| FTBL Alabama Reaches Unique NIL Deal With Sports Marketing Giant


As part of a new 15-year agreement with Alabama that it announced Tuesday, Learfield, in conjunction with the university, is creating a dedicated hub for name, image and likeness (NIL) called The Advantage Center, an epicenter for Crimson Tide athletes’ NIL endeavors that the company believes is a first nationally. The Advantage Center, with a goal of opening this calendar year, will be located inside Bryant Denny Stadium and will double as the agency’s local office, says Learfield CEO Cole Gahagan.

Learfield and Alabama plan to collaborate on the development of the center to provide both a physical home and a staff to educate athletes on NIL opportunities and showcase successful local and national NIL-related relationships.

In renderings provided to Sports Illustrated, the Advantage Center is expected to include a host of NIL-related features: a digital ticker announcing the latest news in athlete deals; a studio with a green screen to provide athletes a place to shoot NIL-related videos; a wall dedicated to Alabama player NIL deals and opportunities; and meeting space to possibly help facilitate brand-and-athlete relationships.


The Advantage Center will be located adjacent to The Authentic, Alabama’s Fanatics retail store that provides NIL opportunities through branded licensed merchandise.

“To me, it was only a matter of time before we began to build an infrastructure around NIL. This is the next big step in that direction,” Gahagan says. “There’s no company better situated than ours to facilitate NIL. We are connected to over 10,000 brands nationally and locally. We are in the best position to bring those brands into the ecosystem to help create relationships between companies and athletes.”
 
This is absolutely great for the players. Shitty for the casual fans though. Not many kids getting the opportunity to meet their favorite players and get things like autographs anymore. Unless momma and daddy pony up and pay for the experience. Even with as much as I donate, I cannot afford to pay a guy for an autograph for my son. It's not a one off situation to pay $25-$100, you have to offer $5,000-$10,000 for a 15 minute session with a notable guy where they will sign as many things as they can. It's sad because the run of the mill fan is being cancelled out of the equation. I personally feel the relationship between players and fans will continue to separate and only the wealthy business and corporations will be the ones the players talk to.
 
This is absolutely great for the players. Shitty for the casual fans though. Not many kids getting the opportunity to meet their favorite players and get things like autographs anymore. Unless momma and daddy pony up and pay for the experience. Even with as much as I donate, I cannot afford to pay a guy for an autograph for my son. It's not a one off situation to pay $25-$100, you have to offer $5,000-$10,000 for a 15 minute session with a notable guy where they will sign as many things as they can. It's sad because the run of the mill fan is being cancelled out of the equation. I personally feel the relationship between players and fans will continue to separate and only the wealthy business and corporations will be the ones the players talk to.

Yeah. I have tons of autographs and meetings with players.

But all before nicks " one hour" thing. Never went to any and watched sad videos of some

was a great time at Coleman when players were there and I took kids and gkids to meet players.
Stallings. Shula. Dubose. Were always available Brodie. Alexander. Zow Etc. aLways friendly and available
Kids loved it
But .... things change and we move on in life i guess
 
They need to bring back and revamp rolltide auctions and auction off autographed and game used stuff for the NIL pot. There was discussion of doing some of that stuff a while back along with the NIL store they opened in Bryant-Denny... I'm not sure why they have let the auction site crumble in recent years though... especially now when they could do more with it than ever before.
 
They need to bring back and revamp rolltide auctions and auction off autographed and game used stuff for the NIL pot. There was discussion of doing some of that stuff a while back along with the NIL store they opened in Bryant-Denny... I'm not sure why they have let the auction site crumble in recent years though... especially now when they could do more with it than ever before.

Boom! I used to buy stuff form there all the time. I got a Hurts jersey from there among others that I was able to tie back to games since they took the nameplates off and was forced to match jersey sizes and marks on the jersey. The biggest positive for me with that endzone store was the possibility of game worn gear being sold. Man, I actually just bought a pair of Alabama Authentic Basketball Shorts off eBay. i had bought some off the auction site years ago and sold them thinking they would always be available, but as you stated, the auction site has sucked, so I snagged them the other day.
 
This is absolutely great for the players. Shitty for the casual fans though. Not many kids getting the opportunity to meet their favorite players and get things like autographs anymore. Unless momma and daddy pony up and pay for the experience. Even with as much as I donate, I cannot afford to pay a guy for an autograph for my son. It's not a one off situation to pay $25-$100, you have to offer $5,000-$10,000 for a 15 minute session with a notable guy where they will sign as many things as they can. It's sad because the run of the mill fan is being cancelled out of the equation. I personally feel the relationship between players and fans will continue to separate and only the wealthy business and corporations will be the ones the players talk to.

We still have the ability to have players sign things on Fan day, right? Or is that being charged or eliminated?
 
Has anybody been to that Authentic that the article mentions? I know it's on the bottom floor in the south zone. Does it take up the whole bottom floor? Will this new thing go in the old Zoe's? Seems like there's not much room left in that area.
 
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