LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Name, Image and Likeness efforts of athletes at the University of Louisville are now being supported by a third-party collective. At midnight, 502 Circle went live with a website and app that will allow fans and businesses to contract with athletes on various services, or donate to their NIL enterprises.
The organization is the brainchild of U of L alumnus Marc Spiegel, who has been putting the infrastructure in place since just after the first of the year. The collective is not affiliated with U of L, but Spiegel has met with athletics director Josh Heird and others in his department as he has sought to build an entity that will serve U of L athletes and stay within compliance guidelines.
The group has recruited some of the biggest names in recent U of L athletics history to serve on its advisory and business boards, and hopes to not only be a resource to Louisville athletes, but to give fans an opportunity to support the efforts of players to earn money.
Its website and apps went live this morning. Click here to visit the site.
Collectives have sprung up around programs all over the nation in the wake of NIL rules being changed last August. They are essentially organizations through which businesses or fans can pay players for various services, or simply donate to the collective, which then distributes the money.
Eric discusses WDRB's coverage of Louisville's new collective, and former Louisville star (and new 502Circle Advisory Board member) Larry Abandon talks about what it could mean for the school.
“We want to use this as an avenue to bring the fans and the donors even closer to the program and the kids,” Spiegel said. “We really believe all of this can coexist in a way that is easy, streamlined, and done the right way.”
Spiegel, who grew up watching the Cardinals, earned two degrees from U of L and built a successful waste management technology company in Atlanta. He said he wanted to make this effort to help his alma mater, and his hometown. He rooted for Louisville in the best of times as a kid. And he’d like to see them again.
“I see what other schools are doing, and asked, ‘Why can’t we do it better?’” Spiegel said. “How can we do it in our own way? How can we be able to do it better, more efficiently? (In Louisville) we're in a unique position. If there's not many pro sports to compete with, how do we engage brands, businesses and fans? We’re never fast movers. Obviously others jumped into this before we did. But how do we build the kind of thing others might emulate.”
Spiegel has invested around $150,000 of his own money to get the venture started, and said he’ll take no salary. His goal for the first year is to raise $2 million toward the NIL efforts of U of L athletes.
The 502 Circle website, which went live at midnight, offers various subscription levels for fans and businesses, as well as a way to contact Louisville athletes directly to make deals.
From his experience in the tech world, Spiegel wanted to make the web setup easy for fans and for businesses. He’s hoping that eventually every athlete at the school will be a part of the collective and benefit from its efforts.
To support the collective, he recruited former acting U of L men’s basketball coach David Padgett, All-American Angel McCoughtry, football standout Chris Redman and Louisville native Larry O’Bannon and Olympic medalist Mallory Comerford to serve as advisory board members.
That board will advise athletes and make some decisions on the dispersal of money.
“No 18-year-old should be a brand manager,” Spiegel said. “We want to help them with those things. For me, it all comes back to helping. How great would it be if we could leverage the great support in this community and help get things rolling for the teams at this university? We’re hoping to learn from some of the mistakes we’ve seen other collectives make, and think that being on the digital side where we can keep everything above board where compliance has access to all the deals, will be a big bonus for us. I’m excited about where this could go.
“I think for a lot of U of L people, there's been some folks who've been frustrated over the last few years, and that’s where I was. And I just told myself, I want to be part of the solution. Hopefully, this will play a part.”
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