Why Justin Lewis’ NIL Deal Should Be The First Of Many For Milwaukee College Athletes
Justin Lewis entered the NIL game yesterday. Lewis announced that he inked a deal with Uncle Bucks, a bar and restaurant on Old World Third Street in Milwaukee. For those who are unfamiliar with Milwaukee, this bar is in spitting distance of the Fiserv Forum and one part of their bar faces right towards the viewing area where people watch Milwaukee Bucks, Green Bay Packers, and Marquette Golden Eagles games. It’s a no-brainer move by Uncle Bucks to draw awareness and also gear more Marquette fans to their bar versus all of their competition.
This seems like the first NIL deal for the Marquette basketball team. Unsure if other Marquette athletes have taken advantage of it either. Regardless, there should be a partnership between Marquette athletes and local Wisconsin businesses in the NIL market. It seems like a great way to draw more awareness of their bar, restaurant, or place of business. Usually, these things can be copycats, so, it would not surprise me at all if one of Uncle Bucks’ competitors such as the Milwaukee Brat House ends up doing a deal with another Marquette player with a big social media following.
The same could be done for University of Milwaukee athletes too. Milwaukee Brewing just released a beer in partnership with the Panthers called ‘Panther Pride.’ Why wouldn’t they have Patrick Baldiwn Jr, arguably the biggest athlete in Milwaukee history, as a part of their program? He has a ton of social media followers and leveraging that to promote their new beer seems like a pretty good idea.
As a city, Milwaukee shows its ass as a city behind the times. The fact that there are not of ton of NIL deals makes little to no sense for me. Maybe the Lewis deal will be the start of it.
Charlie.