I think I’ve arrived at the point and part where this is a long-winded way of saying I’m going to stop “donating” to Happy Valley United.
I think I’ll sign up for Roar+, Penn State’s new content subscription platform, instead.
But in return, I’m asking for a favor: Penn State has to let its guard down. Penn State has to get out of its own way.
There is only so much money that I have to go around for Penn State athletics, namely Penn State football. I don’t think I’m alone in that boat.
By all reports, I’m also not alone in the boat that supports Penn State’s NIL collective, Happy Valley United. The proof is in the various commitments and transfers Penn State has recently gotten in sports like football and men’s hockey.
But again, there’s only so much money to go around, and if Penn State is now asking me, a dutifully proud Penn Stater, to fork over some more cash, it needs to make the juice worth the squeeze. It needs to make my experience with Roar+, the student-athlete-driven subscription platform that will fuel NIL efforts, one that is actually worth it.
It’s got to get out of its own way with Roar+.
It has to let this be an organic, authentic space that can compete with the litany of places I can get information about the Nittany Lions and I’m worried it won’t be able to do that. Too many times in the past (and likely in the future) has Penn State guarded its information with the intensity that only rivals that of the CIA.
So that’s why it’s a bit surprising that Penn State — by way of NIL opportunities — is getting into this content game and believes that it can work.
Within the Roar+ announcement, Penn State offers four pillars of content. The first of those pillars, built around the student-athlete generating much of the content, has to be authentic, it has to let personalities shine and it has to have strong storytelling.
This is going to be the most challenging – and while the central pillar of why Penn State is doing this – it is likely not the reason that the average Penn State fan is going to sign up. Penn State fandom only goes so deep – even if it is strong. It’s hard to develop and connect with the personalities when we don’t hear much from them over the at-most four years they’re on campus.
It’s only when guys like Christian Hackenberg, Brandon Bell or Landon Tengwall start their own productions do we truly have the opportunity to feel that connection. And to that degree, it’s only relatively limited to football. Personalities with reach on Penn State’s other athletic teams are – unfortunately – rarely transcendent into the broader, average fandom.
Penn State has to let those personalities shine. It has to let them show through by getting me to switch where I spend my money. It needs to hire the right, strong storytellers that can help guide that process. It can’t just rely on the student-athlete to make this work.
Where the value could begin for the average fan is what comes after that.
LaVar Arrington, a key part of this, is a voice Penn Staters want to hear from – and it’s a voice that, in this venture, could be the right person to get more out of James Franklin. The idea of a Franklin-centric podcast is one that’s fascinating.
But Franklin has to give us – or potential subscribers – something that isn’t just coach speak. It can’t be coy. It can’t be secretive. With the “Quite Franklin” aspect, in order for Penn State fans to get value out of it, we need it to be something that we’re not getting from his weekly press conference, his weekly meeting with the media at practice, his weekly radio show or his weekly pregame interviews that air on the radio.
And that’s where I think this whole Roar+ platform is made or broken. No words are more valuable to a fan than those from Franklin. But if he can’t open that up and Arrington can’t help him break that down, then the Roar+ platform isn’t that interesting to me.
The other two – along with added benefits – also have potential. It’s no secret that we at SSSWS are big fans of Brian Tripp and the insights he can give us vs. the insights he could give us are a crucial factor in Roar+. Penn State has to open its secretive vault – maybe not fully – but just ever so slightly so that fans can get information that they’re not already getting from places like Lions247 or Blue-White Illustrated and their cast of insiders – plus the many other fine beat writers that cover primarily Penn State football.
Along with insights from Tripp, Penn State says fans will be able to communicate with each other. Those conversations need to provide some value like the ones that happen on the message boards. Heck at minimum, they need to be more meaningful than what happens for free on social media. (It’s also fascinating to think what happens when those conversations don’t strike a positive tone.)
And if Penn State says it’s going to offer an archive of old games and other content, it must go deeper than what is just readily available on YouTube. It needs to be robust. I want to watch very niche games – and not just the wins. (We will do a 6-4 watch party, I promise, if they make it available.) Don’t sell me on in a way that a quick Google search can’t already yield.
Ultimately, there is massive potential within this Roar+ platform. If Penn State can maximize that and if I have to pick where I’m putting by NIL contribution, then I’m willing to give it a go. If it doesn’t disappoint, I’ll see and find much more value out of this than Happy Valley United. But in a lot of aspects, Penn State hasn’t shown proof that it can let it authentically, organically be something worthy of the price for me to add it on to my Happy Valley United subscription.
Comparatively, on paper, Roar+ does offer more than Happy Valley United. The only real benefit I’ve had from donating to HVU was a signed poster by Ryan Barker. The bar is low for the price point that I’m at — and the price point that many other Penn Staters are at.
But that doesn’t mean that Penn State can mail it in with Roar+. There’s a real opportunity with it. It has real potential. But I’m anxious Penn State won’t let that happen. And then what? I’m just paying for another subscription service I don’t really use that much.
That’s why right now in yet another ask for money, it’s either this or that.
That’s why I’m canceling my Happy Valley United donation.
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