‘Swarm the ATL’ collective to go live

NIL money helps with recruiting, retention at schools.

Georgia Tech athletes can begin to benefit soon from a name, image and likeness collective that is set to launch today. Tech football players Jeff Sims and Lamiles Brooks and men’s basketball player Deebo Coleman promoted the “Swarm the ATL” collective opening for business from their social media accounts Monday.

The collective, an organization with the purpose of distributing NIL money to a school’s athletes that is funded by supporters of that school, is being organized by Tech alumnus Stephen Weit- zel with the support of NIL agency Dreamfield.

“The biggest thing now is going to be, we’ve got to see engagement from the fan base,” Weitzel said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-constitution. “We’ve got to have engagement from the fans to make sure that we’re able to compete with the other teams in our divi- sion and in our league.”

Collectives have become influential in recruiting and retention efforts as many pros- pects in high school and the transfer portal have made the NIL opportunities available at colleges a factor in their decisions. The existence of a collective at a school is a demonstration that oppor- tunities to earn NIL money are more readily available than at other schools without them. Besides Tech, boost- ers at nine ACC schools are known to have established NIL collectives.

The goal for Dreamfield is to have 100 subscribers in the first 10 days from launch. Fees from subscribers will go to Tech athletes in exchange for their participation in meetand-greets (in-person and vir- tual), online chats and youth sports camps and clinics. Price points range from $10 to $500 per month. Other perks, such as fan apparel and opportunities to watch games from suites or courtside, may also be available. Fans can also make a one-time contribution and earmark it for a par- ticular team.

Weitzel said he would like for the Tech collective to be on par in membership with a Florida State collective that is also run by Dreamfield. In April, membership for the FSU collective and one at Central Florida (also run by Dreamfield) was well into triple digits within a couple months, according to Dreamfield.

Besides having Sims, Brooks and Coleman enlisted as ambassadors for Swarm the ATL, Weitzel said there are plans to add more from women’s teams. The website for the collective — www. swarmtheatl.com/home — was active Tuesday, with the public launch set for today.