There’s never been a better time to be an athlete.
Lionel Messi had quite a lucrative choice:
- $1.6 billion to play in Saudia Arabia
- Or $150 million + equity to join Inter Miami (MLS), and revenue-sharing agreements with Adidas, Apple, and Fanatics
He chose option #2 and is still getting money from Saudi Arabia.
And while $1.6B sounds ludicrous to turn down — when you account for his legacy, building up US soccer, living in Miami, equity in the team and revenue shares it’s “overall” more valuable.
I bring this up to make a clear point…
Athletes rarely turn down bigger contracts, unless they have other plays behind the scenes.
Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, & TMRW Sports
First off, you probably didn’t know this but…
TMRW Sports, is a cool way to spell ‘tomorrow,’ but it’s also an acronym for Tiger-McIlroy-Rory-Woods.
Anyway, what is it?
They give us the generic answer of “a sports, media, and entertainment brand that has teams and TopGolf-like competition events”.
But hear me out…
- Do you think Tiger Woods turned down $800M from Saudi Arabia because of his morals?
- Do you think Rory McIlroy would turn down $400M because of legacy?
No, it’s because these high-profile golfers most likely have other plays at hand.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tiger and Rory do something with TMRW Sports, Popstroke, and their other golf assets.
Maybe they try to lure PGA players and package it up and sell it to the highest bidder.
On top of that…
I could see TMRW Sports going into pickleball eventually and paying enormous sums to tennis players to switch over.
I’ll leave you with this question…
Is TMRW Sports the next conglomerate for the PIF (Saudi Arabia) to acquire?
Athletes Are Capatalists
Athletes will go where the money is — especially towards the end of their career.
And when you look at why some players took the Saudi money and others didn’t:
- Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, and Cristiano Ronaldo viewed that as the best financial decision
- Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, and Lionel Messi believe they have better plays at hand
A lot of founders ask me for advice on winning over athlete investors.
To me, it’s less about the actual investment opportunity…
And more about telling the story of how your product/service can help benefit the athlete beyond just financial gains.
