An emerging complaint from fans around NIL is “donor fatigue,” as fans who are "already asked to donate a lot for season tickets, not to mention the facilities arms race, are now being asked to essentially pay the players," according to Seth Emerson of THE ATHLETIC. That is one more factor that "could create big changes in college sports," including revenue sharing in which schools "directly pay their athletes, rather than asking fans to foot the bill through collectives." Big donors often compose the “majority of the donations” to collectives, but the "attraction of small donors is that they could be more consistent.” If a collective can tap the thousands of fans at each school for small monthly donations, that "means a lot of money.” But fans “have to be convinced to give, and many are unwilling.” Collectives "don't have to divulge their finances," so fans not privy to information “don’t know how much players are getting, how much the collective needs and how much the collective has.” Student Athlete NIL Agency founder Jason Belzer said that donor fatigue was "inevitable in the current model.” Belzer: “We’re now in the third year of NIL, and a lot of schools’ donors aren’t getting a return on their investment. Before you at least got your name on the building. Now you pay for the payroll, and your team doesn’t win" (THE ATHLETIC, 3/7).
