How many of us have donated to Spyre?

How many of us donate to Spyre?

  • I do I do!

    Votes: 75 23.9%
  • Not yet...

    Votes: 239 76.1%

  • Total voters
    314
So I donate a semi significant amount to Spyre and I am getting the feeling my money isn’t really going to help us in recruiting. Should I stop donating? 🤔🤔🤔
 
The thing that bothers me the most, and I know it's cliche, but it's the name on the front of the jersey, not the back.

At the pro level, it's the name on the back because people who don't care about Chicago wanted to see Michael Jordan play.

I want to see Florida play Florida State. Who's on the field doesn't matter. If they formed a minor league, they'd find that out really quickly.

People in North Carolina care about Duke and North Carolina. They don't care about the higher level of basketball played in the NBA's G-League

Absolutely. The interest fans have (and in turn, the money they invest) isn't because so-and-so is a good running back. The interest and money is because so-and-so is a good running back playing at Tennessee, or Georgia, or Florida, or whoever. It's the fact they put on those school colors that earns them their notoriety. Without the schools there would be practically no interest in those players or their skills. The connection for college football fans is their tribal association with the schools and the regions they represent. Even if ESPN and the media wishes otherwise.

I've said it before, but if the "best" college players all spun off and did their own league for football, I would be perfectly happy with that. I'm all for it. I'd never watch a down. They could do their little professional league, and I'll still go to Tennessee games and watch Tennessee students compete against students from other schools in the SEC. I'd still back the boys in Big Orange. "But they'd suck compared to how they used to be." Yeah but we'd all suck together and we could just enjoy college football again. No more whining about playoffs or revenue sharing or anything. Less manipulation from TV trying to control the sport. Less interference from outside parties. No more super conferences. And all the games could kickoff whenever they wanted because ESPN wouldn't care anymore. Just good ol' southern football on crisp October afternoons, cheering for kids who want to attend Tennessee and get football scholarships to do so. It'd be, honestly, wonderful.

(The irony of course being that sooner or later the players would want to come back to college football, because of the fame and status that comes with it).
 
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Also if they're smart, Spyre structures these contracts to be VERY incentive based. Like bonuses to be paid for staying at least 3 years, bonuses for keeping your nose clean and staying out of legal trouble, bonuses for graduating, on field performance bonuses, etc.

This is one issue Spyre needs to address, that would help significantly with donations. People need to understand what they are paying for contract term wise. Everybody's guessing, and from the best I can tell, guessing wrong, from reading Stewart Mandel's article and other follow up comments by Mandel and that Casparino guy (the player's 8 million dollar deal lawyer).
 
Also if they're smart, Spyre structures these contracts to be VERY incentive based. -- very iffy based on laws and regulations

Like bonuses to be paid for staying at least 3 years -- that is built in to the terms

bonuses for keeping your nose clean and staying out of legal trouble -- that is how you keep the money. these all have character clauses

bonuses for graduating, on field performance bonuses, etc. -- strictly against the rules
.
 
We pay with our ticket purchases.
We pay with our tv subscriptions.
We pay with our tax dollars.
Seems to me that if these kids are owed more money, it should come from one of those sources.
that's the point - none of these things have worked for tennessee. this is a new way to directly impact who/how we recruit, which will lead to a better team and better results
 
that's the point - none of these things have worked for tennessee. this is a new way to directly impact who/how we recruit, which will lead to a better team and better results
Have at it. Give til it hurts.
 
Have at it. Give til it hurts.
I'll just give an appropriate amount based on my value of time/financial commitment.

I'll cancel my subscription if I feel like it isn't worth my money or time, just like I can do with any other service. Or I will up my commitment if I feel like it is working and making our team better, thus making the product (Tennessee Football, my College Football entertainment experience) more enjoyable. Just like I can subscribe to or buy more of anything else that brings me happiness.
 
Just to be clear, are you suggesting that that someone isn’t a “real fan,” if they don’t donate money to make teenagers rich?
These teenagers are the kids running around the field making the University of Tennessee millions of dollars every year.

This isn't that hard of a concept to understand.

No you're not a real fan in this current climate.
 
Lmao.
Quote a post of me complaining About our football team. You want to pony up your hard earned money to an 18 year old, donate away.

Time is money...

I respect that you paid your kids college tuition. So you understand that concept of time is money.

No these teenagers aren't your kids, but their athletic skills take hours of your time during then season and I imagine some now.
And they make millions of dollars for the University of Tennessee. Literally millions.

It's not an obligation. It's a choice to be proactive in whatever measure you feel to be. Because YOU and others will undoubtedly complain once the losing starts.
 
someone else posted this but I think that it needs to be shared here:
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that's the point - none of these things have worked for tennessee. this is a new way to directly impact who/how we recruit, which will lead to a better team and better results

If this was strictly merit-based, I think I would be more on board with it. My main sticking point with this whole concept is I would rather the money go towards actually rewarding players for their accomplishments while they are here, rather than merely incentivizing them to come here in the first place. It just feels gross to me. It feels like a bribe. I love UT sports but not enough to sell my soul and go against my own principles. There are more important things in life.
 
They’ve arranged NIL deals worth 3.5 mil, fans have “donated” around $500,000, and Spyre gets to keep 10%, so they’ve made close to $500k in less than a year. Not too bad for them, no wonder they’re constantly asking for more.
 
Time is money...

I respect that you paid your kids college tuition. So you understand that concept of time is money.

No these teenagers aren't your kids, but their athletic skills take hours of your time during then season and I imagine some now.
And they make millions of dollars for the University of Tennessee. Literally millions.

It's not an obligation. It's a choice to be proactive in whatever measure you feel to be. Because YOU and others will undoubtedly complain once the losing starts.
You'll probably have a hard time finding me complaining about losing but I encourage you call me out if you ever catch me. Losing a football game just isn't very important in my life.
 
These teenagers are the kids running around the field making the University of Tennessee millions of dollars every year.

This isn't that hard of a concept to understand.

No you're not a real fan in this current climate.

Well, the degree hanging on my wall suggests differently.
 
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I hope Nico balls out here. If he doesn’t, the hatred we spewed towards Guarantano will look like daisies and unicorn kisses compared to what we’ll do to a guy we paid millions for.

There's a huge difference in talent between
Nico and JG! Nico will be a day one draft pick and I am very confident of that (Barring Injury). JMO
 
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It seems there are still some of our fans who think Coach Heupel is in on all these top 5-stars and high ranked 4-stars simply because they are good recruiters.

There is a reason Coach Harper brought in the number 1 transfer portal class and it isn't just because they wanted to play at Tennessee.

There is a reason Coach Vitello just got the #1 playerbin the transfer portal and isn't just because Tennessee is now good at baseball.

Thanks to Nico Iamaleava and what Spyre has done has gotten every top player in the country's eyes to look at Tennessee in all sports.
 
Spyre will not waste? Guarantee someone is pocketing off people giving them their money. What percentage goes to athlete and what percentage does spyre keep? My friend and I almost started something like this a year ago. But we thought done be a private business we could be a non profit to fight some cause but really it’s to get athletes. Then big donors could donate for the tax write off and all people could donate really for the “cause”. We sign up athletes to contracts. But we were doing it so we could make bank. We love tn and all but we knew we could make huge money on it if it took off. So I can see spyre doing exactly what we said we would do. Sign a huge name to show people look what we can do, then people donate more. They don’t care after that bc we got the huge name. People that run spyre make bank.

No we don’t. I promise you I could make more money in other avenues. We do this to help Tennessee get better.
 

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