Recruiting Football Talk VII

[Adam Sandler]

Most of the average fans are supporting the Vol Club at around $25 per month. Maybe up to $100 per month. Do we want Spyre to take time to send nearly 4000 monthly donors a dollar by dollar breakdown of what our drop in the bucket donations are being spent on? If folks are that concerned that they need an itemized invoice for their $25 then maybe they need to hold on to their $25.

Not dollar for dollar but percentages and testimonials. I support a charity that would say _% of your dollars goes towards x, _% of your dollars goes towards y. That’s always nice to know. Or something like “we added 55 more members this month and were able to secure a deal for xyz player”.

But that’s more internal marketing, increasing current donor level. I think what most would agree needs to happen is just more donors in general. I’d love to see someone signing people up outside the local food city and in market square. I’d love to see teams of people going around the tailgates signing people up. Players who have deals need to make it a point to tweet/talk about it and wear the swag at any sporting event. Businesses that are willing to partner with sypre/vol club need to be advertising to their customers in their retail spaces, maybe providing 10% off to vol club members. Could the university help by say doing 10% of all vol shop purchases gets donated or would that be against ncaa rules? In game flash donation campaigns. Would be great if Heupel was more vocal in encouraging the donations/memberships. Also I wonder if because x% goes directly to the athletes if they don’t have enough money to aggressively advertise?

 

[Orange_Crush]

Not dollar for dollar but percentages and testimonials. I support a charity that would say _% of your dollars goes towards x, _% of your dollars goes towards y. That’s always nice to know. Or something like “we added 55 more members this month and were able to secure a deal for xyz player”.

This has been on their website from the first, and posted here many, many times.

About Us - The Volunteer Club

Learn about the Volunteer Club and our NIL efforts.

thevolunteerclub.com

 

[DD4ME]

Not dollar for dollar but percentages and testimonials. I support a charity that would say _% of your dollars goes towards x, _% of your dollars goes towards y. That’s always nice to know. Or something like “we added 55 more members this month and were able to secure a deal for xyz player”.

But that’s more internal marketing, increasing current donor level. I think what most would agree needs to happen is just more donors in general. I’d love to see someone signing people up outside the local food city and in market square. I’d love to see teams of people going around the tailgates signing people up. Players who have deals need to make it a point to tweet/talk about it and wear the swag at any sporting event. Businesses that are willing to partner with sypre/vol club need to be advertising to their customers in their retail spaces, maybe providing 10% off to vol club members. Could the university help by say doing 10% of all vol shop purchases gets donated or would that be against ncaa rules? In game flash donation campaigns. I wonder if because x% goes directly to the athletes if they don’t have enough money to aggressively advertise?

90% goes to players. The rest is minutiae.

 

[Adam Sandler]

This has been on their website from the first, and posted here many, many times.

View attachment 603067

About Us - The Volunteer Club

Learn about the Volunteer Club and our NIL efforts.

thevolunteerclub.com

So in other words 0% is spent on advertising outside of in person events. That pretty much explains the gap to me.

 

[Jimmy Football]

They definitely do the last 3 of those.

They could do the first one. I think there's an art to it.

I think it's obvious that the fans are not going to go TO the Vol Club. They have to get out and go to the fans. They got the word out, they do host the tailgates. I think the early adopters have shown up, but the vast majority of fans want to be told WHY they need to sign up, and be made to feel like they matter and they are needed.

Really, they probably need to go grassroots and have hot co-eds perusing the tailgates individually, asking the fans if they support Vol Club and making it very easy to sign up on the spot. They need the fan version of the Orange Pride that they deploy on gamedays that are just relentless.

The players that are sponsored probably need to have some signage or Vol Club swag on the Vol Walk.

I just don’t think the VC makes themselves as ubiquitous as they should.

I’m going to run a little experiment today. I spend a lot of time following this program. I listen to Vol radio shows and podcasts basically every day. I’m on this website all the time. I live in East Tennessee and will be driving around the area today.

I’m going to count the number of encounters I have with official VC marketing. If they’re doing what they should, I should see it or hear it at least several times.

 

[Orange_Crush]

So in other words 0% is spent on advertising outside of in person events. That pretty much explains the gap to me.

They just can't win. They get roasted on Twitter and VN with rumors that the money isn't all going toward player deals. They post that 90% goes to players and 10% goes to setting up events, and they get complaints are that not enough goes to advertising.

And easy fix that we can affect here on VN would include:

Stop bashing them until given proof that they are misappriopriating money.
Here on VN. You know about it. Join.

 

[DD4ME]

Guarantee you the moment some major voice (say Manning for example) comes out and says we can win a NC if we can get membership to xyz. And they make a point to add "hey uncle Billy or aunt Sarah that never went to college, this is how you can contribute too", It'll be done.

 

[DD4ME]

You just do what you can afford and stop making excuses. Set your priorities and don't look back. It's like giving to church or paying your taxes. It seems to me all three of those actions - church, taxes and the Vols are the right priorities for the majority of us morans. Now if we can find ways to lower the taxes, we can give more to the church and Vols. Right?

This is the billboard right cheer

 

[rikberry31]

It needs to be ran by someone like Danny white
Instead it’s being ran by someone with vision and enthusiasm like Dooley
Other collectives took its platform and expanded while Spyre stayed stuck in the mud
Needs way more aggressive leadership

The school can not be involved with the collective or it comes under the jurisdiction of Title IX. There are a lot of people flappin' their gums about things that they don't have a clue about. Proof is in the results. We are keeping the players we want, players are coming back, and we getting the players we want. Coaches don't want Nolan or they would have pursued him, it's not because we didn't throw a bag at him. This staff considers need and fit only.

 

[OGbabyaviVol]

I agree, Spyre needs more promotion, to be more visible. But that is all. From what I can tell they are providing and spending well.

My membership can be an example. I did the $25/month to start to see how it would go. In that period I have also purchased 4 items. One was clothing related, three were autographed items - an HH print, a Voltello baseball, and a Nico mini-helmet. The clothing is mine, the autographed items are for the grandsons when they mature and move on with their lives. Until that happens they will be kept in the man cave where everybody comes for the televised games they do not attend. That was another $550-600 spent counting taxes. That will continue over the years.

If 10 K or more fans out of our crazy fanbase did likewise...you can do the math. You just do what you can afford and stop making excuses. Set your priorities and don't look back. It's like giving to church or paying your taxes. It seems to me all three of those actions - church, taxes and the Vols are the right priorities for the majority of us morans. Now if we can find ways to lower the taxes, we can give more to the church and Vols. Right?

Thing that ticks me off a little about advertising Spyre more is there is a poster who has offered his/her services to be able to market Spyre/Vol Club quickly and relatively easily. We have tagged @WillAtSpyre @Ericvol2096 @jvols1999 etc trying to get this out there, but no response. Frustrating. Someone is begging to help them.

 

[DarthVol1]

It is so nice when the Legion of the Mehsrible takes over the football talk thread and spreads a thick layer of meh for everyone to have to wade through in the morning. Thanks @VolsDoc81TX and a couple others for offsetting them even a little.

And creating other useless threads to wade through. I went through that KIFFIN thread and was thrilled to see 7 different randoms I had put on ignore over the year all showed up in that thread alone. It is like a porch light got left on........

 

[DD4ME]

I do think people pointing fingers at the collectives should reflect on if they have fingers pointing back at themselves as being part of the problem. Be constructive not destructive. Be a contributer not a distributor of misinformation.

 

[KptVFL]

Nothing is more worthless that these transfer portal tweets reference that a kid was a former top 100 recruit in the 2021 class when they haven’t done anything at the school they committed to.

Colorado just got a commitment from an Alabama defender who was highly ranked several years ago, but has accumulated exactly zero stats during his multiple years at Alabama.

Referencing his ranking from 3 years ago seems misleading as hell.

If high school ranking is higher....ya use that

If college success is higher...... ya use that

 

[JohnnyD1024]

Who this?

 

[mr.checkerboards]

Most of the average fans are supporting the Vol Club at around $25 per month. Maybe up to $100 per month. Do we want Spyre to take time to send nearly 4000 monthly donors a dollar by dollar breakdown of what our drop in the bucket donations are being spent on? If folks are that concerned that they need an itemized invoice for their $25 then maybe they need to hold on to their $25.

I know this won't go over well, but honestly with the NIL money we are rumored to have, I'm a little disappointed in who we are getting. Yes, I don't agree with NIL but I would be more interested in giving some if we were actually getting quality prospects or instant impact players of need. A 3* from MTSU and a WR from Tulane don't exactly excited me. Sign Dumas Johnson, get the OL from TAMU, steal a starting corner from a good P5 school. Sign that 5* out of LA that we talked to last week, those are the kids that close the gap, and that's the talent that I'd be interested in giving for. Not random 3*

 

[Orange_Crush]

I do think people pointing fingers at the collectives should reflect on if they have fingers pointing back at themselves as being part of the problem. Be constructive not destructive. Be a contributer not a distributor of misinformation.

One does not have to support. One should probably at least take the attitude of, "Do no harm". I've been amazed at the incredible self-destructiveness of this fanbase this week. It is just awe-inspiring.

 

[mr.checkerboards]

5'9
177

Hope he's fast.

 

[SSVol]

I just don’t think the VC makes themselves as ubiquitous as they should.

I’m going to run a little experiment today. I spend a lot of time following this program. I listen to Vol radio shows and podcasts basically every day. I’m on this website all the time. I live in East Tennessee and will be driving around the area today.

I’m going to count the number of encounters I have with official VC marketing. If they’re doing what they should, I should see it or hear it at least several times.

If they limit themselves to expenses being 10% of revenue, advertising may be a chicken/egg. Everyone is lining up to tell them they are marketing poorly, seemingly ignoring the fact that marketing costs money. I know that marketing doesn't have to be expensive, but they may have concluded that their time is better spent chasing deep pockets face to face.

 

[OGbabyaviVol]

This is going to sound cocky, but I've literally done this in my career...I could easily expand their reach and following on social media that would probably result in a massive increase in members. It could be done with a small budget...maybe in the $5k-$10k range per year (none going to me). I emailed them last year and the response I eventually received on this forum from someone who works for Spyre was "sorry, I never saw your email...send it again." Felt like they didn't really want the input, so I just moved on. I didn't ask for anything and had no intention to. I just wanted to help. They've made some moves to increase visibility on social media, but they don't seem to understand that there's a trust and motivation factor involved in getting people to actually do something. I really don't think it would be hard to reach a lot of Tennessee fans online, quickly explain what they do, establish trust with the audience, and influence them to act.

I found the poster who offered services to help Spyre market on social media. @WillAtSpyre @Ericvol2096 @jvols1999 yall take this person up on their offer, and let’s blow this NIL thing out of the roof.

 

[Weezer]

The collective itself is top-notch. Spyre has been collectively praised and admired across all of college football. Everyone agrees that they set it up correctly and that it is run well.

Hard to know what the bottlenecks are, in terms of membership and growth. It's probably a mix of several of the guesses that posters have mentioned here.

At this point, do mass mailers across Tennessee and to all the Tennessee alumni across the country. FFS, do anything and everything to try and get membership. Their current advertising strategy, it's almost like they're an exclusive club rather than open to all. Spyre needs to sell themselves like a $2 hooker and get that money rolling in.

 

[Jimmy Football]

If they limit themselves to expenses being 10% of revenue, advertising may be a chicken/egg. Everyone is lining up to tell them they are marketing poorly, seemingly ignoring the fact that marketing costs money. I know that marketing doesn't have to be expensive, but they may have concluded that their time is better spent chasing deep pockets face to face.

Honestly, it probably is.

 

[LA Vol]

Danny White is an aggressive fundraiser. The upside of that is an aggressive strategic plan that includes multiple funding buckets. The downside of that is aggressively tapping donors to fill those buckets. Donors are being asked to fund major facilities improvements for virtually every athletic facility. They're being asked to support academics. And endowments. And building funds. Staff salaries are up. Season ticket prices are up. And annual giving is up.

But eventually donor fatigue will set in. It is setting in, which is where fan initiatives come in. While NIL has donor support, it's basically a fan initiative. While many UT campaigns are top-down, NIL is bottom-up.

 

[Outofmyvolcanmind]

Dumb source is dumb.

 

[DD4ME]

I know this won't go over well, but honestly with the NIL money we are rumored to have, I'm a little disappointed in who we are getting. Yes, I don't agree with NIL but I would be more interested in giving some if we were actually getting quality prospects or instant impact players of need. A 3* from MTSU and a WR from Tulane don't exactly excited me. Sign Dumas Johnson, get the OL from TAMU, steal a starting corner from a good P5 school. Sign that 5* out of LA that we talked to last week, those are the kids that close the gap, and that's the talent that I'd be interested in giving for. Not random 3*

Cade is better than all of those and that is a big place where money went. It is both recruitment and retention.

 

[DD4ME]

5'9
177

Hope he's fast.

2024 wide receiver Braylon Harmon commits to Tennessee

2024 wide receiver Braylon Harmon commits to Tennessee football.

volswire.usatoday.com