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Top Hat Collective


Fixed.

Here is the website.

https://tophatcollective.com/

Five tiers from $25/month to $10,000 a year. And yes, one tier includes a complimentary NFT. No mention of Wake except the disclaimer that it’s not affiliated with Wake or recruiting for Wake. CEO is a UConn grad, Wake MBA.
 
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Is this going to be THE NIL fund for Wake athletes or are there others in the works?

I’ll donate once they get some athletes on board.
 
I'm definitely into this, but like Ph not sure I want to be an early adopter without some validation there. Also kind of disappointed early rewards golf focused.
 
Same. A golf outing isn’t a draw because I don’t play and I’m not local. So it’s not much of a perk.

Curious to see how this develops and if other options spring up.
 
Same. A golf outing isn’t a draw because I don’t play and I’m not local. So it’s not much of a perk.

Curious to see how this develops and if other options spring up.

Pretty much my sentiments.

I may jump in at the lowest level just cause, however.
 
Lenny Dykstra will do it for like $50 (probably $500 if you have to edit out the F bombs and other BS language).

This already exists though. FYI, Alice Cooper is $300 and Lenny Dykstra is $99. And yes, his intro video is exactly as you'd expect.

FYI, there are current and former Wake athletes already on Cameo -- Roberson, Wolford, Sarr, Gavin Sheets, etc.
 
Are people doing this? If this has been vetted by the board, I’m in, but I’d like a little feedback without listening to a podcast.
 
Maybe I’m late to the game here, but how are these membership collectives anything other than boosters directly paying players to play for their schools? Or maybe that’s just allowed now?
 
Maybe I’m late to the game here, but how are these membership collectives anything other than boosters directly paying players to play for their schools? Or maybe that’s just allowed now?

You can't just directly hand a player a bag of cash, but these collectives can pay the players for their Name, Image, and Likeness rights in a business transaction which does not violate the rules any longer, so long as it is properly documented.
 
Just listened to Cam's podcast interview with the CEO of Top Hat Collective. He said there should be player announcements coming today. I highly recommend listening. He addressed some of the concerns brought up here and more.

 
I haven’t listened yet, but will. Seems like the charitable foundation route would have been much better to me, if I correctly understand how some other schools are doing it. Basically donors give money to the collective (and can write it off), collective gives some of the money to local/national charities, and some (most) of the money to players to publicly support those charities. A membership-type level collective seems too much like the Deacon Club, which many of us contribute to already.
 
The guy has got to start somewhere. Big money guys like golf so it would be stupid to not have it.

Also, a lot of the NLI promotions would be local. I highly doubt a Wake alumn who owns a business in Florida is going to get Sam Hartman to endorse his business. Just like I wouldn't expect folks outside the state of Georgia to get someone like Jordan Davis to endorse their stuff (FYI - Davis was on several billboards in Atlanta this past year.)
 
I haven’t listened yet, but will. Seems like the charitable foundation route would have been much better to me, if I correctly understand how some other schools are doing it. Basically donors give money to the collective (and can write it off), collective gives some of the money to local/national charities, and some (most) of the money to players to publicly support those charities. A membership-type level collective seems too much like the Deacon Club, which many of us contribute to already.

He specifically did not want to do a charitable route because (1) he is not sure the business model of a NLI collective would ultimately pass muster with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) and (2) He did not want it to take away from the Deacon Club. This is a way to pay players something which the Deacon Club can not do. Deacon Club helps pay for everything else.
 
Before I give any money to something like this, I want to see what athletes are joining and see who ends up on the advisory council the founder says the NLI collective will have.
 
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