#GoBears https://t.co/5HbmMF6TwW
— Pete Najarian (@petenajarian) January 6, 2023
Quote:
As some of you know, we have recently been pitching to our donors that what we truly need to catalyze our collective is three individuals to each write us a $1m check. Obviously this is outside the realm of the conceivable for all but a small number of us, but that, together with what we have raised to date, would absolutely turbo-charge our efforts and should catapult us into top contention for all of the talent we need to attract and retain.
Well I am beyond thrilled to report that a proud member of the Bear Insider Community, and someone who has already given quite generously to the collective, has just agreed to donate an additional $1m to our efforts.
I can't overstate what a huge deal this is for us. We really needed a spark and this will absolutely provide that. A number of individuals who have the means and love Cal football have been vacillating on making an additional gift like this (beyond what they've already done) because they didn't want to be alone. Well I'm thrilled to say that a brave BI member has taken up the mantle and is leading the charge. And I am now 100% confident that we can get others to follow suit.
I am not a person inclined to use terms like "pumped up" but I am so freaking pumped up I may explode. Thank you to our friend and benefactor. A million thank you's.
Go Bears!!!!!!!!!
Wonderful news! Thanks for spreading the sunshine!Sebastabear said:
As a follow on message, which seems appropriate to this thread, I just wanted to share the glorious news I just put on the insider board. Go Bears!Quote:
As some of you know, we have recently been pitching to our donors that what we truly need to catalyze our collective is three individuals to each write us a $1m check. Obviously this is outside the realm of the conceivable for all but a small number of us, but that, together with what we have raised to date, would absolutely turbo-charge our efforts and should catapult us into top contention for all of the talent we need to attract and retain.
Well I am beyond thrilled to report that a proud member of the Bear Insider Community, and someone who has already given quite generously to the collective, has just agreed to donate an additional $1m to our efforts.
I can't overstate what a huge deal this is for us. We really needed a spark and this will absolutely provide that. A number of individuals who have the means and love Cal football have been vacillating on making an additional gift like this (beyond what they've already done) because they didn't want to be alone. Well I'm thrilled to say that a brave BI member has taken up the mantle and is leading the charge. And I am now 100% confident that we can get others to follow suit.
I am not a person inclined to use terms like "pumped up" but I am so freaking pumped up I may explode. Thank you to our friend and benefactor. A million thank you's.
Go Bears!!!!!!!!!
Lets gooooo!! I hope that the few posters earlier on this thread who expressed concern about "getting involved with NIL because we don't have the big donations to match" are reading this great news! Time is now, get involved, you know it's the best path forward!Sebastabear said:
As a follow on message, which seems appropriate to this thread, I just wanted to share the glorious news I just put on the insider board. Go Bears!Quote:
As some of you know, we have recently been pitching to our donors that what we truly need to catalyze our collective is three individuals to each write us a $1m check. Obviously this is outside the realm of the conceivable for all but a small number of us, but that, together with what we have raised to date, would absolutely turbo-charge our efforts and should catapult us into top contention for all of the talent we need to attract and retain.
Well I am beyond thrilled to report that a proud member of the Bear Insider Community, and someone who has already given quite generously to the collective, has just agreed to donate an additional $1m to our efforts.
I can't overstate what a huge deal this is for us. We really needed a spark and this will absolutely provide that. A number of individuals who have the means and love Cal football have been vacillating on making an additional gift like this (beyond what they've already done) because they didn't want to be alone. Well I'm thrilled to say that a brave BI member has taken up the mantle and is leading the charge. And I am now 100% confident that we can get others to follow suit.
I am not a person inclined to use terms like "pumped up" but I am so freaking pumped up I may explode. Thank you to our friend and benefactor. A million thank you's.
Go Bears!!!!!!!!!
. Portal is only open for a little while longer, and the visits are occurring right now. Consider getting in on the action, this is the time to fill our war chest. It is simple: the money goes to players.DoubtfulBear said:It's disappointing that the response to asks about transparency of the NIL and transfer portal process is met with hostility. I understand your frustrations with the perceived whining here, but calling us anti-cal for wanting to understand how the money is spent is not going to lead to more support for your campaign.Oski87 said:CAL4LIFE said:Post the financials. I want to know where the consortium sits present day and what the annual goals are going forward. I also want to know if the consortium is playing for keeps or just dabbling in the NIL for appearances. I'm not interested in it if, for example, the consortium has set up their own set of restrictive rules to follow so they can play nice and be the morality police of college football at the P5 level.Sebastabear said:
Thanks to eastcoastcal for starting this thread and many of you others for the support. It's tremendously appreciated, Will throw in my two cents, but will apologize in advance if this is even less coherent than usual as I had a few glasses of wine with dinner.
As noted, the current NIL landscape, in combination with the transfer portal, is chaotic. To put it kindly. And I fully understand that Cal fans have ample cause to be grumpy and cynical. Boy do I ever understand it. But in the words of Petyr Baelish, Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder.
Cal badly needed something to upset the paradigm. We have struggled for over 60 years to create a winning program and between a fair amount of bad luck and a lot of self/institutional sabotage, we have failed. So in someways NIL is the answer to our prayers. It is giving we fans an opportunity to directly fix the program. No more worrying about money being siphoned off for other sports or administrate bloat. No more building a locker room with hot and cold running ambrosia and plasma-based photonic gewgaws in the hope that some player will be persuaded to enroll. No more hiring a coach for $5m annually and then having to pay $20m for the privilege of firing him when it turns out he sucks. Give $1 and $1 goes to the player or players of your choosing. The ones you think can have the most direct impact. You are in complete control. NIL is pure unadulterated capitalism at its finest.
The reality is we are really very close. We have raised a significant amount of money and, with all due modesty, I think we have developed one of the most sophisticated NIL platforms in all of college sports. But, as noted, we do badly need a few additional large donors to step up. I have seen some criticism, even in this thread, of the crowdfunding model we have adopted to date using Bear Insider. But let me say that has not been done to the exclusion of pursuing large donors. If anything a significant majority of our money has come from people who post regularly on Bear Insider and have been moved by what they have read here to write very large checks. This site has been a godsend for our efforts.
Much like our football team, which needs just two or three critical additions to be outstanding, our NIL collective needs the same. And the two of course are related.
But, and I say this with love, I have noted that our long walk in the college football wilderness has created a fair amount of PTSD among our Fanbase. And the one area where we seem to truly excel over all others is in making excuses. I won't give until the team is good. I won't give until XYZ administrator is fired. I won't give until we cut some of our 30 sports. I won't give until we have a new coach. I want to see more of a commitment to winning. I want to see the situation with Berkeley public health resolved. I want to see our academic standards lowered for football admits. Etc, etc., etc.
Are some of these excellent goals? Absolutely. I have spent several years crusading for a few of them myself. But in the here and now NIL is the alpha and the omega. It is all that matters and the rest of it is noise. So donate or don't as per your predilections and abilities, but don't believe for a second that there's something else that needs to be addressed first. There isn't.
I also want to know if the consortium has any interest in effecting change with how the program is run within the confines of the IAD. Who the AD is, who the head coaches are. and if they are willing to throw some weight around to leverage lasting changes that foster real leadership and on field success.
Business as usual needs to end at Cal.
Start your own then. There is no reason to be whining about this - if you feel so strongly about it start your own. Lots of schools have more than one. Get your own group of anti- cal cal fans going to do it. Or else, give to the one we have.
Oski87 said:
Maybe he isn't gone yet.
Econ141 said:Oski87 said:
Maybe he isn't gone yet.
Someone said he posted his top 3 of UCLA, Tennessee, and TCU.
Econ141 said:Oski87 said:
Maybe he isn't gone yet.
Someone said he posted his top 3 of UCLA, Tennessee, and TCU.
Fine, then don't contribute. But respectfully, quit negative vibing against this 100% necessary mechanism and influencing others to also not participate. You may mean well but you are currently part of the problem.DoubtfulBear said:What are you talking about? Businesses absolutely give out competitive information to prospective investors. Can you imagine a startup going to an investor and saying, "I won't tell you how many customers I have, their average spend, our cash burn rate, our employee count, etc. But you should invest in my business because our leadership includes the number 30 employee at Paypal"Oski87 said:Listen - no business give out competitive information. If you want to understand the dynamics of it all, start your own. Or just give to the guy you want to give to. There is nothing stopping any of that.DoubtfulBear said:It's disappointing that the response to asks about transparency of the NIL and transfer portal process is met with hostility. I understand your frustrations with the perceived whining here, but calling us anti-cal for wanting to understand how the money is spent is not going to lead to more support for your campaign.Oski87 said:CAL4LIFE said:Post the financials. I want to know where the consortium sits present day and what the annual goals are going forward. I also want to know if the consortium is playing for keeps or just dabbling in the NIL for appearances. I'm not interested in it if, for example, the consortium has set up their own set of restrictive rules to follow so they can play nice and be the morality police of college football at the P5 level.Sebastabear said:
FThanks to eastcoastcal for starting this thread and many of you others for the support. It's tremendously appreciated, Will throw in my two cents, but will apologize in advance if this is even less coherent than usual as I had a few glasses of wine with dinner.
As noted, the current NIL landscape, in combination with the transfer portal, is chaotic. To put it kindly. And I fully understand that Cal fans have ample cause to be grumpy and cynical. Boy do I ever understand it. But in the words of Petyr Baelish, Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder.
Cal badly needed something to upset the paradigm. We have struggled for over 60 years to create a winning program and between a fair amount of bad luck and a lot of self/institutional sabotage, we have failed. So in someways NIL is the answer to our prayers. It is giving we fans an opportunity to directly fix the program. No more worrying about money being siphoned off for other sports or administrate bloat. No more building a locker room with hot and cold running ambrosia and plasma-based photonic gewgaws in the hope that some player will be persuaded to enroll. No more hiring a coach for $5m annually and then having to pay $20m for the privilege of firing him when it turns out he sucks. Give $1 and $1 goes to the player or players of your choosing. The ones you think can have the most direct impact. You are in complete control. NIL is pure unadulterated capitalism at its finest.
The reality is we are really very close. We have raised a significant amount of money and, with all due modesty, I think we have developed one of the most sophisticated NIL platforms in all of college sports. But, as noted, we do badly need a few additional large donors to step up. I have seen some criticism, even in this thread, of the crowdfunding model we have adopted to date using Bear Insider. But let me say that has not been done to the exclusion of pursuing large donors. If anything a significant majority of our money has come from people who post regularly on Bear Insider and have been moved by what they have read here to write very large checks. This site has been a godsend for our efforts.
Much like our football team, which needs just two or three critical additions to be outstanding, our NIL collective needs the same. And the two of course are related.
But, and I say this with love, I have noted that our long walk in the college football wilderness has created a fair amount of PTSD among our Fanbase. And the one area where we seem to truly excel over all others is in making excuses. I won't give until the team is good. I won't give until XYZ administrator is fired. I won't give until we cut some of our 30 sports. I won't give until we have a new coach. I want to see more of a commitment to winning. I want to see the situation with Berkeley public health resolved. I want to see our academic standards lowered for football admits. Etc, etc., etc.
Are some of these excellent goals? Absolutely. I have spent several years crusading for a few of them myself. But in the here and now NIL is the alpha and the omega. It is all that matters and the rest of it is noise. So donate or don't as per your predilections and abilities, but don't believe for a second that there's something else that needs to be addressed first. There isn't.
I also want to know if the consortium has any interest in effecting change with how the program is run within the confines of the IAD. Who the AD is, who the head coaches are. and if they are willing to throw some weight around to leverage lasting changes that foster real leadership and on field success.
Business as usual needs to end at Cal.
Start your own then. There is no reason to be whining about this - if you feel so strongly about it start your own. Lots of schools have more than one. Get your own group of anti- cal cal fans going to do it. Or else, give to the one we have.
I give to the CalLegends because I trust the process that includes Sebasta, BG, Marshawn Lynch, Desean Jackson, Ron Rivera and his wife, etc. They set this up, and pay all expenses so that the funds go directly to the students. And you can direct it to which ever student or group of students you want to give to.
If you are wondering about the exact amount of payments going to each player - ask the Texas A&M people how much they are getting. Get pricing information from all of the other ones first - and then come back and show them to the CalLegends folks. I bet they would be excited to get that data. But, guess what - none of that information will ever be available - just like no one publishes your salary, or your bonus pool info, or your retirement plan info. Because it means you are available to poach then.
If you want the gory details - start your own.
Sebastabear said:
As a follow on message, which seems appropriate to this thread, I just wanted to share the glorious news I just put on the insider board. Go Bears!Quote:
As some of you know, we have recently been pitching to our donors that what we truly need to catalyze our collective is three individuals to each write us a $1m check. Obviously this is outside the realm of the conceivable for all but a small number of us, but that, together with what we have raised to date, would absolutely turbo-charge our efforts and should catapult us into top contention for all of the talent we need to attract and retain.
Well I am beyond thrilled to report that a proud member of the Bear Insider Community, and someone who has already given quite generously to the collective, has just agreed to donate an additional $1m to our efforts.
I can't overstate what a huge deal this is for us. We really needed a spark and this will absolutely provide that. A number of individuals who have the means and love Cal football have been vacillating on making an additional gift like this (beyond what they've already done) because they didn't want to be alone. Well I'm thrilled to say that a brave BI member has taken up the mantle and is leading the charge. And I am now 100% confident that we can get others to follow suit.
I am not a person inclined to use terms like "pumped up" but I am so freaking pumped up I may explode. Thank you to our friend and benefactor. A million thank you's.
Go Bears!!!!!!!!!
Yea. That's not the way the subscriptions work. You subscribe for a team not a player. If you want to target a player, make a donation.hehatenate said:
Is it correct to assume a one-time donation can be steered towards certain players / groups, but a recurring subscription cannot? That's my read so far of the website, but just wanted to see if anyone can confirm. Thanks.
It seems that way, yes. The site has pretty inconsistent UI/UX, hopefully that's temporary. On the donation side there are dropdown menus after you've clicked donate that do not appear on the subscription side. They're using an offsite redirect for their payment gateway (Stripe) so it seems those dropdowns are likely generated through the Stripe account they set up, not the main website itself. Also there are still entries in the donate dropdown for players who have already left the program. Those should be deleted ASAP.hehatenate said:
Is it correct to assume a one-time donation can be steered towards certain players / groups, but a recurring subscription cannot? That's my read so far of the website, but just wanted to see if anyone can confirm. Thanks.
It would be amazing if we had the money Amazon has to run their site. We do not. It would also be wonderful if our fanbase could focus on the forrest for a moment. We've created literally dozens and dozens of permutations and ways for people to donate. Some of them as the result of suggestions from this site. None of them has released a gusher of additional small donations. I'm pretty convinced at this point there is no magic tweak. People either want to help or they don't.WalterSobchak said:It seems that way, yes. The site has pretty inconsistent UI/UX, hopefully that's temporary. On the donation side there are dropdown menus after you've clicked donate that do not appear on the subscription side. They're using an offsite redirect for their payment gateway (Stripe) so it seems those dropdowns are likely generated through the Stripe account they set up, not the main website itself. Also there are still entries in the donate dropdown for players who have already left the program. Those should be deleted ASAP.hehatenate said:
Is it correct to assume a one-time donation can be steered towards certain players / groups, but a recurring subscription cannot? That's my read so far of the website, but just wanted to see if anyone can confirm. Thanks.
I do not have any affiliation with Cal Legends.
Correct. We issue a 1099 to each player. It's exactly like an independent contractor.Chapman_is_Gone said:
Sebasta, Am I right in assuming that any NIL throughout the nation will have to report a player payment to the IRS so that the appropriate tax forms can be issued and so the players have to pay the proper taxes? Sorta like how I have to issue a contractor some form if he does a job at my house over a certain dollar amount?
I know how frustrated I get reading this board - full of Cal people dedicated enough to Cal sports to spend time on a message board - and see many of these same people create roadblocks to giving. I can only imagine how maddening it is for you to be so invested in this (no pun intended) and to experience even more of the same.Sebastabear said:It would be amazing if we had the money Amazon has to run their site. We do not. It would also be wonderful if our fanbase could focus on the forrest for a moment. We've created literally dozens and dozens of permutations and ways for people to donate. Some of them as the result of suggestions from this site. None of them has released a gusher of additional small donations. I'm pretty convinced at this point there is no magic tweak. People either want to help or they don't.WalterSobchak said:It seems that way, yes. The site has pretty inconsistent UI/UX, hopefully that's temporary. On the donation side there are dropdown menus after you've clicked donate that do not appear on the subscription side. They're using an offsite redirect for their payment gateway (Stripe) so it seems those dropdowns are likely generated through the Stripe account they set up, not the main website itself. Also there are still entries in the donate dropdown for players who have already left the program. Those should be deleted ASAP.hehatenate said:
Is it correct to assume a one-time donation can be steered towards certain players / groups, but a recurring subscription cannot? That's my read so far of the website, but just wanted to see if anyone can confirm. Thanks.
I do not have any affiliation with Cal Legends.
What happens if you target a player who then leaves? Is he given the money as a parting gift (or severance) or is the donor asked to designate another player? (And I assume it's too late to donate to J. Michael Sturdivant?Sebastabear said:Yea. That's not the way the subscriptions work. You subscribe for a team not a player. If you want to target a player, make a donation.hehatenate said:
Is it correct to assume a one-time donation can be steered towards certain players / groups, but a recurring subscription cannot? That's my read so far of the website, but just wanted to see if anyone can confirm. Thanks.
To remind folks again how this works, when you make a contribution for a specific player we aggregate those (assuming they are all small) and come up with something for that player to do. Most of the individual "events" we have engaged players for have been in the $5k-$15k range. But we continuously feed these to the impact players so that over time they aggregate to the amount we want the player to receive. We do not just write one large check to any player up front for some obvious reasons. Money is paid over time by design.southseasbear said:What happens if you target a player who then leaves? Is he given the money as a parting gift (or severance) or is the donor asked to designate another player? (And I assume it's too late to donate to J. Michael Sturdivant?Sebastabear said:Yea. That's not the way the subscriptions work. You subscribe for a team not a player. If you want to target a player, make a donation.hehatenate said:
Is it correct to assume a one-time donation can be steered towards certain players / groups, but a recurring subscription cannot? That's my read so far of the website, but just wanted to see if anyone can confirm. Thanks.
Sebastabear said:To remind folks again how this works, when you make a contribution for a specific player we aggregate those (assuming they are all small) and come up with something for that player to do. Most of the individual "events" we have engaged players for have been in the $5k-$15k range. But we continuously feed these to the impact players so that over time they aggregate to the amount we want the player to receive. We do not just write one large check to any player up front for some obvious reasons. Money is paid over time by design.southseasbear said:What happens if you target a player who then leaves? Is he given the money as a parting gift (or severance) or is the donor asked to designate another player? (And I assume it's too late to donate to J. Michael Sturdivant?Sebastabear said:Yea. That's not the way the subscriptions work. You subscribe for a team not a player. If you want to target a player, make a donation.hehatenate said:
Is it correct to assume a one-time donation can be steered towards certain players / groups, but a recurring subscription cannot? That's my read so far of the website, but just wanted to see if anyone can confirm. Thanks.
You would be shocked how little money has been directed to individual players through direct donations. 99%+ has been just donated to the collective or to position groups. Most people who want to directly give small amounts to a particular player directly just book a shout out with them or something.
If someone gives me $50k (or any significant amount) for a particular player and that player leaves then I'm going to call that donor up and ask them what they want us to do. But to date, we have received nothing like that. The small amounts we have received for J. Mike, for example, were vastly outstripped by what we paid him just in December before he entered the portal.
Appreciate all who have contributed in whatever way they have done so but this isn't a real issue.
We could potentially go after him for the money we paid in December if he leaves since that was part of a single campaign that will last until after January 18th and he would be in breach. Earlier money was paid for completed projects so that's not recoverable. I'm mulling what to do. May depend on where he goes, if he winds up at the song stealers . . , I may react badly.oski003 said:Sebastabear said:To remind folks again how this works, when you make a contribution for a specific player we aggregate those (assuming they are all small) and come up with something for that player to do. Most of the individual "events" we have engaged players for have been in the $5k-$15k range. But we continuously feed these to the impact players so that over time they aggregate to the amount we want the player to receive. We do not just write one large check to any player up front for some obvious reasons. Money is paid over time by design.southseasbear said:What happens if you target a player who then leaves? Is he given the money as a parting gift (or severance) or is the donor asked to designate another player? (And I assume it's too late to donate to J. Michael Sturdivant?Sebastabear said:Yea. That's not the way the subscriptions work. You subscribe for a team not a player. If you want to target a player, make a donation.hehatenate said:
Is it correct to assume a one-time donation can be steered towards certain players / groups, but a recurring subscription cannot? That's my read so far of the website, but just wanted to see if anyone can confirm. Thanks.
You would be shocked how little money has been directed to individual players through direct donations. 99%+ has been just donated to the collective or to position groups. Most people who want to directly give small amounts to a particular player directly just book a shout out with them or something.
If someone gives me $50k (or any significant amount) for a particular player and that player leaves then I'm going to call that donor up and ask them what they want us to do. But to date, we have received nothing like that. The small amounts we have received for J. Mike, for example, were vastly outstripped by what we paid him just in December before he entered the portal.
Appreciate all who have contributed in whatever way they have done so but this isn't a real issue.
Do you get the money back that you paid J Michael?
Sebastabear said:We could potentially go after him for the money we paid in December if he leaves since that was part of a single campaign that will last until after January 18th and he would be in breach. Earlier money was paid for completed projects so that's not recoverable. I'm mulling what to do. May depend on where he goes, if he winds up at the song stealers . . , I may react badly.oski003 said:Sebastabear said:To remind folks again how this works, when you make a contribution for a specific player we aggregate those (assuming they are all small) and come up with something for that player to do. Most of the individual "events" we have engaged players for have been in the $5k-$15k range. But we continuously feed these to the impact players so that over time they aggregate to the amount we want the player to receive. We do not just write one large check to any player up front for some obvious reasons. Money is paid over time by design.southseasbear said:What happens if you target a player who then leaves? Is he given the money as a parting gift (or severance) or is the donor asked to designate another player? (And I assume it's too late to donate to J. Michael Sturdivant?Sebastabear said:Yea. That's not the way the subscriptions work. You subscribe for a team not a player. If you want to target a player, make a donation.hehatenate said:
Is it correct to assume a one-time donation can be steered towards certain players / groups, but a recurring subscription cannot? That's my read so far of the website, but just wanted to see if anyone can confirm. Thanks.
You would be shocked how little money has been directed to individual players through direct donations. 99%+ has been just donated to the collective or to position groups. Most people who want to directly give small amounts to a particular player directly just book a shout out with them or something.
If someone gives me $50k (or any significant amount) for a particular player and that player leaves then I'm going to call that donor up and ask them what they want us to do. But to date, we have received nothing like that. The small amounts we have received for J. Mike, for example, were vastly outstripped by what we paid him just in December before he entered the portal.
Appreciate all who have contributed in whatever way they have done so but this isn't a real issue.
Do you get the money back that you paid J Michael?
Sebastabear said:
This news really deserves its own thread, but I'm not sure how many separate NIL threads our fanbase can handle.
Anyway, I am delighted to announce that this evening we received a second $1m commitment to the collective for football. Absolutely amazing news and we are beyond grateful to our generous benefactor (who, by the way, is also a regular reader (if not poster) on BI).
This is going to completely turbo charge our efforts and ability to build a championship caliber program. I believe with one more similar donation we will have what we need (at least for this year) to get this team exactly what it needs.
Thank you to our benefactor! A million thank you's!
