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College athletes have regularly promoted brands and products since the NCAA began allowing students to monetize their name, image, and likeness (NIL) in July 2021. Now entering year four of the NIL era, local governments and tourism departments could be the next entities looking to leverage the influence of college athletes.
“I think for government entities, there’s probably some concern for working with athletes because they’re used to following rules, and the rule in the NCAA was you couldn’t do any promotional work with collegiate athletes,” said Robert Boland, a sports professor at Seton Hall law school. “But now we’re beginning to see that there’s a natural progression, and an athlete always has a home marketplace. I think promoting tourism and events in that city is a logical connection. I think they’ll look at their athletes as a great resource.”
This has been the case for Seminole County, Florida, a suburb 21 miles north of Orlando, that became one of the first to use athletes to promote tourism assets in July of 2021. As a part of their “Game On” promotion, the county’s destination marketing arm partnered with college softball stars with local ties to promote outdoor sports tourism assets. In an interview for Skift, Gui Cunha, Administrator for the Office of Economic Development and Tourism for Seminole County, pointed to the desire to attract women’s sports tournaments as a key driver of their choice of athletes. He also noted these athletes had large social media followings that could increase engagement with the organization’s content.
“If you’re thinking about it from a community relations, mayor’s office, travel office, CVB, sports commission standpoint—the athletes who have made it to college are great role models for the most part,” Boland said. “They’re people who can inspire youth and build good community relations. NIL now allows you to bring back some of these athletes for an appearance, give some lessons, sign some autographs, and talk about their path.”
Dr. Natasha Brison, a sports law professor at Texas A&M University, added that college athletes can drive consumers to local restaurants and businesses, supporting the efforts of economic development teams in communities. This can be seen in the NIL deals that Visit Myrtle Beach, the CVB representing Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, established with all members of the University of Connecticut and Marshall University football teams in 2022. The teams squared off in the Myrtle Beach Bowl, and the players showcased their time in town on their social media channels.
While this provided a broad range of exposure to the tourist destination with a targeted audience, direct NIL partnerships with city governments should involve cross-department collaboration.
“You want the buy-in from all departments within a city; there may be some crossover,” Brison said. “Sometimes, there may be a financial concern, so if you’re pulling resources from multiple departments, you could plan how to pick best the athlete who’s going to fit with the message the city wants to communicate but also be able to afford it financially.”
“I think many athletes are best approached through the collective. So the collective is an easy partner for the public entity,” Boland said.
Collectives are independent organizations that raise money for universities and their student-athletes. According to Opendorse, a marketing platform for athletes (similar to Angi), about 80 percent of NIL dollars spent are derived from collectives, with the other 20 percent coming from sponsors and brands.
Brison also suggested approaching compliance officers at university athletic departments. Texas A&M offers an online system for businesses to enter their details to be matched with a college athlete who fits the desired NIL services.
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While NIL policies vary state by state, no states have rules against local governments signing NIL deals with college athletes.
“I think the concern with some places is that states are not uniform. What you can do in New York is different from what you can do in Florida, for example,” Brison said. “So I think there’s trepidation related to understanding the nuances of all this. That’s probably where some of the hesitation lies for cities.”
Additionally, college athletes could continue to face changes as The National Labor Relations Board challenges the NCAA’s practices of avoiding classifying college athletes as employees. However, on the NIL side, Boland does not expect any federal legislation to be introduced soon.
“I don’t think we’ll get there. I watch too much Congress, and with what it’s trying to do with big, important issues, I don’t think they can get to NIL for a while,” he said. “If the NCAA is really teetering on survival and they must act to prop it up in a certain way, it may happen, but I don’t see enough of Congress agreeing to change it.”
Opendorse projects that $1.17 billion will be spent on NIL deals in 2023-24, with about half of those dollars going towards Power-5 football athletes and their teams. However, wide-ranging youth sports organizations in cities can further diversify that spending.
“Because communities have lots of different athletic infrastructure, using athletes from all the Olympic sports as promoters makes a lot of sense,” Boland said. “Whether it’s something as simple as an appearance, lesson day, or a marketing campaign—that’s really what NIL should be about.”
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