NFTs are here to stay. After being in the space for some time, we have realized that NFTs can create an experience that nothing else can. They give direct access from business owner to customer in the forms of discounts, promotions, meet-ups, private events, and more NFTs. The possibilities are endless.
We have committed to building our own called Project Sandlot. With Project Sandlot we want to build an experience for athletes and sports fans, alike. We all were once kids that had to head down to the park or the ball field to play pick up. Well now, we can recreate that feeling with your own digital representation on the blockchain!
Beyond that, Major League University is established in the mindset and leadership field for athletics. This will become an access token to all things MLU via discounts, freebies, and events. The possibilities are endless.
This is all very confusing to some people and that is OK. We will continue to educated and help anyone that asks! We want you to enjoy this technology and the communities as much as we have since this journey began. Below is a Q and A between Austin Byler (AB) and Ray McIntire (RM).
AB: What is up, we are back. You might know us as Major League University but we are coming to you as Project Sandlot, but we will get to that in a minute. A lot of our audience is unfamiliar with what we are going to get into today. Stay till the end and you are going to get some really good information in terms of what we are going to get into, what Project Sandlot is and what is an NFT which we are going to dive into shortly. But first, Ray Mac, how are you doing?
RM: I am great! I am just so excited, and it is a whole new world! I think our heads have been spinning a little bit because we have too many ideas, but we are narrowing it down and I am so excited about it.
AB: Well, let’s get down to it, what are NFTs?
RM: It stands for non-fungible token, and basically it is something that is represented on the block chain. So, you are taking a token, or a digital representation of anything—it can represent art, tickets, videos. For us it will be simple jpegs as well as providing access. So further beyond the art, which is great, it is almost like an all-access pass to everything that we are about and the people that we are going to partner with. We will get more into that but it is basically a ticket that never expires.
AB: That is a great way to put it. How does it all work? Walk me through the steps of how you can use this, how it can be a resource, and how you can use this in the real world?
It doesn’t expire, it’s non-copyable, and we can provide value for all of its owners at anytime.
Ray on the benefits of NFTs
RM: Yea so the cool thing about the technology is it can’t be replaced or copied. Once you buy one it will be sitting in your public wallet online. That is going to grant you access to things like our website for a prime example. We would give all access to all things on the website including an A-Z course. So, we are able to airdrop and basically deliver value to our customers at any time because they are holders of this token, and at any point they aren’t feeling it anymore and they want to move on, they can resell it. Almost like an eBay, there is a market out there for people who are willing to buy. Obviously, that fluctuates but that’s the coolest part, right? It doesn’t expire, it’s non-copyable, and we can provide value for all of its owners at anytime. It is a cool trio of technology that is coming together.
AB: Then you get into the metaverse which is just a whole mind-boggling experience, it’s hard to wrap my head around it but once I started to research it a little more and heard people talk about it that it became more clear and evident that this is the new wave of technology pushing forward. What exactly is Project Sandlot? We have been pumping it up, we have been pumped and juiced on it. It kind of came up out of nowhere and we have run with it. What is Project Sandlot for anybody who has no idea what we are talking about?
RM: At the simplest level, it’s going to be 4200 individual pictures and I am going to put one of the basics online. We call these P.o.Bs. They are Players on the Blockchain. They will be digital representations of real-life sporting events. You could play and earn some things through Major League University and all our partners! Tickets and stuff like that. Basically, we have been creating all these traits and it has been taking some time on this program. Different hats, different shirts and whatever and we will put it into this algorithm, and it will spit them out randomly. Basically, like a blank pack. There are a lot of people out there and your brother is one of them where—the fun is in opening the pack to hopefully pull a holographic Charizard. This is what we are going to provide, we are going to have different rarities. The overall packs will have each one of them is going to be an access token to all things us. Pretty cool.
AB: I love that we are doing a lot of this in-house. This isn’t exactly what we are doing, but it might be. For us if you have one of these you have access to whatever camp is going on at the time. Think about it like digital holographic Kobe Bryant and its only 1/1. There aren’t 20 of these there is only one and it’s swag points. Everyone wants the prestige that this is a rare card and that is your character online, so it is creating a cool environment. What is a generative project?
RM: If you look at Bored Ape Yacht Club were two of the firs that really did it and they are both worth astronomical values now but that is what I was saying—we will create the traits, the algorithm will spit these out, and even us, we are not going to know who is going to get what, it will be random. We are going to keep the number low; we will keep some back for giveaways and raffles but there will basically be 4,000 up for grabs for anyone and who knows what they are going to get but there are a lot of cool things in there.
AB: The art looks sick. I am geeked on it. You see a lot of people using it as their profile pictures on Twitter which is kind of cool. What else can it do? You mentioned concerts and events, but what else can it do moving forward?
RM: It can do it a lot. One of the big things we will be able to do is the charitable piece. We are going to be able to use a lot of the funding to go into some of these low-income areas where we continue to go in and do what Major League University does: promote good character and leadership. That is number one. Number two, we can hopefully drive the value up for the holders so that they can potentially deliver that value for the holders. Chances to win, we will do raffles—I don’t want to get too far into the structure of what we might be able to do because we don’t want to promise anything.
We don’t want to blow it up too much but I am envisioning meet ups at sporting events, a private discord strictly so that the chat and community line is always open. When we do private events for our holders like a golf tournament, for example, we will be able to speak and deliver a good message as Major League University and two, we are going to bring everyone together in that trying time. The ability to bring everyone together is just huge. There is a lot that we could do to make this thing grow!
AB: Yes the community aspect is something that I am really excited for. I have been browsing through some of the discords and it is just non-stop 24/7. Gary Vee has got some and the sevens, there are a lot of different ones out there that has been very helpful. We will be hiring soon because we are going to need some manpower here in a little bit (seriously) so reach out to us if this is something that you are passionate about and interested. So what are the goals/missions/values of Project Sandlot? What are some things we can do digitally for the real world?
RM: We are going to have a full road map up soon but right out of the gate the initial income that we generate to charity. Then we are going to have another block set aside where we strictly focus on building partnerships so we can continue to impact communities. I think the cool thing with Major League University is we have a lot of players, athletes, and former athletes that follow us and a lot of people that are really into bettering themselves and growing as a person. Down the line, what I see, being able to draw in all these Hannah Huseman’s and Tony Robins—able to bring them under one roof where we can con continue to bring that and provide opportunities. All these different things from all these different heads we can just generate to people that could really benefit.
AB: So next question Ray, I am new to the space. I still don’t really understand what an NFT is but I am interested. I am intrigued, I don’t want to miss out on something special. I love the message, I love the brand, I love cards in general and I don’t want to miss out on this opportunity. I don’t want to get FOMO. What do I do? What are my next steps?
RM: Yea the FOMO is real. That is something that hits all of us but that is part of what this exclusivity draws out of people. We are going to provide that opportunity to pull the Charizard. But if you go to our Twitter at the top of the page you will see basically an article on NFT 101. We are going to continue putting out content on our YouTube page telling people exactly how to get set up. Then I would say be sure to DYOR (do your own research) and dive into the space.
I have spent a lot of time in it, a few months just getting to know it and I am still learning myself but learning what we have got on twitter. Going on OpenSea.io to see what it looks like as one of the secondary markets. Once you have done all the research it is starting to get your MetaMask set up and your CoinBase and all the stuff like that.
It is important to note for people that are new to the space that there are a lot of scammers there and a lot of people that are not in it for the right reasons just trying to make a quick buck. If you are here for strictly the quick flip this probably isn’t the right project for you anyways which is OK. We want to grow this slowly and organically over time with the right group of peole so that it’s long-lasting. Then really getting into it and figuring out what this technology really is would be good and when you buy things—buy things you like.
A lot of these projects are not going to be around in a couple of years looking at the investing and whatnot. Invest in something you like. That way, if it does go to $0, you at least have something you like personally and if you are in that flip life, just be smart. Do not. Invest more than you are willing to lose and be safe and smart about your money. Again, this is a slow-growth process for us, and we are excited about what we can bring.
AB: I am with you on that. I love that aspect too. If you need help, go to the Twitter page and click on the article or on MajorLeagueUniversity.com/Blog. Like I said I am a real newbie at this and I am trying to learn and grow every single day and it was so helpful for me. It says every single step so that you are ready for the launch so you are able to purchase one of these NFTs. If you like it, you like it! That’s what it is all about. Ray, what is next for us?
RM: We are going to be getting the discord set up soon. If you want to jump in there right now you can. We are going to start growing that community slowly. Then we will have some full color art here soon. We have been really grinding that out. Then lastly, everyone listening to this that has followed us on Twitter already—you guys are going to be getting them for free. We are going to send them to you for free (just pay gas fee).
We are going to be doing more things like this for our community. It is intimidating for people who aren’t in it. We want to continue to bring people in at a low barrier of entry. All you are going to do is pay the gas fees on it. Tell your friends, this is not the only one we are going to be doing—giving things away. We are going to be doing it consistently over time.
And turn the notifications on because we are going to be putting out things via twitter (Retweet, Like, Tag two friends etc.). So just be ready and enjoy it. I have had so much fun over the last couple months just diving into it. I feel like a kid again and it is really bringing me a lot of joy. If you have any questions feel free to reach out. You can find me on Twitter, my DMs are open and my email as well. And if you have friends—lastly—if you have friends that did not get in on the Twitter make sure they follow and make sure that they are on the newsletter because they are definitely going to be other offers like this.
AB: Yes make sure you are subscribed to the newsletter and make sure you are on the Twitter and Discord channel. That is where all the updates are going to be coming from exclusively to you first and open to the public. If you are in those channels, you are doing the right thing, even if you don’t know what you are doing there.
It will keep you up to date on it and there are some cool things that we will have come up and you can maybe win some money, make some money, or have something cool show up in your wallet and maybe a new profile pick. Last thing Ray, and this kinda just popped up but what is a “gas fee”? For those people who think they are going down the street to fill up their car, what is a gas fee?
RM: Yes, one of the biggest issues right now with the Etherium chain is the fee for transaction. The way this all works is basically information is constantly spit out on these receipts. It takes money and energy to process those equations, so people are paid to process them, and you are the one paying for it. This can totally range anywhere from $15 to astronomical amounts. Really probably $100 is going to be a general, medium-range gas fee. It could get even lower down to the 20-30 range.
Gas fees are silly. And ETH should be coming out with a second version that should hopefully take care of a lot of this down the line and keeping it cheaper. And there are other coin options out there that are faster and cheaper at this point.
But the largest, most common market place for all these things is ETH. We are going to keep our options open. We want to do it as cheap as we can for the people that we are really doing this for. If you guys have any suggestions with that, reach out. We are totally all-ears for it.
AB: Yep, reach out in the comments below, anything you would like to see. Reach out to us and DM us. You will see a lot of things and updates on there as well plus a lot of cool tutorials that we are going to come out with to make this very easy and streamlined. I know for me it has been challenging but I have found a lot of value on YouTube and Twitter and just fining it in the community to connect with people and just see the easiest way to get involved.
Keep us updated. Look out for Project Sandlot. Look out for the Newsletter in the coming weeks. We are really excited about this project and what it can do for people and continue to make a massive impact in this world.
