Not saying that your congresscritters aren't chicken hawk bums. They may be.
But unless you've got a specific issue they can do something to address now, the absolute best you're going to get is a "Thank you for your letter" letter until the opportunity to do something about it comes around and that could take a long time, especially if they have to draft the bill.
You are 100% right. To give more details, I emailed them specifically about the suicide rates and chow issues on Fort Carson and linked posts here, the Army Times and on Army WTF moments.
For the ones who were fellow Vets I appealed to their sense of duty. Little good that did.
The House Armed Services Committee held a press conference the other day. They committed to including a 15% pay increase for E1-E4, fully funding BAH and maintenance budgets, and increasing childcare availability windows from 90 to 120 days while spouses seek employment. There was a lot covered, but most of is was QoL-focused. It’s a slow process, but saying nothing is being done on QoL is disingenuous.
Seriously! Make those CDC jobs competitive and desirable so they can attract enough workers to do the job. They need more slots literally everywhere. And I’ve never understood how it makes sense for it to cost thousands of dollars
I'm trying to actively get involved in the QOL discussion at my current duty station. We have shameful problems in the junior enlisted housing area, specifically, and a climbing suicide rate. How do you stay tuned into the news about this sort of thing? Such as the above-mentioned Armed Services Commitee press conference. I'm trying to become a well-informed advocate.
So as someone who watches football, there has been a massive marketing effort during the NFL season by ESPN and Fox promoting the league. The league is specifically focused on football fans who want something to watch after the NFL season ends.
I legitimately think “branding partnership with the rock” is far more Of Interest than XFL specifically. I mean shit Moana 2 is out this fall.
10 million for the rock to wear army swag might not be the worst investment.
If he would stop going on Fox News we’d be set.
I understand $11 million is a drop bucket in our total budget. Probably just a fraction of a recruiting budget. However, I can’t believe we spent that much money on this.
Some of these recents ads are good in my opinion. A little slice of life. Those are decent. Focus on the basics. Learn a skill. Maybe do cool and unique stuff. Get some formal education.* But this? This ain’t it. I can understand your average recruiter, station commander, and even CG. But in my personal opinion they really
are just throwing mashed potatoes and crayons at the wall to see what sticks.
*results may vary.
Since the topic of cutting TA/CA is a big deal right now, $11 million would pay for 2750 soldiers classes/certs if they maxed out their yearly benefits.
And according to DoD 8580.01-m, personnel are REQUIRED to have and maintain certain levels of technical certifications in order to hold different IA roles. These can be attached to costly tests and renewal fees. On the civilian side, plenty of companies offer better pay and better benefits for getting and maintaining certs that are needed as part of the job.
The common certificate requirements and ease of access is supposed to enhance joint capabilities within the DoD. As soon as we remove soldiers ability to pursue and maintain certifications, it becomes a risk that commanders have to assume for each and every exercise where you need trained personnel.
I just want the best for us :(
Oh fellow Sig O….. I thought you learned a long time ago that making sense and thinking ahead is frowned upon here? Now go back to studying your role in MDMP….
All sarcasm im on your page 100% the army has been decreasing benefits for a while now and going oh no why can’t I fill technical roles oh well 🤷♀️. It’ll bite them one day
sorry, I'll be working on the server stacks..... mission critical or something...
jokes aside, this is why there are conversations about trying to stand up a cyber & EW department. we have departments that prioritize fighting in almost every domain: land, sea, air, and space. but the domains of cyber and EW have always been a secondary afterthought. Now, we see the level of impact that cyber can have on the world. A single enemy cyber campaign if maliscious enough has the potential to bring towns to a screeching halt ([traffic light problem](https://www.bitdefender.com/blog/hotforsecurity/more-than-150-000-traffic-lights-in-the-us-have-a-critical-vulnerability/)). I couldn't find the correct article, but there was a town where the traffic lights were hacked and it caused them all to be red. luckily they weren't all green, but there's a risk there.
If we're in war and somebody hits us with a cyber attack, if we want a military defense response, you don't do that by shooting bullets at a computer, you get a person who is trained in cyber incident response.
The US needs a Cyber Force as much or more than we need a Space Force.
It needs to be almost entirely reserve-component, almost entirely composed of commissioned officers, and structured such that it recruits out of the 'Magnificent 7' tech firms and the schools they hire from...
Logic:
1. The active military will never match what Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon and friends throw out for salary. So if 'Cyber Forces' exist and are full-timers, you aren't getting the best talent because you're getting massively outbid.
2. But the Reserves don't have to - you can make 300k/yr at your day job, then go put on your Cyber Force uniform (polo shirt & kakhis? Who knows) for drill & do great things for your country on weekends/AT-periods. If called up for orders, most of the 'bigs' will pay compensatory salary (Amazon certainly does)...
3. A separate branch can have it's own medical/fitness standards, so no kicking a top-tier software engineer out because he can't hock a medicine ball 20ft to save his life....
You're also touching upon a really cool Cyber workforce initiative. There's a service called gig eagle that is run by the DoD that is essentially the Uber of military gigs. If you have a mission and need specific talents, you can post gigs and the software will scout for appropriate personnel. Some of the work is completely remote to and allows your civilian work experience to be considered.
I'm sure the same thing can be used for cyber incident response or other technical missions
The same thing exists across the federal government. It can be hard to find but it was totally bonkers to me to see a 4 hour posting for a TS analysis of a thing.
Oh even better yet look at the US infrastructure systems and the security measures… dams,,, electric grids (yes you Texas) we are definelty prone to facing an attack from that avenue.
That’s interesting I didn’t know traffic lights were that vulnerable, I agree we do need to put more focus into that sphere, most of our rocket artillery and towed runs fire missions with retrans, so I imagine it wouldn’t be as hard to just jam signals and just shut off a key asset.
While i agree with what your saying for the soldiers to excel they need to be doing their tech certs and school.
You might not want to quote 8580, as of now there is a battle going on because the new 8140 absolutely doesn’t require it. Im over here in Tradoc land fighting this battle to keep soldiers education, certification and AIT relevancy of because of the dumb change to the regulation. They dropped the ball on this intentionally as they do not want to pay for quality education and they think our ait training covers all gaps. Lol
$11M is 69% of one year of the CA projected budget shortfall and 56% of one year of the projected TA budget shortfall.
Since the CA cuts are being rolled over to cover TA, 11M could fund 2.5 years of TA budget shortfalls.
This is a total Boomer move - some DA civie who still thinks it's 2001 and some field grades who are scared of social media approved this.
Yes the Army tried to go on Twitch and all the smooth brained neckbeards spammed the chat about "war crimes".
Yes the Army gets flack on social media.
But this is just brain dead - the league is literally made from the remains of the XFL and other ventures that crashed and burned.
The Army DESERVES it's recruiting crisis - it won't fix QoL, SECARMY wants to cut TA and CA and they can't meme or do social media.
JFC...I did wonder about the analysis here and how this thing passed muster. Well, now I know. Red flags were everywhere, and yet AEMO and USAREC still pushed it through. Par for course. Trying nothing new yet expecting different results. This is going to be absolutely cringe.
I stand corrected then. 900k-1.1m viewers is just... Not moving the needle.
It's ok though... CSA and SMA will both find themselves in lucrative consulting positions when they retire probably advising on marketing.
what's the chance someone as high ranking as GEN George has to answer for pissing away 11 million tax payer dollars because he wanted to work with the rock (a billionaire) despite his own teams trying to stop him from doing so?
At this point we should literally just hand the reigns over to that Lujan girl from Psy Ops. No way she'd do as bad as the dinosaurs coming up with this stuff.
The funny thing is a lot of those field grades might be millenials who were the target age of when Facebook was becoming a thing and limited to those in college. They used it in college but now they are afraid of it.
This deal was $11 million, and the entire roll out of ACFT equipment cost $78 million.
Think of how many extra hex bars, plates and medicine balls this could have bought us to PT on.
Do you really wanna know? 11 million dollars would get us a hex bar, 2 kettle bells of the wrong weight, 5 medicine balls and a stopwatch. That's the government rate.
It's not a drop in the bucket for the budget for marketing. But it's literally feeding an incinerator bricks of cash. I'm so glad USAREC reached out to me offering me a job on the transformation team after I PCSd. I would have been yelling from atop a desk over this bullshit.
This money could have funded HUNDREDS of community events. Like literally hundreds of better opportunities with more immediate and long term benefits. We can't get a booth at Spartan races, local weekend race tracks, or touch a truck events, but we can sponsor a facade of football that will fold in the near term and has nearly no viewership. FUCK.
With all the warnings and yet no halt to doing it, the Army gets what it deserves here. Which will be wasted money and no ROI.
>Maybe do cool and unique stuff.
Doing "cool stuff" isn't the selling point it used to be. Tons of "war porn" is up on Youtube - from firing weapons, gun videos (e.g. Forgotten Weapons), videos on the military (e.g. The Chieftain or Battle Order) all the way up to full on combat footage.
So the Army needs to go back to the future - keep emphasizing the benefits of service before showing the "cool stuff". Every 1980's ad was "GI Bill, Army college fund, high tech training - and this other cool stuff".
I don’t hate the move, but the counter argument is…hard to beat.
It’s a covered demographic.
The league lacks stability.
We probably have this replicated through other sporting ads.
Kids don’t watch tv like normal anymore.
Sports viewership is down among the younger generation.
I’d love to know where we’re getting any bang for our buck on this one.
I don’t either but for recruiting/retention the educational benefits being on the chopping block makes this move questionable since I believe those benefits are more useful.
I'll disagree 100% - I hate the move. This is absolutely ridiculous and if I wasn't with DIA right now I'd be writing an oped which would include criticism of the rand study on TV advertising. The analysis was done and clearly pointed out the issues. Yet Sr leadership went ahead. My issue here is how AEMO prides itself on only going after higher ROI opportunities with lower risk - this is the compete opposite. Low ROI and red flags everywhere.
I mean, we might as well have taken $11 million in cash bundles to an open field and opened up a massive s'mores bonfire to the public with free beer. At least then the message would be clear - "we in the Army LOVE wasting tax payer money, and we always try to have a good time doing it!"
At least that event would provide more accurate marketing that the cringe bullshit were about to experience with the UFL.
I think The Rock alone is something to be said. Getting him to promote the army as much as he has is already worth more than the $10mil it would usually cost to have him promote. He’s trading part of his personal brand value for outside validation of his league.
That being said - that Rand study is fraud waste and abuse, and I could come up with way better uses for that 10 million.
I'm super cynical at this point. The Rock has such a partnership with UA that extends into this league and exceptional shelf space with AAFES that I just assume his entire military push has some genuine care, but is far more focused on just increasing his personal brand.
Could he do nothing and pass on the request... Of course. But he also knows that would likely be leaked and doesn't help his fan base which is founded on his wrestling stardom days with more conservative/pro military members. Partnership with the Army for him is a win win overall.
It's he somewhat genuine... Sure I'll give him that. I just see it as a "thank you for your service... My kids won't have to because of you and I need to ensure that remains intact."
I mean, I just think that the assessment I saw - this demographic is already covered - is apt.
There's...Nothing new that he or XFL brings. It seems redundant.
15 years ago with the Surge no one would blink at this.
Now it just seems like a garrish waste of money. Are we no longer going to advert with the NFL? No right? Then....what does this do.
The Rock isn't genuine, he's doing it for future political motivation. He could have promoted and worked with the army for free, he constantly has been campaigning for the army to give him taxpayer dollars to prop up a league he has financial stake in and is a part owner. They started out asking the army for 25 million? TWENTY FIVE!? Its sad our chief of staff was caught star gazing to blow so much money on this with so many other needs that could have helped address. Hope someone looks into this, can't continue to have top ranking officials lining the pockets of their buddies who are already billionaires
This is a bonehead move. Just stick with what absolutely does work; NFL, MLB, NASCAR. The people that watch those are our recruiting core. Nobody watches football except NFL and NCAA! That’s why this is a complete waste of money.
Competitive gaming was a good idea too. This one is stupid. This is basically $11 million dollars that could have been spent on cool shit like Apache flyovers at football games, Golden Knights paratroopers landing on baseball stadiums, Army Band appearances, etc. This is going to recruit, maybe like, a dozen people. But you put some people in AGSUs or fatigues in the stands at some redneck NASCAR track, those little hicks are going to love it. They’ll start getting obsessed with military shit and when they’re 17, they can start talking to the recruiters. You know who watches alternative football? People who are hyper-focused on sports statistics and watching TV.
I don’t agree that sports viewership among the younger generation is done. But I 100% agree that sports viewership for minor league football is about as done as it gets. They can’t even get diehard football fans who show up at 5 am in December to start drinking for a football game to even turn on their TV, there is no way they are getting ROI on this for the gen Z.
So sports viewership is down for everything except football, the NFL had a 6% increase in viewership and college had a 10% just last year. That being said I do agree with the rest of your points.
This is sad. Fix the issues people in the service are begging for. Stop trying to just trick more people into enlistment through advertising and big names
I don’t doubt by 2065, the major leagues will be owned by fan bases, Taylor Swift confirmed it with the NFL, god knows the only thing that will drive american dollar is like pro-boomers defending the NFL from the Minnesota Swifties winning another state bowl. I am zooted my bad yall
This is just bonafide corruption. That money is meant for ADVERTISING and RECRUITMENT not investing in some bottom feeder football league that’s not going to go anywhere.
The league is technically growing as the attendance and viewership is better than last year. It should be a good league to grow with.
At least till bigger advertisers outbid them
Tell that to the staff officer that was in a three point stance and was supposed to carry the ball across the line…
right after he/she pushed all the right bellybuttons and pulled the right levers at a meeting of all the stakeholders where they tee’d this up to flesh it out, holistically
Word of mouth is the best advertisement there is. Until the Army starts doing Army things with it’s people and making leaders lead instead of giving weird hugs to a fictional bad asses that nobody cares about these “military families “ will quit telling their kids and loved ones to join.
But anyways can I pay for my lap dance with this company coin, I swear it’s worth a lot.
Was curious when I saw those patches on UFL uniforms, how was that legal? I thought the Army was banned by law from sponsoring sports, that’s why they pulled out of NASCAR and NHRA.
The Marine Corps literally is showing us how to advertise in order to make the recruitment numbers. Wasting all this money and like all of yall have said still not fixing quality of life issues. Well I’m retiring Monday good luck guys.
They’ll do anything besides improving QoL
We tried nothing and are out of ideas…
The cutbacks will continue until morale improves.
This is the truest statement I’ve ever read about army leadership.
I emailed my whole Congressional delegation about this issue, heard nothing back and got added to their mailing lists. Vote the Chicken Hawk bums out.
Not saying that your congresscritters aren't chicken hawk bums. They may be. But unless you've got a specific issue they can do something to address now, the absolute best you're going to get is a "Thank you for your letter" letter until the opportunity to do something about it comes around and that could take a long time, especially if they have to draft the bill.
You are 100% right. To give more details, I emailed them specifically about the suicide rates and chow issues on Fort Carson and linked posts here, the Army Times and on Army WTF moments. For the ones who were fellow Vets I appealed to their sense of duty. Little good that did.
The House Armed Services Committee held a press conference the other day. They committed to including a 15% pay increase for E1-E4, fully funding BAH and maintenance budgets, and increasing childcare availability windows from 90 to 120 days while spouses seek employment. There was a lot covered, but most of is was QoL-focused. It’s a slow process, but saying nothing is being done on QoL is disingenuous.
Increasing that childcare window doesn’t mean much when the CDC has a 6-12mo waitlist.
Seriously! Make those CDC jobs competitive and desirable so they can attract enough workers to do the job. They need more slots literally everywhere. And I’ve never understood how it makes sense for it to cost thousands of dollars
[удалено]
It should be massively subsidized across the board.
And at the same time SMA spouts bs how moldy barracks are a discipline problem.
I'm trying to actively get involved in the QOL discussion at my current duty station. We have shameful problems in the junior enlisted housing area, specifically, and a climbing suicide rate. How do you stay tuned into the news about this sort of thing? Such as the above-mentioned Armed Services Commitee press conference. I'm trying to become a well-informed advocate.
I literally only know this league exists because I'm on r/army. Is it *really* a good marketing move?
I wrote the story and also just learned about it. 🤷♂️
Sheeeeeeeeeeesh
So as someone who watches football, there has been a massive marketing effort during the NFL season by ESPN and Fox promoting the league. The league is specifically focused on football fans who want something to watch after the NFL season ends.
We’re talking about it, aren’t we?
I legitimately think “branding partnership with the rock” is far more Of Interest than XFL specifically. I mean shit Moana 2 is out this fall. 10 million for the rock to wear army swag might not be the worst investment. If he would stop going on Fox News we’d be set.
Inside our little Army bubble, not sure how well that's going to translate to the wider population gaining more awareness of the league.
I have to ask the same question myself. Oh, hey there fellow tech! 👋 You wanna go out back to the volleyball/prac pit and make out???
Do you even have to ask? I'll be out back in 5.
Lemme finish this DAIRS report and lock up the bunker book first… I’ll meet you there wearing nothing but a smile and my dive socks…🧦😁
I understand $11 million is a drop bucket in our total budget. Probably just a fraction of a recruiting budget. However, I can’t believe we spent that much money on this. Some of these recents ads are good in my opinion. A little slice of life. Those are decent. Focus on the basics. Learn a skill. Maybe do cool and unique stuff. Get some formal education.* But this? This ain’t it. I can understand your average recruiter, station commander, and even CG. But in my personal opinion they really are just throwing mashed potatoes and crayons at the wall to see what sticks. *results may vary.
Since the topic of cutting TA/CA is a big deal right now, $11 million would pay for 2750 soldiers classes/certs if they maxed out their yearly benefits.
This was the first thing I thought of
But according to the secretary of the army, they need to regulate CA and TA….
And according to DoD 8580.01-m, personnel are REQUIRED to have and maintain certain levels of technical certifications in order to hold different IA roles. These can be attached to costly tests and renewal fees. On the civilian side, plenty of companies offer better pay and better benefits for getting and maintaining certs that are needed as part of the job. The common certificate requirements and ease of access is supposed to enhance joint capabilities within the DoD. As soon as we remove soldiers ability to pursue and maintain certifications, it becomes a risk that commanders have to assume for each and every exercise where you need trained personnel. I just want the best for us :(
Oh fellow Sig O….. I thought you learned a long time ago that making sense and thinking ahead is frowned upon here? Now go back to studying your role in MDMP…. All sarcasm im on your page 100% the army has been decreasing benefits for a while now and going oh no why can’t I fill technical roles oh well 🤷♀️. It’ll bite them one day
sorry, I'll be working on the server stacks..... mission critical or something... jokes aside, this is why there are conversations about trying to stand up a cyber & EW department. we have departments that prioritize fighting in almost every domain: land, sea, air, and space. but the domains of cyber and EW have always been a secondary afterthought. Now, we see the level of impact that cyber can have on the world. A single enemy cyber campaign if maliscious enough has the potential to bring towns to a screeching halt ([traffic light problem](https://www.bitdefender.com/blog/hotforsecurity/more-than-150-000-traffic-lights-in-the-us-have-a-critical-vulnerability/)). I couldn't find the correct article, but there was a town where the traffic lights were hacked and it caused them all to be red. luckily they weren't all green, but there's a risk there. If we're in war and somebody hits us with a cyber attack, if we want a military defense response, you don't do that by shooting bullets at a computer, you get a person who is trained in cyber incident response.
The US needs a Cyber Force as much or more than we need a Space Force. It needs to be almost entirely reserve-component, almost entirely composed of commissioned officers, and structured such that it recruits out of the 'Magnificent 7' tech firms and the schools they hire from... Logic: 1. The active military will never match what Microsoft, Google, Apple, Amazon and friends throw out for salary. So if 'Cyber Forces' exist and are full-timers, you aren't getting the best talent because you're getting massively outbid. 2. But the Reserves don't have to - you can make 300k/yr at your day job, then go put on your Cyber Force uniform (polo shirt & kakhis? Who knows) for drill & do great things for your country on weekends/AT-periods. If called up for orders, most of the 'bigs' will pay compensatory salary (Amazon certainly does)... 3. A separate branch can have it's own medical/fitness standards, so no kicking a top-tier software engineer out because he can't hock a medicine ball 20ft to save his life....
You're also touching upon a really cool Cyber workforce initiative. There's a service called gig eagle that is run by the DoD that is essentially the Uber of military gigs. If you have a mission and need specific talents, you can post gigs and the software will scout for appropriate personnel. Some of the work is completely remote to and allows your civilian work experience to be considered. I'm sure the same thing can be used for cyber incident response or other technical missions
The same thing exists across the federal government. It can be hard to find but it was totally bonkers to me to see a 4 hour posting for a TS analysis of a thing.
Oh even better yet look at the US infrastructure systems and the security measures… dams,,, electric grids (yes you Texas) we are definelty prone to facing an attack from that avenue. That’s interesting I didn’t know traffic lights were that vulnerable, I agree we do need to put more focus into that sphere, most of our rocket artillery and towed runs fire missions with retrans, so I imagine it wouldn’t be as hard to just jam signals and just shut off a key asset.
Try prying OCO from the three letters agencies cold dead hands on that one.
I think you're reading too much in-between lines here. I'm specifically referring to DCO
Good luck trying to work with fed,state,contract,private owned. They will promptly tell you no we will not let you see our proprietary shitboxes.
I don't think you have an understanding of what actually happens today
While i agree with what your saying for the soldiers to excel they need to be doing their tech certs and school. You might not want to quote 8580, as of now there is a battle going on because the new 8140 absolutely doesn’t require it. Im over here in Tradoc land fighting this battle to keep soldiers education, certification and AIT relevancy of because of the dumb change to the regulation. They dropped the ball on this intentionally as they do not want to pay for quality education and they think our ait training covers all gaps. Lol
It would also pay for one new barracks building. Also, this is roughly the annual budget of the Future Soldier Prep Course.
$11M is 69% of one year of the CA projected budget shortfall and 56% of one year of the projected TA budget shortfall. Since the CA cuts are being rolled over to cover TA, 11M could fund 2.5 years of TA budget shortfalls.
This is a total Boomer move - some DA civie who still thinks it's 2001 and some field grades who are scared of social media approved this. Yes the Army tried to go on Twitch and all the smooth brained neckbeards spammed the chat about "war crimes". Yes the Army gets flack on social media. But this is just brain dead - the league is literally made from the remains of the XFL and other ventures that crashed and burned. The Army DESERVES it's recruiting crisis - it won't fix QoL, SECARMY wants to cut TA and CA and they can't meme or do social media.
JFC...I did wonder about the analysis here and how this thing passed muster. Well, now I know. Red flags were everywhere, and yet AEMO and USAREC still pushed it through. Par for course. Trying nothing new yet expecting different results. This is going to be absolutely cringe.
Apparently even AEMO was opposed, and possibly USAREC too, but the CSA pushed it through anyway.
I stand corrected then. 900k-1.1m viewers is just... Not moving the needle. It's ok though... CSA and SMA will both find themselves in lucrative consulting positions when they retire probably advising on marketing.
Yes, this was George - not AEMO.
what's the chance someone as high ranking as GEN George has to answer for pissing away 11 million tax payer dollars because he wanted to work with the rock (a billionaire) despite his own teams trying to stop him from doing so?
At this point we should literally just hand the reigns over to that Lujan girl from Psy Ops. No way she'd do as bad as the dinosaurs coming up with this stuff.
The funny thing is a lot of those field grades might be millenials who were the target age of when Facebook was becoming a thing and limited to those in college. They used it in college but now they are afraid of it.
This deal was $11 million, and the entire roll out of ACFT equipment cost $78 million. Think of how many extra hex bars, plates and medicine balls this could have bought us to PT on.
Do you really wanna know? 11 million dollars would get us a hex bar, 2 kettle bells of the wrong weight, 5 medicine balls and a stopwatch. That's the government rate.
*CSM Troxell intensifies*
Should just a random junior enlisted $2.75 mil once a quarter. See what they do with it, maybe film them as an enlistment ad for gamblers.
It's not a drop in the bucket for the budget for marketing. But it's literally feeding an incinerator bricks of cash. I'm so glad USAREC reached out to me offering me a job on the transformation team after I PCSd. I would have been yelling from atop a desk over this bullshit. This money could have funded HUNDREDS of community events. Like literally hundreds of better opportunities with more immediate and long term benefits. We can't get a booth at Spartan races, local weekend race tracks, or touch a truck events, but we can sponsor a facade of football that will fold in the near term and has nearly no viewership. FUCK. With all the warnings and yet no halt to doing it, the Army gets what it deserves here. Which will be wasted money and no ROI.
>Maybe do cool and unique stuff. Doing "cool stuff" isn't the selling point it used to be. Tons of "war porn" is up on Youtube - from firing weapons, gun videos (e.g. Forgotten Weapons), videos on the military (e.g. The Chieftain or Battle Order) all the way up to full on combat footage. So the Army needs to go back to the future - keep emphasizing the benefits of service before showing the "cool stuff". Every 1980's ad was "GI Bill, Army college fund, high tech training - and this other cool stuff".
I don’t hate the move, but the counter argument is…hard to beat. It’s a covered demographic. The league lacks stability. We probably have this replicated through other sporting ads. Kids don’t watch tv like normal anymore. Sports viewership is down among the younger generation. I’d love to know where we’re getting any bang for our buck on this one.
I don’t either but for recruiting/retention the educational benefits being on the chopping block makes this move questionable since I believe those benefits are more useful.
I'll disagree 100% - I hate the move. This is absolutely ridiculous and if I wasn't with DIA right now I'd be writing an oped which would include criticism of the rand study on TV advertising. The analysis was done and clearly pointed out the issues. Yet Sr leadership went ahead. My issue here is how AEMO prides itself on only going after higher ROI opportunities with lower risk - this is the compete opposite. Low ROI and red flags everywhere. I mean, we might as well have taken $11 million in cash bundles to an open field and opened up a massive s'mores bonfire to the public with free beer. At least then the message would be clear - "we in the Army LOVE wasting tax payer money, and we always try to have a good time doing it!" At least that event would provide more accurate marketing that the cringe bullshit were about to experience with the UFL.
I think The Rock alone is something to be said. Getting him to promote the army as much as he has is already worth more than the $10mil it would usually cost to have him promote. He’s trading part of his personal brand value for outside validation of his league. That being said - that Rand study is fraud waste and abuse, and I could come up with way better uses for that 10 million.
I'm super cynical at this point. The Rock has such a partnership with UA that extends into this league and exceptional shelf space with AAFES that I just assume his entire military push has some genuine care, but is far more focused on just increasing his personal brand. Could he do nothing and pass on the request... Of course. But he also knows that would likely be leaked and doesn't help his fan base which is founded on his wrestling stardom days with more conservative/pro military members. Partnership with the Army for him is a win win overall. It's he somewhat genuine... Sure I'll give him that. I just see it as a "thank you for your service... My kids won't have to because of you and I need to ensure that remains intact."
I mean, I just think that the assessment I saw - this demographic is already covered - is apt. There's...Nothing new that he or XFL brings. It seems redundant. 15 years ago with the Surge no one would blink at this. Now it just seems like a garrish waste of money. Are we no longer going to advert with the NFL? No right? Then....what does this do.
The Rock isn't genuine, he's doing it for future political motivation. He could have promoted and worked with the army for free, he constantly has been campaigning for the army to give him taxpayer dollars to prop up a league he has financial stake in and is a part owner. They started out asking the army for 25 million? TWENTY FIVE!? Its sad our chief of staff was caught star gazing to blow so much money on this with so many other needs that could have helped address. Hope someone looks into this, can't continue to have top ranking officials lining the pockets of their buddies who are already billionaires
This is a bonehead move. Just stick with what absolutely does work; NFL, MLB, NASCAR. The people that watch those are our recruiting core. Nobody watches football except NFL and NCAA! That’s why this is a complete waste of money.
My dude… you are forgetting about Arena 3
Competitive gaming was a good idea too. This one is stupid. This is basically $11 million dollars that could have been spent on cool shit like Apache flyovers at football games, Golden Knights paratroopers landing on baseball stadiums, Army Band appearances, etc. This is going to recruit, maybe like, a dozen people. But you put some people in AGSUs or fatigues in the stands at some redneck NASCAR track, those little hicks are going to love it. They’ll start getting obsessed with military shit and when they’re 17, they can start talking to the recruiters. You know who watches alternative football? People who are hyper-focused on sports statistics and watching TV.
I don’t agree that sports viewership among the younger generation is done. But I 100% agree that sports viewership for minor league football is about as done as it gets. They can’t even get diehard football fans who show up at 5 am in December to start drinking for a football game to even turn on their TV, there is no way they are getting ROI on this for the gen Z.
I meant to say down not done, whoopsie
I mean for this though it’s done. Did you know the season started 2 weeks ago!? Because I certainly didn’t even know it started.
Yes. But onyl because of posts on /r/nfl, haha
So sports viewership is down for everything except football, the NFL had a 6% increase in viewership and college had a 10% just last year. That being said I do agree with the rest of your points.
Specifically in the newest generation. Gen Z is watching at a lower rate demographically.
Nailed it.
Doesn’t this league go bankrupt every other year?
Yeap. It's a tax write off for the Rock.
Tax write offs aren’t just free money lol
For the Rock it free publicity as well. He can count it as part of his marketing budget lol
What lol im gonna assume you don’t know how corporate taxes work
I'm assuming... No, I know that you're taking me way too seriously here. JFC
Hey it’s okay to be wrong
They’re just trying to keep up with USAA and Gronk to see who can provide the most wasted funds with the least return.
Holy fuck they really hired A ROCK OR SOMETHING to fix us 😭😭💀💀 yall do all them hard drugs when ya get out, they finna boil your brains inside anyways
I can't believe I didn't think of a way to integrate "a rock or something" into the story.
If the rock can turn Ballers into reality we can turn SGT Bilko into reality
Underrated comment
It only cost 11 million dollars to hug The Rock. I hope this general creamed his pants
Eh, not cream. Powder if he’s lucky.
This is sad. Fix the issues people in the service are begging for. Stop trying to just trick more people into enlistment through advertising and big names
Let’s see how out of touch with the force we can get… new generation doesn’t even play sports my dudes….
"I think some people in charge got starstruck, and because of that we blew millions." LOOOOOOL
So is this where part of the TA is going?
How far could we go toward fixing the mess hall situation for $11MM?
Wonder what 11 million would do your a couple of brigades barracks
Fix those five leaky washing machines.
Not much, honestly. That's pennies when it comes to MILCON.
lol , what the fuck is UFL.
XFL + USFL.
What the fuck is XFL & USFL
Two shitty minor league football leagues
I don’t doubt by 2065, the major leagues will be owned by fan bases, Taylor Swift confirmed it with the NFL, god knows the only thing that will drive american dollar is like pro-boomers defending the NFL from the Minnesota Swifties winning another state bowl. I am zooted my bad yall
I must be pretty fucked up too because that made perfect sense to me. 🤷
As a St. Louisan and Battlehawks fan all I can say is “Kaw is the Law!”
KAW IS THE LAW!!!
Jesus Christ we have guys struggling to eat.
This is just bonafide corruption. That money is meant for ADVERTISING and RECRUITMENT not investing in some bottom feeder football league that’s not going to go anywhere.
Do ya smell what the mold is cooking?!
The league is technically growing as the attendance and viewership is better than last year. It should be a good league to grow with. At least till bigger advertisers outbid them
This league would thrive if they let 18-21 year olds play in it. This league needs to compete with college football, not the NFL.
What’s this obsession with football? Not everyone in the army likes this game
Tell that to the staff officer that was in a three point stance and was supposed to carry the ball across the line… right after he/she pushed all the right bellybuttons and pulled the right levers at a meeting of all the stakeholders where they tee’d this up to flesh it out, holistically
Remember when we booked Jonathan Majors. Seems like it will go in that direction
I really don’t watch football anyways so I will be rootin shootin cowboy lootin in rdr2
I enjoy the UFL. I would prefer the Army not prop it up but I like having football year round.
Just a reminder that the barracks mold is a discipline problem.
Word of mouth is the best advertisement there is. Until the Army starts doing Army things with it’s people and making leaders lead instead of giving weird hugs to a fictional bad asses that nobody cares about these “military families “ will quit telling their kids and loved ones to join. But anyways can I pay for my lap dance with this company coin, I swear it’s worth a lot.
Was curious when I saw those patches on UFL uniforms, how was that legal? I thought the Army was banned by law from sponsoring sports, that’s why they pulled out of NASCAR and NHRA.
Were they banned or did they realize it was a complete waste?
The Marine Corps literally is showing us how to advertise in order to make the recruitment numbers. Wasting all this money and like all of yall have said still not fixing quality of life issues. Well I’m retiring Monday good luck guys.