The marketplace for college athletes to engage in Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals was created last year after the NCAA v. Alston case and now it seems like every college is ready to start spreading the wealth. There are already more than 100 “collectives” either in operation or being formed. They allow alumni/fans/whoever to donate money to assist a specific school in creating opportunities for student-athletes to make some money off of their celebrity. We have reached out to many collectives and will try to interview representatives from as many of them as possible to see how each of them operates. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Adam Lazarus of the Arizona Assist NIL collective, who discussed what his group is about and what it has accomplished so far.
You co-founded an NIL collective called “Arizona Assist” last February: how complicated was it to create (if at all), and why did you do it? It was very complicated as we had to navigate through the legal aspects involving international players. We were approached by friends of the Arizona men’s basketball program who wanted to get ahead of things. We developed a platform with some alumni: it is not a collective but rather a membership-based website that gives benefits to the members.
Why is your focus on basketball rather than other sports? There is another program in Tucson called “Friends of Wilbur & Wilma” that does NIL stuff for all the other sports. However, we are a basketball town so we decided to focus solely on basketball.
What kind of connection (if any) will your group have with people like Coach Tommy Lloyd/Athletic Director Dave Heeke? Tommy is a huge supporter of what we are doing and has given us his time/energy. We have talked to the team about what is going on and they are huge proponents of what we are doing. Dave has absolutely nothing to do with it.
What kind of deals have you been able to work out so far? The majority of revenue that players are receiving is for sales of membership/merchandise/memorabilia on our website. We are also helping them connect with local brands such as a breakfast place/car dealership/etc. We have hosted some corporate speaking events and Bar Mitzvahs.
People are obviously free to do whatever they want with their hard-earned money…but do you ever have any second thoughts about whether you should be encouraging your donors to do something else like fight cancer/reduce homelessness? We encourage them to do all of those things and most of our members already do that. It is important for Arizona basketball to remain a competitive program because when the team does well the town does well. If people have extra money and want to support the team then we provide a viable option.
Last weekend you hosted an event after the annual Red-Blue Game where fans had an opportunity to mingle with Wildcat legends such as Richard Jefferson/Jason Terry/Lauri Markkanen: most collectives are focused on the players on the current roster, but do you feel that you have an extra advantage by having a school that has seen 35 players enter the NBA since 2000 and had another 3 drafted last June (Christian Koloko/Bennedict Mathurin/Dalen Terry)? Absolutely! The majority of those players are adamant about continuing the legacy and are willing to contribute their time/money. The guys just shook hands and signed some photos because they are proud of their legacy here. The majority of the players who have turned pro remain connected to the program: if they are willing to help us out then we will gladly take it.
You have a big golf event today called the “Fore the Players” Cats Classic: what kind of turnout do you expect, and how much money do you think you will raise to support the players/programs? We have 100 players on the books paying $1000 each so after we pay all of our bills the balance of that money will be distributed to the team over the next several months. We are going to have great weather as the players meet/greet the golfers and sign some autographs.
I heard that you are also offering a chance to win a free trip to the Maui Invitational next month: how can people participate? There is no purchase necessary. We will be drawing a winner in the next few weeks. They just have to go to our website (https://arizonaassist.com) and provide their email address. The trip involves seats on the charter, tickets to the game, and some cool prizes.
Last month former top high school prospect Emoni Bates was arrested after sheriff’s deputies found a gun in a car he was driving: how concerned are you about entering contractual relationships with teenagers who might end up behaving badly? I am not any more concerned about the players then with a contract I would enter with anyone else. We get to use their NIL in our marketing efforts but we are not player representatives/agents. If they want to do a deal with a car dealership we do not take any money from that or sign any agreement with them. We are a brand and not a collective: there is no money sitting in a pool that we use to pay players.
What kind of cool stuff do people get if they become 1 of the 100 “Century Cats” for $10,000/year? Our memberships start at $10/month but our higher-level memberships come with custom swag like NFTs, access to the players/coaches, etc. Most of our Century Cat members do not really care about the benefits: they are just huge fans/boosters who have some disposable income. They get VIP access to all of our events, such as the golf tourney.