Living in New York isn’t cheap compared to Green Bay, and Aaron Rodgers is finding ways to supplement the nearly $50 million a year income he will receive from the Jets. But the way he’s going about setting up his new business venture is rubbing NFL insider Mike Florio the wrong way.
Aaron Rodgers is looking to secure funding
According to Chris Smith with Sports Business Journal, Aaron Rodgers is a cofounder of Online Sports Database with CEO Ryan Rottman. The idea is to build a platform for athletes that is similar to IMDB for actors. OSDB has secured $1.2 million from two investors, but they plan to raise another $1.235 million from crowdfunding. Per Smith’s report, the idea for crowdfunding came from the Packers and how the team sells shares of stock to its fans that aren’t valuable:
“The crowdfunding plan was inspired by the public ownership structure of the Packers, where Rodgers played for the last 18 seasons. “One thing that struck us … was the loyalty the fans had in the community, the passion they had for the team, because a lot of them were owners,” said OSDB co-founder and CEO Ryan Rottman.
“We were all so taken aback by how much that actually built the community around the team, and doing this bridge [round] was something we wanted to use to create within OSDB a community of likeminded sports fans.” The crowdfunding campaign launches today and will run for 60 days on fundraising platform StartEngine, with minimum investments of $500.”
Mike Florio scolds Aaron Rodgers for the project
Florio wrote about Rodgers’ new venture for NBC Sports. Florio blasted Rodgers for comparing his fanship to that of the Packers in this business, as donating to OSD seems like a cynical plot to market a future customer base. Florio seemed agitated the four-time MVP is using crowdfunding to pay for a business venture Rodgers can afford to pay for himself:
“Frankly, crowdfunding shouldn’t be something that people with funds utilize. The GoFundMe approach is for people who would otherwise go without funds.
Rodgers has the money to pay for his own damn business venture. And anyone who considers giving money for nothing to OSDB should consider politely telling Rodgers and Rottman to GTFO.”
Aaron Rodgers has every right to do this, but should he?
Rodgers has every right to make a buck here if he wants. However, it’s not a great look that Rodgers wants to pass this off to fans who might not be business savvy.
One must remember that Rodgers and OSDB are asking private funders to donate cash voluntarily. While Rodgers is trying to take from a system often used for charity, this venture is nothing like the alleged scam with taxpayer money to which former Packers quarterback Brett Favre is connected.
But this is a telling way to raise money after Rodgers has been openly communicating with left tackle David Bakhtirari about a systematic-societal problem that politicians and wealthy people use their insider knowledge to make timely stock decisions.
I’ll put it this way, crowdfunding OSDB isn’t woke.
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