The BVF Returns - Pay $250 to watch a sub .500 team practice

[Cowboy II]

-I haven't looked at BVF website in a while and won't now but hopefully Troy and folks are reading this board and install links for one time and recurring donations (I have great curiosity as to why donations are not available on the site)

-if 100 people on here give $20 a month in a year that's $24,000 new to BVF

-but there are other BVF issues that need to be addressed

[3star_recruit]

8 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

The answer to this has probably been beaten to death in this thread. You have to heavily supplement the big donor events with lower admission higher attendance events in the alumni hubs like STL, Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee. 

So each year we raise 20K in 3 of those cities and 40K in Chicago.  That still puts us in mid-major recruiting territory.  We're not competing against Creighton or Marquette's sugar daddies with that.

[billikenfan05]

1 minute ago, 3star_recruit said:

So each year we raise 20K in 3 of those cities and 40K in Chicago.  That still puts us in mid-major recruiting territory.  We're not competing against Creighton or Marquette's sugar daddies with that.

So what, then you just don’t do it? That’s such a losing mentality. You have to build from somewhere.

[3star_recruit]

14 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

So what, then you just don’t do it? That’s such a losing mentality. You have to build from somewhere.

Of course you do it.  It helps you better recruit against the likes of Rhode Island, who already has 400K in its NIL fund.  I'm just pointing out who our true competition is.

https://www.golocalprov.com/sports/uri-mens-basketball-hits-400000-for-nil-top-booster-and-former-cvs-ceo-says

[TheChosenOne]

28 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

And pickleball tournament, and poker tournament, and game watch parties, and live events such as @TheChosenOnesuggested. 

I legitimately have so little going on coupled with what some might call a drinking problem, that I would be game for helping put any of the above events on.

[brianstl]

 

56 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Expand it to what?  Where are these non-traditional high net worth individuals that love SLU basketball but aren't giving to the local basketball program?

 

51 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

The answer to this has probably been beaten to death in this thread. You have to heavily supplement the big donor events with lower admission higher attendance events in the alumni hubs like STL, Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee. 

Zach answered part of it, but it isn't just getting people to events. 

You can get fans to give money through the website if they just operate this thing differently going forward.  They have to be out there constantly on social media and have tables at the games telling people that giving any amount to the BVF is what is needed from all fans.  That this is critical to having a successful program. Let people know clearly their donations will be pooled to bring talent to the program and the ways BVF will use those pooled funds to bring talent to the program.  Say one of the biggest goals is to keep the very best St. Louis talent playing in St. Louis (people love that).  Tell them a goal is to bring better talent than they have ever seen.  Make everyone feel like their donation no matter how small is critically important to achieving the goals (without your help, we can't do this).  Convince them that they can make a difference.  Make it easy on the website for people to set up recurring donations and offer them incentives to do so.  

None of this stuff is groundbreaking stuff.  They are things that have been used successfully for years by political campaigns and others to make small donors a significant funding source that they could not successfully operate without.  

We are in a different world now and the program has operate differently and be open to doing things differently if you want to legitimately claim the goal is to have a top 50 program. If you can get a couple thousand average joe fans and alumni across the country to give an average of just $250 over the year in total recurring donations, the BVF will have $500,000 to work with with before they hold one event or hit up one whale.

Convincing people they need to setup a $25 a month or a $5 dollar a week recurring donation on the BVF website should be a top and constant priority of the BVF.

[willie]

1 hour ago, billikenfan05 said:

I feel like Billy Beane at the scouts table here. What are we talking about? Why sit here and talk about how difficult it is to double dip with big donors. The focus needs to be on getting small donations from a lot of people.  The BVF can certainly see what they can pull from big donors but we’re not going to hang with the big dogs playing the way they do. 

Hey I am all for getting as many people envolved as possible but that is not going to move the needle. You need a whale to get this off the ground. Take a Jim Kavanaugh. The man is a Billionare. Convince him to commit a million dollars a year to the BVF. While part of that would go to soccer you would have the seed money necessary to build on. Jim K is just an example but their are wealthy people out there. 

[billikenfan05]

6 minutes ago, willie said:

Hey I am all for getting as many people envolved as possible but that is not going to move the needle. You need a whale to get this off the ground. Take a Jim Kavanaugh. The man is a Billionare. Convince him to commit a million dollars a year to the BVF. While part of that would go to soccer you would have the seed money necessary to build on. Jim K is just an example but their are wealthy people out there. 

I disagree that it doesn't "move the needle".  It's at least nudging the needle in the right direction. Is it going to fund the BVF at a level we need? No, but it's worth getting people invested on whatever scale they can. There are young alumni right now that could be your whales in 15 years. There are alumni my age that could be whales in 5-10 years and down the line, you get the idea. You have to figure out how to get new donors to dip their toes in if we've  already tapped out our biggins'

[TheA_Bomb]

We just need enough to get us to upper middle class. If our "whales" aren't enough due to interest,  giving fatigue etc then we gotta find another way. 

I'd suspect there's a decent amount of $1000 to $2000/yr types out there that would donate. 

[TheA_Bomb]

2 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

I disagree that it doesn't "move the needle".  It's at least nudging the needle in the right direction. Is it going to fund the BVF at a level we need? No, but it's worth getting people invested on whatever scale they can. There are young alumni right now that could be your whales in 15 years. There are alumni my age that could be whales in 5-10 years and down the line, you get the idea. You have to figure out how to get new donors to dip their toes in if we've  already tapped out our biggins'

Also you hit on 1 or 2 players because you had $20k for NIL moves the needle.  Stars are big money.  We never got stars if we had depth at the next level that was well coached we can win. 

[almaman]

10 hours ago, thetorch said:

From the pics online maybe not. Only a handful showed up.

maybe one of the handful could be appointed as an MBM?

[willie]

13 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

I disagree that it doesn't "move the needle".  It's at least nudging the needle in the right direction. Is it going to fund the BVF at a level we need? No, but it's worth getting people invested on whatever scale they can. There are young alumni right now that could be your whales in 15 years. There are alumni my age that could be whales in 5-10 years and down the line, you get the idea. You have to figure out how to get new donors to dip their toes in if we've  already tapped out our biggins'

I think the young alumni is your best argument but I am more concerned about today. 

[3star_recruit]

1 hour ago, willie said:

I think the young alumni is your best argument but I am more concerned about today. 

I agree.  You don't have unlimited time and manpower to build a war chest.  What goal can you reasonably expect to accomplish in the next 6 months?   Finding two new wealthy donors who can give you 100k a year?  Or convincing two thousand middle class fans to give you $100 a piece?

Of course your long-term goal is bring a two thousand new donors into the fold.  But that may take years to do, not months.  We've got transfers that we need to sign in a few months.

 

[slu92]

Dealing with the NIL world we live in now is complicated even for top P5 programs. That being said this department can’t do the basic blocking and tackling day to day stuff in general on a consistent basis. I don’t expect anything from them internally and their only hope is letting the outside guys like Troy do it. Plus average age of season ticket holders has to be 60 years old plus, they’ve done nothing to bring younger donors into the fold from what I’ve seen over the years. It’s the same people all the time, which we are lucky to have but what’s their ROI? Free seats to CBI game? Donor trip to Philly in dead of winter to a LaSalle game? lol 

[JMM28]

14 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

I agree.  You don't have unlimited time and manpower to build a war chest.  What goal can you reasonably expect to accomplish in the next 6 months?   Finding two new wealthy donors who can give you 100k a year?  Or convincing a two thousand middle class fans to give you $100 a piece?

Of course your long-term goal is bring a two thousand new donors into the fold.  But that may take years to do, not months.  We've got transfers that we need to sign in a few months.

 

If there are 5 people on this board, then there is about 2.5 doing any work. That isn't much manpower (and manpower that are NOT professional fundraisers) to do a bunch of events or soliciting. 

The other issue is that, based on season ticket sales, there are only about 3000 donors total willing to spend money on this product. So even if you get all 3000 of them to give 100 on average annually, you're still at $300,000. 

The program needs to win for the first time in a decade before any major movement is going to happen amongst the "middle class" fans. 

[slu92]

1 hour ago, brianstl said:

 

 

Zach answered part of it, but it isn't just getting people to events. 

You can get fans to give money through the website if they just operate this thing differently going forward.  They have to be out there constantly on social media and have tables at the games telling people that giving any amount to the BVF is what is needed from all fans.  That this is critical to having a successful program. Let people know clearly their donations will be pooled to bring talent to the program and the ways BVF will use those pooled funds to bring talent to the program.  Say one of the biggest goals is to keep the very best St. Louis talent playing in St. Louis (people love that).  Tell them a goal is to bring better talent than they have ever seen.  Make everyone feel like their donation no matter how small is critically important to achieving the goals (without your help, we can't do this).  Convince them that they can make a difference.  Make it easy on the website for people to set up recurring donations and offer them incentives to do so.  

None of this stuff is groundbreaking stuff.  They are things that have been used successfully for years by political campaigns and others to make small donors a significant funding source that they could not successfully operate without.  

We are in a different world now and the program has operate differently and be open to doing things differently if you want to legitimately claim the goal is to have a top 50 program. If you can get a couple thousand average joe fans and alumni across the country to give an average of just $250 over the year in total recurring donations, the BVF will have $500,000 to work with with before they hold one event or hit up one whale.

Convincing people they need to setup a $25 a month or a $5 dollar a week recurring donation on the BVF website should be a top and constant priority of the BVF.

Spot on. It isn’t very hard. You just need people that are willing t do the work and slu leadership needs to go get those individuals and pay them accordingly. You get what you pay for. Need serious professionals that can really raise money now and looking into the future. Current group are nice but not serious people, more admins holding the fort down. It’s selling 101. 

[slu92]

1 minute ago, JMM28 said:

If there are 5 people on this board, then there is about 2.5 doing any work. That isn't much manpower (and manpower that are NOT professional fundraisers) to do a bunch of events or soliciting. 

The other issue is that, based on season ticket sales, there are only about 3000 donors total willing to spend money on this product. So even if you get all 3000 of them to give 100 on average annually, you're still at $300,000. 

The program needs to win for the first time in a decade before any major movement is going to happen amongst the "middle class" fans. 

Same program scrambling for NIL is same group giving coach $2.5 million a year with very mediocre results. That’s biggest issue, who wants to give money to that group? Like what tells someone this is a good investment? Nothing really over last 8 years except a lot of talk, no results. I guess you can count back door ncaa bid but not much more. Travis needed more charter flights, got them, needed a locker room, got it, a champions center, got it. The resources are there but they were there for guy at OK State too. I hate ragging in guy but why can’t higher ups figure this stuff out? Same with AD…15 years at SLU. Rode Majerus teams success, said Jim Crews was taking program to next level, Calbert Cheney was secret weapon for recruiting, team will look like a P5 team with Crews in charge…..nope. Travis Ford has greatest team ever, going places program has never been before. Still waiting. Thank god for big donors and Fred because without them it’d be worse I guess, then when will they figure it out as well? 

[Lord Elrond]

5 minutes ago, slu92 said:

Same program scrambling for NIL is same group giving coach $2.5 million a year with very mediocre results. That’s biggest issue, who wants to give money to that group? Like what tells someone this is a good investment? Nothing really over last 8 years except a lot of talk, no results. I guess you can count back door ncaa bid but not much more. Travis needed more charter flights, got them, needed a locker room, got it, a champions center, got it. The resources are there but they were there for guy at OK State too. I hate ragging in guy but why can’t higher ups figure this stuff out? Same with AD…15 years at SLU. Rode Majerus teams success, said Jim Crews was taking program to next level, Calbert Cheney was secret weapon for recruiting, team will look like a P5 team with Crews in charge…..nope. Travis Ford has greatest team ever, going places program has never been before. Still waiting. Thank god for big donors and Fred because without them it’d be worse I guess, then when will they figure it out as well? 

You’ve actually hit upon the biggest argument for getting rid of Travis Ford, his salary. Hire a coach at $1 mil per year, and for the same amount of money that is being spent now you have $1.5 mil a year for NIL right there, without getting a dime from anyone else

[willie]

9 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

You’ve actually hit upon the biggest argument for getting rid of Travis Ford, his salary. Hire a coach at $1 mil per year, and for the same amount of money that is being spent now you have $1.5 mil a year for NIL right there, without getting a dime from anyone else

Unless the rules have changed the university itself can not fund the NIL. I know this board believes outsiders are paying part of his salary but we don't know that is a fact. 

[billikenfan05]

2 minutes ago, willie said:

Unless the rules have changed the university itself can not fund the NIL. I know this board believes outsiders are paying part of his salary but we don't know that is a fact. 

The rules are always changing and they aren't going backwards. The AD should have hired an Assistant Director of Athletics for NIL yesterday. That position would eventually turn into the Athletics Director for Payroll when the NCAA decides athletes are employees. That's where it's heading.

[brianstl]

20 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

The rules are always changing and they aren't going backwards. The AD should have hired an Assistant Director of Athletics for NIL yesterday. That position would eventually turn into the Athletics Director for Payroll when the NCAA decides athletes are employees. That's where it's heading.

If athletes become employees, you will only have a couple of handfuls of schools left participating in D1 and then only football, men's basketball and enough women's teams to satisfy Title IX requirements.  SLU won't be one of them.  Athletes being employees will place huge cost on the school's outside of the money they would pay directly to the athletes.  It would open schools to all kinds of liabilities.  It would be less than a week before we had the first lawsuit involving a female basketball player/university employee not being paid the same as her male counterpart for doing the same work.

[Lord Elrond]

28 minutes ago, willie said:

Unless the rules have changed the university itself can not fund the NIL. I know this board believes outsiders are paying part of his salary but we don't know that is a fact. 

Do you truly believe the university itself is funding that salary without donor support?  I don’t.  Unfortunately you have hit upon one true fact about SLU athletics, they don’t show us the books. But I have heard enough about how the big money donors are paying his salary to think thats how it works.  I would like to see proof that I am wrong.  And money coming from donors is not money coming from the university.

[billikenfan05]

4 minutes ago, brianstl said:

If athletes become employees, you will only have a couple of handfuls of schools left participating in D1 and then only football, men's basketball and enough women's teams to satisfy Title IX requirements.  SLU won't be one of them.  Athletes being employees will place huge cost on the school's outside of the money they would pay directly to the athletes.  It would open schools to all kinds of liabilities.  It would be less than a week before we had the first lawsuit involving a female basketball player/university employee not being paid the same as her male counterpart for doing the same work.

You're right. We're really heading down an insane slope. 

[slufan13]

The BVF just isn't a dedicated and serious enough entity. It gives off the vibe of like grade school school-board where they get together once a month, plan an event or two, and make sure things are steady. As a 10 year season ticket holder, even in cheap seats, I should have received multiple calls from this group asking if I'm interested in donating. 

You need the big dogs fund the BVF. But there just doesn't seem to be an aggressive enough plan with the organization to get those people on board. And even then, some of the biggest donors want to decide exactly how their money is used. If you go out and get 1,000 people to donate $100, you can use that money at your own discretion without fear of pissing anyone off. Sure it's not enough money by itself to compete but it's something. 

It's just weird that there are people who want to donate who haven't been approached or don't know how. When the organization goes totally silent for 5 months, how can you expect people to go out of their way to remember to donate or to go onto the website and give their money away. Sure it's not hard, but you have to ask for money to get it.

The whole organization just seems like it's a group of volunteers who have 100 better things to do. And if that's your approach, you are going to fail. 

[willie]

3 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Do you truly believe the university itself is funding that salary without donor support?  I don’t.  Unfortunately you have hit upon one true fact about SLU athletics, they don’t show us the books. But I have heard enough about how the big money donors are paying his salary to think thats how it works.  I would like to see proof that I am wrong.  And money coming from donors is not money coming from the university.

I don't know. Just because Rick was paid by Tony Novelli under Biondi doesn't mean someone else is paying Ford. If someone has first hand knowledge I would love to see it. One of my biggest ******* about this board is someone says something without proof and it becomes gospel.