WHERE IS ARMCHAIR?

[Maizerunner08]

Is it a fair critique the name kind of sucks? Armchair sounds like you aren’t doing jack crap, just sitting around.

[pogo]

Maybe that can be part of the NIL as well?

Look what it got Louisville

[jcdshocker]

I think they got off to a bad start charging way too much of an admin fee. I believe they have reduced it since. I have also heard some boosters don’t like the principals of Armchair. After paying for SASO, tickets and a chunk of advertising, I didn’t have have much left in the budget the past few years. I may still try to do something this spring for NIL. I don’t know if I will go through Armchair or not.

[SubGod22]

I've looked into giving but there was never a way to earmark funds for specific programs other than then saying 'trust us'.

Hell, even if there was a selection to be made when donating there's no guarantee, but it would at least make me feel a little more comfortable that my money may go where I want it to.

[Dan]

I donated early. Never got an email thank you or anything. No idea where it went so it was pretty unfulfilling. Then I read that they are targeting “wealthy individuals”, I don’t even know what that means. There are plenty of alums that could/would donate $10k a year, that’s not chump change. They need to let us know how they spread the money around and how much they need, realistically. At this point, it seems like they think the general public are not worth communicating with. Seems very amateurish to me.

[shock-it-to-me]

I don't feel like NIL's, particularly at the big blue blood institutions, are in any way funded by your average, middle class individual, but rather BIG donations from the super rich boosters. If you think we are going to adequately fund our NIL through $25-$100 a year donations from Tom, Dick and Harry, you crazy.

[Dan]

I agree there needs to be a lead booster put up millions to get it going, but at this point they’re at “six figures”, so a few Tom Dick and Harry boosters would be nice.

[SubGod22]

WuShock16,

Thank you for your passionate response and understanding of how important Name, Image and Likeness is to WSU basketball.

We have been working hard in fundraising efforts to close out 2023, generating over six-figures in private funding for WSU student-athletes. While we may not be out and about publicly in various capacities, our priority has been to meet with donors that have the passion and financial capabilities to take WSU NIL to the next level.

We are always looking for additional support both financially and through publicity from Shocker fans. It is a priority to raise as much money as we can to give to the athletes and encourage you and all WSU fans to sign up for the Armchair Army to provide monthly financial support. This is how we can build a robust and impactful NIL program.

In the next week or two we will be making an announcement. If anyone is interested, we’re hiring a GM to take the collective to the next level. https://www.ascension-sports.net/pos...eneral-manager.

Again, thank you for your passionate support for NIL and hope you will continue to spread the word on this message board.

Go Shockers!

This was the last we heard from Armchair. I never saw the announcement that was made/supposed to be made two or three weeks ago. Not sure if they ever found that GM they were looking for. Gonna guess their private endeavors of gaining significant support from donors with deep pockets. Also have no idea if they were ever really doing that or just sitting around with their thumbs up their ass enjoying their cut from what has been donated while not doing jack **** to actually get money/opportunities into the hands of athletes.

I was optimistic about Armchair when they first came out, but the lack of anything from them and the long periods of radio silence have left me with absolutely no faith in them.

[ShockHat]

This was the last we heard from Armchair. I never saw the announcement that was made/supposed to be made two or three weeks ago. Not sure if they ever found that GM they were looking for. Gonna guess their private endeavors of gaining significant support from donors with deep pockets. Also have no idea if they were ever really doing that or just sitting around with their thumbs up their ass enjoying their cut from what has been donated while not doing jack **** to actually get money/opportunities into the hands of athletes.

I was optimistic about Armchair when they first came out, but the lack of anything from them and the long periods of radio silence have left me with absolutely no faith in them.

It’s so weird… I fully agree with some of the coaches who were quoted in Taylor’s article ages ago that Wichita should EXCEL in the NIL game. We have a crazy good fan base. Obviously things are more difficult when we’re not winning, but this isn’t rocket science. Communicate openly and often, and people will contribute. Nobody’s contributing to a black hole.

obviously if they’re spending all this time sweet talking the Koch family to get vast more sums than everybody else can add,then ignore me. But I assume they probably aren’t.

[SubGod22]

Like with most things, when it comes to successful people with money you need to have a good, well articulated plan that they can believe in if you want to get money out of them.

Schaus did this when it came to selling Koch and others on renovating the Roundhouse. Getting 3G the money to keep him around was a little easier as you had hard evidence of what he had done and meant to the community. But you can't just show up with your hands out and say we need money for players.

Does Armchair have a real plan? Does Saal have any kind of plan to really help raise money or awareness?

Does anyone want to be open and honest to the people about where the money goes and how it works? Or how much has been used for players up to this point? Can we get any ****ing information at all?

Their last post here said a whole lot of nothing. When is the last time Armchair publicly gave any sort of info or made any sort of request for funds?

It's been almost six months since they've had a Twitter presence.

[shocker43]

Some of the players recently (last month or two) did some sort of community outreach sponsored by Armchair, but that was the last activity I've seen. I'm sure they made some money, hopefully got some promised contributions from the Final Four thing this summer. I know some of the ticket sales from the KU game went to both collectives. They're still paying for ads during games and the coaches show. I just don't understand how they can expect success if they aren't marketing themselves.

[Stickboy46]

Just looked at the Armchair website. Across all the pages, there are 3 still images of Shocker Men's Basketball Players.... 2 of those players aren't even members of the team anymore (Craig Porter and Jalen Ricks). There is no information about what they are doing with the money, no success stories, no examples of types of NIL deals ... just a lot of gimme gimme gimme spots.

[shocker43]

Wasn't Armchair supposed to be ran by/with the Mass Street Collective? Here's their website for comparison...

https://massstnil.com/

[Dan]

How am I supposed to donate a box of cherry turnovers to Xavier Bell and not expect Armchair to eat half of them and give the other half to the golf team?

[Stickboy46]

Wasn't Armchair supposed to be ran by/with the Mass Street Collective? Here's their website for comparison...

https://massstnil.com/

Yup, Matt and Ryan Baty are listed as part of Armchair .. Matt Baty also runs the collective you mentioned. They are both former KU baseball players from what I can tell.