that’s not just, ‘I spent money, put it down the drain’ like NIL today. You’re actually creating a community connection that’s actually durable. So, the NFT has its purpose which is to create this network. How do I find 5,000 people who care about Michigan football? You’ve got a few million fans. Just go to any message board you want. People are just banging their heads on the wall saying, ‘why do we stink at NIL?’ Everybody would put up 500 bucks. That’s what it’s supposed to be. Everyone should be a part of that community. You can monetize the community.”
Michigan NIL: Community > Boosters
Oh: “My purpose when I say what’s the punchline for this: student-athlete, just take the money. The more money we raise, the more noise it makes for Michigan. It’s actually very good for Michigan. The student-athlete? Yeah, they want to make as much money. That’s great. The community actually wants to put in pride and support. What doesn’t work today is everybody saying, ‘Oh, booster go do something.’ The booster’s like ‘that’s kind of stupid; why would I compete against some oil guy in West Texas?’ That doesn’t make sense. You have a very professional class of billionaires and a very professional class of millionaires who are happy to win. You give them a way to win, they’ll do it. You ask them to throw money down the drain, they’re not going to do it. That’s not how they think. These are professionals. […] There’s a passion base for Michigan unlike anything you’ve ever seen for any school. When I say Michigan professional class, instead of saying, ‘who are my 10 most avid boosters in Michigan versus the 10 most avid boosters at Alabama?’ I’m saying, ‘who are my 10,000 strongest enthusiastic supporters in Michigan?’ It’s massive the power base and depth of that market. It’s massive.”
How does ’Transformational v. Transactional’ play in?
Oh: “I’m looking for a transformational solution. I’m not asking you to do anything. You’re a part of the team. The community already supports you. You don’t have to chase an event, chase a signing or chase whatever to be successful in NIL. The support is already there. So, when I think transformational solution, I want a transformational solution and not just use the word. We’re not going to recruit players or promise them money to come here. That’s important. One, it’s illegal to promise recruits. But the flip side is, man it’d be great if we could promise recruits. When we do a program like this where every single player is going to get paid $100,000 to be on the team effectively, even the third-string, walk-on long snapper, and you say, ‘why should I ever do that?’ the answer is recruits see this. It’s a measure of community support. […] That’s real. You don’t have to sell it. Again, the coach can’t sell NIL. I would never talk to a recruit about NIL. I’m not signing up for anything. When they can see that the program is set up, that the community will buy and support NFT playing cards for the team where everybody made this much money and it’s transparent, by doing this program for the existing roster we are showing the roadmap to everyone in the future of what’s going to happen. Because what are we really doing? We are creating the most powerful group of supporters you could possibly have. People who want to support small dollars to big dollars.”
Getting average fans involved in the NFT space
Oh: “It has to make sense for regular people. This is the program that brings normal human beings together and says, ‘this is what NFTs can be.’ There’s going to be support, I think. I talk to people who are connected in that world. Come support our program. It’s not because we underprice NFTs and maybe you’ll make money in that way, but the long-term success and long-term viability of a program like this is to show a few thousand regular people who might not buy NFTs, or probably don’t, that there’s a reason we’re doing it. Even if most of them don’t even look at the NFT, they’ll understand what we’ve built.”
Can BlockPack’s Michigan initiative get off the ground?
Oh: “As long as everyone has the incentive, because they support one goal — winning national championships, as long as they understand that it is in their favor not to round up or there’s no trick around this, enough people will do it. It’s just about creating awareness. […] Michigan will win. Michigan will flat out win the NIL era. Yes, I’d like to have it overnight and everyone gets it. I don’t know if they will. It does work. There’s no trick. It’s completely efficient. You end up creating something of value for yourself because an NFT is not about the digital object having innate worth. It’s whether the membership to that club is valuable. By virtue of raising that kind of money and making that kind of impact, the kind of people that will be involved in that are pretty significant people. We’ll have the benefit of all those things. It’s just getting it started, making sure enough people are aware of it. If it takes two weeks, fantastic. If it takes two months, so be it. That’s the journey.”
