thanks osodecentx, appreciate the kind words and support for those that will give premium a try.
We started in 2016 with a little less than 1000 subscribers today we have just a few short of 3000 (2992). The retention rate is over 90%, for those on the fence we have a lot that try it and stick around.
Premium subscriptions are really important for setting budgets. We couldn't do the studio, daily show with David,Paul,Craig without it. You have to have money to pay producers, electricity, insurance, rent, video equipment which we continue to upgrade, etc...
We have a few full time employees, but of the 3 owners (Colt, Brian, myself) only Colt is taking a full time salary. So we try to invest back in the site to give Baylor fans something that most schools are not doing.
Of course, we bring in a lot of advertising revenue as well. We are grateful to those that sponsor Sicem365 radio. And everyone on the free side is "paying" so to speak in the form of advertising revenue from google, Youtube, etc... So we are thankful if you just choose to use the "free" resources.
For Baylor to compete in this new world going forward, we need premium subscribers and Athlete+ subscribers. We give 80% of the money from Athlete+ directly to athletes with interviews and events where fans will have access to the players. We've raised a little over $100k so far. If those numbers go up, the percentage that we give to athletes will also go up.
The Blake Shapen interview on the board is an example. I've been interviewing every player on the MBB and WBB rosters and we will be going through at least the 2 deep on football as well. And other sports. The athletes aren't getting rich off this but they are over the top appreciative. They don't have time to work a side job so the money goes a long way towards them feeling appreciated and valued.
At Baylor, I think we need to win with culture but we also have to be competitive with NIL at least with OSU, TCU, Texas Tech, UH, etc... OU, Texas and A&M are playing on a different level but throwing $50k- $100k at each player (or more) is going to lead to a lot of issues. I had a coach at one of those schools tell me he's scared to death about it- if you have a tendency towards bad habits, more money just amplifies it.
https://sicem365.com/subscribehttps://sicem365.com/plus/subscribeEven $10/month (plus the $13 for premium) really helps us with NIL. We have 415 signed up and definitely have to get those numbers over 1000. There will be a Baylor NIL cooperative soon for bigger donations but this site needs to do the leg work on the steady stuff.
And it is great content. I'm blown away by the depth of character of these student athletes. I knew it was the case with MBB because that has been my first love and I interview those guys during the recruiting process. But the WBB team has been over the top impressive.