When St. John’s and Fordham opened the college basketball season on Monday night in Queens, there may as well have been two different types of scoreboards on either end of Carnesecca Arena. One for the game — which ended up 92-60 in favor of the Red Storm — and the other to tabulate the schools’ successes in the area of Name, Image and Likeness.
St. John’s has risen to the top third of the Big East in NIL funding behind the tandem of coach Rick Pitino and prime benefactor Mike Repole. And now, Fordham is turning on the lights on its first major initiative to play this all-important financial game.
Supporters of the Fordham men’s basketball program on Tuesday announced the launch of Rose Thrill Marketplace, which will aim to grow NIL opportunities for players “by connecting them with sponsorship deals, brand partnerships and community engagement activities,” according to a release.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” Rams coach Keith Urgo told The Post. “Right now at Fordham we’re well behind the eight ball when it comes to NIL. In the rest of the Atlantic 10 you have multiple teams that have high-major-type NIL budgets of over $2 million, and several over a million, and we’re not remotely close to that.
“We’re certainly at the bottom [and are] fighting an uphill battle. To know that people want to invest in Fordham basketball moving forward is really exciting because I think there’s a lot of energy and there’s so much untapped potential at Fordham. It has the ability to become a juggernaut.”
Rose Thrill Marketplace’s name is an ode to the Rams’ Rose Hill Gym, which will turn 100 years old in 2025.
“Our strategy is to take advantage of the Fordham brand name and the largest media market in the world,” said Rose Thrill chairman Jay Kirsch, 54, a 1992 Fordham College graduate and partner at the investment banking firm Oaklins, DeSilva & Phillips. “It’s an alumni group that is still very connected to New York. It’s more national than it used to be but there are still a lot of successful and influential alumni who are within 50 miles of campus.”
Urgo started somewhat of a program renaissance two years ago when he led the Rams to a 25-8 record and a berth in the A-10 semifinals.
“Our [A-10] quarterfinal game at Barclays Center was the largest gathering of alumni and current students [the university] had ever had. So you saw the energy and what could be if you build something consistent,” Urgo, 44, said. “And the only way that’s going to be possible is if we continue to jump on board with what the rest of the Atlantic 10 and the rest of the country are doing.”
Urgo explained that increased NIL funding and endorsement opportunities will help him sell Fordham to high school recruits and transfers alike. He says it’s the question he is asked in the first two minutes of the first conversation with every prospective player.
Going forward, Urgo figures he’ll not only have answers, but the right answers.
“We have had nothing like this at all,” he said. “We’ve had small donations here and there but absolutely nothing where we could have fans and donors and supporters actually look to help build something sustainable.”
