Ellie Sarmadi | Thravos

The wealthiest athletes didn't build their fortunes from playing alone. Jordan: $4.3B. Federer: $1.1B. Magic: $1.6B. LeBron: $1.4B. Their real wealth came from equity, ownership, and business ventures. The sport was the platform. Ownership built the wealth. #AthleteEconomy

No woman cracked Forbes' top 50 highest-paid athletes list again. Gauff: $35.5M. Forbes cutoff: $54.6M. Meanwhile, top tennis players say they're underpaid. Wimbledon player share: 15% NFL: 48% NBA: ~50% The tournaments are thriving. #WomensSports #AthleteEconomy

$1.5B+ in the @NFL 's top 10 offseason contracts. ~1,200 players cut two weeks ago. Same league. Same season. The lesson: athletes need revenue streams they own, not just contracts they don't control. That's the future we're building at Thravos. #AthleteEconomy#SportsBusiness

Athletes create the product, but often have little say in the economics around it. Federations have votes. Investors have equity. Players need more ownership. That’s part of what we’re building at Thravos.

Meta just settled for $18 billion. Athletes can build huge audiences on Instagram, but they don't own them. Social creates visibility. Direct fan relationships create long-term value. That's the gap @thravos_io is built to close.

The next wave of sports growth may come from everything being built around the game. Media, technology, data, fan engagement, and athlete businesses are creating a much larger ecosystem. The game creates attention. The infrastructure around it creates long-term value.

Penn State (LiveLike) and Mizzou (WMT Digital) are building first-party fan ecosystems. Sports is shifting from audience measurement to direct fan relationships. Attention gets fans. Participation builds relationships.

College athletics is learning that owning the fan relationship creates long-term value. Athletes should be able to build the same asset around their own careers. The institution owns its fan relationship. The athlete should own theirs.

Women’s sports drew 28.6B minutes of U.S. viewership in the first half of 2026, up 18%. Ad spend is up 120% since 2022. The demand question has been answered. Now the opportunity is building the businesses and infrastructure around that attention.

Sports is becoming an asset class. Capital is moving beyond teams into media, technology, data, and fan engagement. The opportunity is increasingly everything built around the game.

Jaylen Brown earns $60.7M this season. But athlete wealth isn't just about the size of the contract. Contracts expire. Careers end. The athletes who build lasting wealth build income that doesn't retire when they do. #SportsBusiness #AthleteEconomy

For decades, media rights were something sports organizations sold. They're increasingly becoming assets that attract capital. The business of sports is evolving far beyond the field. #SportsBusiness #BusinessOfSports

Caitlin Clark earns about $527K from the WNBA this season. She earns about $16M from endorsements. The league salary was never the point. Salary pays for performance. The market pays for audience. That's where the biggest commercial opportunities in sports are being created.

Everyone wants more sports fans. I think that's the wrong goal. The goal is owning the relationship with the fans you already have. Reach gets attention. Relationships create businesses. That's where the next decade of sports is headed.

College sports has moved from NIL to revenue sharing. Now the conversation is shifting to collective bargaining. Whether you agree with it or not, the direction is clear. Athletes are becoming active participants in shaping the business of sports, not just performers within it.

Sports doesn't have a data problem. It has a decision problem. Teams, leagues, and athletes have more data than ever before. The organizations that win won't be the ones collecting the most. They'll be the ones turning data into better decisions, stronger fan relationships, and new revenue.

The 2026 World Cup generated: • 20B video views • 17B social impressions • 6B people engaged Yet almost none of those moments created a direct relationship between athletes and fans. Attention is valuable. Ownership of the audience is even more valuable.

For decades, the sports business was built on attention. The next decade will be built on participation. The organizations that create the most opportunities for athletes, fans, brands, and creators to engage year-round will build the most durable businesses.

LeBron James is deciding whether to retire. His bank account already did. His NBA salary built a career. Equity built his wealth. The athletes who create lasting wealth don't just earn from playing. They build assets that continue creating value long after the final game.

The biggest story about the Swift-Kelce wedding isn't the wedding. It's the business model. Travis Kelce was already an elite athlete with endorsements, a growing podcast, and commercial infrastructure. Taylor Swift didn't build it. She amplified it. Performance creates attention. Audience creates opportunity. Infrastructure turns both into long-term value.