Glue Guys
Episode 36 Should Athletes Get Equity?
Glue Guys

Episode 36: Should Athletes Get Equity?

Glue Guys

Episode 36

Should Athletes Get Equity?

Shane Battier, Ravi Gupta and Alex Smith are the hosts of Glue Guys, an exploration of their favorite lessons from the worlds of sports and business. We cover how team dynamics change when players have ownership stakes, how to best balance individual compensation with team success, and how salary constraints have historically undervalued star players.

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Show Notes:

(00:01:35) The Debate Around Athletes and Equity Compensation

(00:04:42) Player Impact Versus Replaceability Across Sports

(00:08:32) How Equity Changes Motivation and Performance

(00:12:27) Sports Financial Models: European Versus American

(00:16:46) Who Benefits From League Optimization?

(00:19:51) The Monopoly Power of Major Sports Leagues

(00:25:29) Five Factors in Professional Athlete Satisfaction

(00:31:03) Free Agent Contracts and Team Chemistry

(00:34:14) Why Equity is Motivating

(00:37:39) Does Star Player Equity Disrupt Team Dynamics?

(00:42:31) Compensation Transparency in Sports Versus Business

(00:48:15) Why Unicorn Talent Demands Extraordinary Compensation

(00:55:38) Athletes' Weight Management During and After Careers

Should Athletes Get Equity?

Should Athletes Receive Equity?

Ravi
The obvious question is sort of like, should athletes receive equity as part of their compensation? At the professional level or at the college level? Which one do you want to talk about?

Shane
Oh boy, professional.

Ravi
Great. So professional. The obvious answer that would endear me to lots of people, I think, who are athletes is "yes, obviously they should. They're the product, they're the talent, whatever." I just don't. I think the answer is certain guys should get some and most guys shouldn't get any would be my guess.

I think the reason for that is, if you take an NFL or NBA franchise right now, and you imagine that they're worth a certain amount of money when somebody buys it—let's say they're worth five to $10 billion when somebody buys it—the question is what are they going to be worth in the future? And how much of that is attributable to any one specific player.

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