A locally owned Lincoln restaurant is jumping in on the new era in college sports.
Muchacho’s
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Just last month, the NCAA cleared the way for college athletes to cash in on their name, image and likeness. Big names like Runza jumped on board to pay some student athletes to brand their business, including one local Lincoln restaurant.
Muchachos, near 11th and K streets, will now be paying some student athletes to represent their brand on Instagram and Twitter, one taco at a time.
“We have seen a lot of athletes come in here just to eat and they have been so supportive of us through everything and we wanted to kind of give back to them, now that we can,” Nick Maestas, the owner of Muchachos said.
Nebraska football player Cade Mueller and Husker volleyball player Nicklin Hames are officially the first two student athletes to join Team Muchacho.
They’ll be paid a certain amount of money to post about the family-owned taco shop on social media. A win, win for both Muchachos and those college athletes from across Nebraska.
“But I feel the need to support all athletes,” Maestas said. “One day, we could have an incoming freshman that we support who could one day be in the NFL or play on the U.S. Olympic Volleyball team and so to get in on the ground floor for something like that would be pretty fun.”
The restaurant that will soon be celebrating their first year anniversary, hopes this opportunity will not only grow their business, but grow their relationship with the Husker community.
“We’re a pretty local, newer restaurant in town so to partner with somebody who may just be breaking in on the NIL thing as well, for them to come up and earn some money in that and get some big, brand name recognition, it’s just pretty cool to grow with them,” Maestas said.