This seems like a foreseeable consequence.
Both the school and the player receive a cut, which seems only fair.
Enter The M Den, the University of Michigan officially licensed retailer who counts itself as one of the biggest licensed collegiate stores in the nation. On Friday, The M Den tweeted that, for the first time, it was offering fans the rights to get players’ names on the back of their Michigan football jerseys.
… The deal is not with the school. It is with The M Den.
“The University of Michigan is not a party to this agreement,” Michigan associate athletic director Dave Ablauf told The Action Network.
So far, 50 players on this year’s roster have signed deals and are available for order. Hirth said The M Den was assisted by Valiant Management, a division of the Valiant brand, a line that was offered exclusively at The M Den. When name, image and likeness began, owners Jared and John Wangler, the latter of whom a quarterback at Michigan from 1976-80, sprung into action and helped The M Den aggregate the approval of players for licensing.
Each jersey has to be personalized in a custom manner by either an online or in store order, meaning there won’t be jerseys of a particular player hanging on the rack. These jerseys will cost $120 for names and numbers to be ironed on and $180 for them to be sewn.
… In the past, it was speculated that if this ever happened, players would get at best 6% of the wholesale cost of the jersey. In this case, it would be $3.60 or $5.40 based on wholesale costs of $60 and $90. But Hirth said The M Den wanted to do better.
Hirth wouldn’t disclose the exact percentage, but he said every player will be getting the same percentage multiplied by how many of their jerseys they sell. Each jersey will exceed $10.
“We wanted to do the best that we could for these players,” Hirth said. “Yes, we are a for profit business, but we are partners with the school.”
Hirth added that the players likely will make more money per jersey than The M Den will.
This is great for fans. I hope we see plenty of schools go this route, including Georgia.
