Pollard on Cyclone Club Level Changes

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CascadeClone

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You’re fighting human nature at that point. Give something to get nothing doesn’t work.

The other thing unmentioned in this thread is sports apathy. I would speculate 25% of grads/alumni do not care about ANY sports AT ALL. Like literally zero. Another 50% probably is lukewarm about a sport or two. Very few are big sports fans. None of those folks are giving a dime, they absolutely do not care. Some

We are swimming here on CF in a self-selecting group of passionate ISU sports fans. That's probably 10% of all grads/alumni. Maybe less.
 

CascadeClone

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Get in line. All of the farming input costs are increasing exponentially.

TIME TO HIT UP THE GUYS SELLING THE INPUTS JP!

In seriousness, there is surely a much larger number of grads in ag jobs that are not farmers, bigger pool to fish from.

Not to mention companies that could write off donations. Who is the next Wiffels Hybrids?
 

Macloney

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I've seen some of this on this thread and elsewhere. Just out of curiosity and to potentially help the communication gap, how would people in your position like to be contacted to be asked to donate?

I would like one half of the best broadcasting team ever to contact ne directly. So, please give Scott my number the next time you see him.

Seriously though, you guys were awesome.
 

brentblum

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I would like one half of the best broadcasting team ever to contact ne directly. So, please give Scott my number the next time you see him.

Seriously though, you guys were awesome.
lol, I can arrange that! Thanks for the kind words.
 
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Trice

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The other thing unmentioned in this thread is sports apathy. I would speculate 25% of grads/alumni do not care about ANY sports AT ALL. Like literally zero. Another 50% probably is lukewarm about a sport or two. Very few are big sports fans. None of those folks are giving a dime, they absolutely do not care. Some

We are swimming here on CF in a self-selecting group of passionate ISU sports fans. That's probably 10% of all grads/alumni. Maybe less.

Yeah, it's always worth remembering that this is a university with a semi-pro sports franchise bolted on to it, and not the other way around. The idea that all, or even a substantial portion, of alums should care about sports by virtue of having attended a university doesn't make a lot of logical sense.
 
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DSM4Cy

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Yeah, it's always worth remembering that this is a university with a semi-pro sports franchise bolted on to it, and not the other way around. The idea that all, or even a substantial portion, of alums should care about sports by virtue of having attended a university doesn't make a lot of logical sense.

Between siblings and spouses we have six who attended ISU, and only two are big fans (one of those is me). One other will sort of follow football and basketball if they're doing well but hasn't been to a game in years. The other three would have absolutely zero interest in going, and with one I'm not sure they have ever been to an ISU athletic event. If this is at all representative, it just shows why finding a big donor base is so challenging. Most games I attend are with my wife (UNI grad), my dad (grew up in Ames and attended ISU for a year), or my aunt (grew up a fan).
 

Trice

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Between siblings and spouses we have six who attended ISU, and only two are big fans (one of those is me). One other will sort of follow football and basketball if they're doing well but hasn't been to a game in years. The other three would have absolutely zero interest in going, and with one I'm not sure they have ever been to an ISU athletic event. If this is at all representative, it just shows why finding a big donor base is so challenging. Most games I attend are with my wife (UNI grad), my dad (grew up in Ames and attended ISU for a year), or my aunt (grew up a fan).

I have no idea if the number of student tickets at a football game relative to the size of the student body is a good proxy for this, but when the student section is full you're talking about ~8,000 out of a student body of about 30,500, or about 26%.
 

danwbarrett

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No. I responded to the section of his email that showed that he had no connection to what goes on in Texas and Oklahoma. Maybe if people connected to local clubs they would donate to the NCC.
Many of us outside the states of Texas and Oklahoma are on the DFW Cyclones email list so we can enjoy everything Cyclones when we attend the games in Texas and Oklahoma.
 

Cycsk

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I've seen some of this on this thread and elsewhere. Just out of curiosity and to potentially help the communication gap, how would people in your position like to be contacted to be asked to donate?


@ISUCyclones2015 Now you've done it. You are on Blum's radar! Hope you are also interested in giving to the Business School.

And now that you mention about folks not asking . . . would you consider increasing your contribution to CycloneFanatic.com?

Seriously, you are a great example of the sort of recent grad that we should focus on. You landed a great job, continue to support the Cyclones through attendance at home and away events, and probably could be talked into making a much more sizable annual contribution than most of us associate with recent college graduates based on a very antiquated perspective.

Now, back to your giving level to CycloneFanatic.com . . .
 

ForbinsAscynt

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@brentblum I’d happily donate in exchange for access to gym membership. I’d even pay for the membership. Currently you can do it through the alumni association. I just really want to play racquetball again.
 

cymonw1980

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The reality of college athletics is that revenue will continue to be of growing importance. Unfortunate, but until someone (not holding my breath) changes the rules this will be the case.

ISU currently ranks 46th in total revenue (as of 2020). This is slightly better than their rank of 50th in total revenues over the last 16 yrs... so, very slowly moving in the right direction... (This is out of 52 P5 public universities that report budget details).

There are obviously a number of items that impact this ranking... but as fans we don't control things like Conf Rev distributions. Key areas for us are Ticket Sales and Contributions. We will need to step up in these areas (collectively) to compete financially.

I use two schools as comparisons on Contributions and Ticket Revenue.

1) Kansas State:

I chose KSU since I think it is fair for us to assume we should be able to compete with them in this area (overall, we have a higher budget than KSU too).

2) Mississippi State:

I chose Miss St since this is a school that 16 yrs ago we were ahead of in just about every Revenue category. While the sec TV deals have helped miss st move from near the bottom of the revenue rankings to around middle of the pack (28th of 52 in 2020, 25th of 52 in 2019; they were last place in 2010), their increase in contributions and ticket revenue have also been key.

Contribution Revenue:

1642797492029.png

As with all revenue streams, contribution revenue has been increasing. But we still lag behind KSU looking at the 5 yr rolling averages for our contribution ranking among the 52 public P5 universities. Miss St rocketed from 5 spots behind us to 15 spots ahead of us. In the last 5 yrs, they have brought in about $40M more than we have in contribution revenues (2016-2020: 90M v. 130M). 16 yrs ago, we brought in about $15M more than they did over a 5 yr period (2005-2009: 35M v. 20M). Both schools have seen significant increases. But to compete at the P5 level we will need to grow faster than competitors similar to what MSU has done.

Ticket Revenue:

1642797913905.png

Ticket revenue has been progressing in the right direction. The last year of this data set is 2020 (2019/20 school year) so it does not include the 2020 pandemic impact to football which drives overall ticket revenues. Looking at this, we can see ISU has done well. We have come from the mid to low 40s up to the mid 30s. This data is looking at 5 yr averages. If we look at 2020 specifically, we moved into the to 30 at #29! I believe we will need to continue to make progress here given challenges elsewhere (B12 tv deal, contribution rev, etc.) but this is good to see.

Overall Ticket + Contribution Revenue:

1642798217171.png

Combining these two revenue streams we can see what I would call overall fan support. The average ranking the last 5 yrs as of 2020 is 41.4. This still is slightly behind KSU (38.4) and we have moved from ahead of to behind MSU (29.8) over this time frame (5 yr averages start in the 2005-2009 window).

These were 5 yr average views... the good news?

ISU came in at #36 in Contributions+Ticket Revenues in 2020, KSU #39, MSU #28. We are moving in the right direction. But we need to keep up the momentum!

References:
All revenue data came from school details found by clicking on the individual schools in the link below:

 
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1UNI2ISU

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I have no idea if the number of student tickets at a football game relative to the size of the student body is a good proxy for this, but when the student section is full you're talking about ~8,000 out of a student body of about 30,500, or about 26%.

Right, but how many of those 8k are there because of it being the social thing to do (friends, tailgating, event-feel, etc,) versus there to intently watch the game and invest in what's actually on the field. I feel like that's a very small percentage.
 

2speedy1

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Something I still dont understand is there is literally NO mention, and No link that I can find for other sources to donate like the Gridiron Club on Cyclones.com. I actually didnt know it still existed until someone on here posted about it a couple months ago. We do a poor job of promoting routes to contribute beyond or in addition to just the Cyclone Club.

It sure seems like there has been a big jump in some of the contributions. I had planned on upping my donation this year, and possibly looking at an RV spot, but with the added requirements for those and the increases in prices, they probably priced me out of both. Will probably increase my donation and add more tickets instead.

Im not complaining I realize it is a needed. I just wonder what other schools are doing to generate such huge numbers. Our fans are great at supporting, but are we just that cheap compared to other fan bases? Do other fan bases have that many more big donors? Or are we not doing things that others are doing to generate the amount of serious money they are. Raising mandatory donations for tickets only goes so far.
 
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Didley

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I wonder what kind of benefits they could give to ISU fans that don't live in Iowa
No it’s not? It shows $535 for season tickets and $750 per seat donation.
View attachment 94695 View attachment 94696

Thanks, this is cool. So our Gold level is now $375 per seat + $600 ticket. Which is between their Bama & Touchdown and at $320/$480 per seat +$525 ticket. Do they have parking passes included? I kinda do wish we had more incremental levels like they do.
 

Mr.G.Spot

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I wonder what kind of benefits they could give to ISU fans that don't live in Iowa


Thanks, this is cool. So our Gold level is now $375 per seat + $600 ticket. Which is between their Bama & Touchdown and at $320/$480 per seat +$525 ticket. Do they have parking passes included? I kinda do wish we had more incremental levels like they do.
Looks like between the 35's on the other side, it is $1,600 + ticket.
 

Trice

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Right, but how many of those 8k are there because of it being the social thing to do (friends, tailgating, event-feel, etc,) versus there to intently watch the game and invest in what's actually on the field. I feel like that's a very small percentage.

I think we're making the same point. The number of students truly interested in athletics, and thus likely to be remain truly interested in athletics as alums, isn't very high relative to the size of the student body.
 
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cymonw1980

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Something I still dont understand is there is literally NO mention, and No link that I can find for other sources to donate like the Gridiron Club on Cyclones.com. I actually didnt know it still existed until someone on here posted about it a couple months ago. We do a poor job of promoting routes to contribute beyond or in addition to just the Cyclone Club.

It sure seems like there has been a big jump in some of the contributions. I had planned on upping my donation this year, and possibly looking at an RV spot, but with the added requirements for those and the increases in prices, they probably priced me out of both. Will probably increase my donation and add more tickets instead.

Im not complaining I realize it is a needed. I just wonder what other schools are doing to generate such huge numbers. Our fans are great at supporting, but are we just that cheap compared to other fan bases? Do other fan bases have that many more big donors? Or are we not doing things that others are doing to generate the amount of serious money they are. Raising mandatory donations for tickets only goes so far.

Some good questions here...

If I could, I would ask Jamie Pollard what specifically Mississippi State has done. This is a school we dominated in donation revenue and now well behind. What did they do? Anything we can learn there? I don't know of any huge donor.. but I don't know anything about Mississippi State so.. who knows? If it is a big donor, that may explain it. But just curious how they made the move.

(Important to look at donations over a time horizon since there can be fluctuations year to year)

2005-2009:
ISU about $35M in donations
Miss St: about $20M in donations

ISU was $7M/yr vs. Miss St $4M/yr, or +$3M per year, +$15M over 5 yrs.

2016-2020:
ISU: about $90Min donations (+$55M vs. 2005-2009)
Miss St: about $130M (+$110M vs. 2005-2009)

ISU was about $18M/yr, Miss St was about $26M/yr; or -$8M/yr, -$40M over 5 yrs.
 

8bitnes

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I'm donating while being out of state and not purchasing any tickets. If I bought a ticket second hand, would that affect the tax write-off?
No, you get the full write-off. It's only I'd you used the donation as a means to get other benefits directly.
@brentblum I’d happily donate in exchange for access to gym membership. I’d even pay for the membership. Currently you can do it through the alumni association. I just really want to play racquetball again.
I'd up my donation for access to lied rec as well. I used to get the monthly lied rec membership via joining alumni association but no longer live in Ames and wouldn't want the full membership but would do pay as you go on a drop-in basis if NCC opened up the opportunity
 
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