Alternative Sports’ Future Rise and What It Means to Everyone

In this episode of The GaryVee Audio Experience, I talk about how emerging sports can build a fan base by overdelivering for the people who show up first. I share why deep fan relationships, athlete personalities, and social media distribution matter for growth. I also discuss the appeal of team fandom, the opportunities I see in women's sports, and why curiosity and creativity should push you to dream bigger. You'll learn about: Overdelivering for Your First Fans Building Athlete and Team Brands Social Media and Fan Growth The Rise of Women's Sports Curiosity, Creativity, and Bigger Ambitions

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is the Gary Vee Audio Experience.

• 0:04Speaker 01

  Exciting times. Football season is back and we're in this new era of the rise of alternative sports, like pickleball, wiffleball. So, looking back, it's again, hard to believe that Super Bowl I didn't even sell out. With that in mind, what key factors allow alternative sports to build authentic fanbases from the bottom up?

• 0:24Speaker 00

  Well, I think you gotta first over-deliver for the fans that are there in the beginning, right? It's kind of being like a rock band or a rapper that you have those hundred fans at first that like you before the world knows you. You have to go insane. And me as a content creator, those early, you know, it's funny, I have it here, those early wine fans, like, I went deep with them. I knew like their children's names. So, I think, you know, when I think about what we're going through with pickleball and wiffleball specifically, because I'm very close to those two at the time of this recording, like, just overvaluing the experience those fans have, interacting with them on social media, going depth, deep, deep, deep on your hardcore fans, that first thousand fans really matter to get traction. They become virality,

• 1:06Speaker 00

  they spread your name. And then, just like, you know, with bands and artists, when you get big, they get mad that the whole world discovered you, even though they were a part of that journey and probably wanted it deep down anyway. And so, that's one huge thing, just going deep on the fandom, solidifying that base, and then taking advantage of the modern distribution channels. Like, to me, it's hardcore fandom and hardcore social media content and distribution to get more of the world to understand what you're about, and developing the athletes, that superhero syndrome that I talk about with sports, Broadway Joe Namath, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson, Katelyn Clark, Angel Reese, Steph

• 1:51Speaker 00

  Curry, Ronda Rousey, and then in sports entertainment, Hulk Hogan. Like, the celebrity of your athlete matters.

• 2:00Speaker 02

  Gee, to that point, about a third of Gen Z says that they follow athletes, individuals over teams. Curious, we have a fun scenario. If you had $500 million to invest sports-wise, do you buy, you go a franchise that you really love, or do you build a portfolio of, say, 50 or 100 elite athlete brands? Is there one that speaks more to the future?

• 2:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, the problem is with the 500 million athlete brands, if I'm buying into their NIL and their contract, that's the biggest no-brainer of all time. But you're not really afforded that. So, what do you do with that 500 million? Do you start CPG brands with LeBron and, you know, Steph Curry and Katelyn Clark and Angel Reese and da-da-da? Maybe. So, I think that's important. I think the leverage of the athlete is very real. And then, obviously, because of fantasy sports and trading cards and sports betting, you know, I'm a dying breed where I love you when you're on the Jets and I hate you when you're not.

• 3:10Speaker 03

  Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change, your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time. Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.

• 3:29Speaker 00

  And let there be no confusion for the sake of the video. Every former Jet, the ones that I've talked to and had dinner with, I don't like you anymore. Like, I like you in real life as a human, and I'm very cordial and sweet and nice and I'm raised well by a great mom, but like, it's crazy. Like, and then in the reverse, like, when someone gets traded or signed by the Jets that I hated with, I mean, I hated, you know, Bart Scott when he was on the Ravens, and now I love him with all my heart. So, you know, team fandom is a dying sport. But if you've got it, there's, I will die on this hill. Being a diehard of a team is the best feeling. That journey is the coolest. Actually, I feel

• 4:11Speaker 00

  like a lot of kids, grownups, miss out on awesomeness when they're player-centric. I understand why they do it. Often, people go player-centric as a source of self-esteem. All my most insecure friends in high school were Michael Jordan fans. They thought because he was a winner, that they were a winner. That's all I have to say about it.

• 4:33Speaker 01

  Gee, in a recent podcast, you talked about kidulting, kid and adults getting together, playing tag, board games, hide and seek. What connection can you draw between kidulting, nostalgia, this analog trend you speak on, and the rise of alternative sports?

• 4:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think kidulting, kind of more play, more gaming, is actually a compliment to what we know adults do. You know this, Courtney, we played basketball together. I'm, it's weird, I'm a 50-year-old man and I'm like out there like that. That we know, that we know, like pickleball, golf, tennis, like, the one kidulting thing that has been consistent is grownups play sport. A lot of them do it for health and wellness reasons, others do it to get their competitive spirit out, community. So, sports, alternative sports, the rise of sports, even the rise of analog, get off your phone, get off your devices, sports is gonna continue to be a winner of the two trends of people trying to stay youthful,

• 5:29Speaker 00

  like, trying to stay in health and wellness, like, sports is a benefit. A lot of people play pickleball in their 60s and 70s for health and wellness reasons, you know, ping-pong for brains. Like, there's a lot of cool stuff when people get older. That was always a thing. But I think, I think sports has been so dominant for so long, activity-wise. I do think there's an uptick, but I don't think it's the kidulting or analog movement. I think those are like sprinkles, not the main, like, maybe there's a 2%, 5%, 8% lift, not

• 6:10Speaker 00

  like board games exploding and going up 5,000% because so many of us are like, oh, wait, like, we're gonna start doing board game Friday nights, because how much screen time can we really handle?

• 6:22Speaker 01

  Cool. Kind of going into that a little bit, just with some hard, like, numbers. So, pickleball exploded from 4.2 million US players in 2020 to over 24 million in 2025. And many of these participants are retirees. So, kind of like going back into that. So, how likely is it on a business side that your grandma is going to be the next face of Nike? Is that an opportunity?

• 6:46Speaker 00

  I don't, you know, I think we talked about this once before. I don't, you know, your grandma, you know, probably not, because what's happening in pickleball is the players are getting better by the hour, meaning the best pickleball players five years ago, when I got into involved in the sport, now you've got former, you know, D1 tennis players, like, that's gonna elevate and now pass. Now, Grandma being a viral hit is real. Nike's not gonna sign Grandma, but like, an emerging brand, you know, a brand that's targeting 50 to 80-year-olds to take vitamins, they'll, they'll sign a Grandma that's killing it on the court if she has 100,000 followers on TikTok and makes, you know, clips of her playing pickleball,

• 7:30Speaker 00

  like, that's real. More interestingly, pickleball is the only sport where Grandma can beat her 19-year-old granddaughter. The only one, physical sport, and that is super cool.

• 7:41Speaker 02

  Gee, you called the sports cards, boom, you've called TikTok, obviously, the list goes on of early calls. Pickleball, you've been early. Do you have like a next pickleball that comes to mind, something that's maybe relatively on the smaller side, but you're a long-term bullish on? I know you've talked about, like, three-on-three and paddle and other, other all sports.

• 8:03Speaker 00

  I'm not involved currently, but I am definitely looking at women's volleyball and softball.

• 8:11Speaker 00

  And those are like not me predicting, like, I didn't say anything profound there. I just think that they're ripe. You know, I really like where women's sports is at. You know, I think WNBA, UFC. I mean, if you want to look at where women's sport is actually the most accepted and like the most like wow, it's UFC. Like, the UFC embraces those female fighters like at the same level. And you saw it with Ronda Rousey years ago, but it's like it was deeper than that. Like, I'm pumped for the main event or COME event on November 14th of this year, has a crazy UFC fight, Nina Harris. Like, I just, so, I think, I

• 8:51Speaker 00

  think softball and, and volleyball, there's multiple leagues, I think, in both that are running around there. I've not gotten involved yet as an investor or team owner, but they smell ripe, even if it's not one of the two current leagues in each of those sports that hits. They feel ripe to me. Squash.

• 9:17Speaker 00

  You know, squash, I think, you know, has a shot.

• 9:20Speaker 01

  So what lesson can someone learn from this market like in their own business, even if it's non-sports related, marketing wise?

• 9:27Speaker 00

  Well, I mean, marketing wise, like, I don't know if anybody's heard, but I'm into social media, you know, and so like that I, and it's kind of a funny joke I'm making here at the end of this video or article, but like, I think it continues to be underestimated. It's almost like we can't believe how real this is, which is like whether you're a music artist or, you know, a pizza maker or an athlete or someone in the backyard inventing a game. I mean, pickleball was invented by a couple of people in Washington state. They just did it. Like they really invented it not that long ago. Maybe 40, 50 years ago, right? Like, you know, weird that is 50 years ago, like, like literally somebody might watch this

• 10:11Speaker 00

  interview right now and their friends have been coming up with a variant. Like, why can't you invent football or basketball? Like, it's kind of like the world doesn't realize that like you can do it. Like, I watched UFC get invented right in my face.

• 10:28Speaker 00

  In high school, college, I just watched it. So like, the lesson to everyone is dream bigger. You know, I talk a lot about being Stanley and Walt Disney with B friends and people laugh, laugh, laugh. And I'm like, why?

• 10:42Speaker 00

  Like, why can't you? And so I think it should be intoxicating for people that literally two people, like three kids in a dorm room could be watching this right now and like have been playing some weird variant of hockey or baseball or basketball or and just can invent something. I think it's cool.

• 11:02Speaker 00

  The intoxication of curiosity and creativity is the punchline.

• 11:08Speaker 02

  Gee, one more, one more quick one here before we bounce. You, you posted a video, I think it was a few weeks ago about just with, with collectibles and like keeping people a little measured. It's a, it's a great time to like in a bull market, like just kind of take your profits. Don't get crazy. I'm curious how you sort of balance that view with the soaring valuations and, and things like pickleball and paddle. Some of the franchises are up 50x. Like what is, do you keep a long-term view in mind? You're just playing a lot longer than people. Or how do you sort of just balance how bullish other people are in this space? Um, while also, you know, remaining confident in, in.

• 11:46Speaker 00

  You mean worrying about it being overvalued?

• 11:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:51Speaker 00

  Valuations are fake.

• 11:54Speaker 00

  You know, meaning when you're like me and you're trying to build something long-term, you're not worried if things, it's kind of like buying a stock right now that you know you're going to hold on to for 20 years. Does it really matter if it was 800 bucks yesterday and now it's 300? And then like for two years, it's that only gets back to 350 and you're like, damn, two years ago was 800. Like, if you're thinking in 20 years, you're like, well, it might be 1600. Like, I'm kind of not into the short-term noise. But I also don't get high on my own supply, meaning, you know, pickle and like all these things I'm in are doing really well. They could also go to zero. There's a lot more executing to be done. I mean, I like the USFL as much as I like the NFL in 1984.

• 12:38Speaker 00

  I liked the New Jersey Generals as much as I liked the Jets, the first season of the USFL. And the second season, then the league didn't make it. And so there's a lot of work to be done. I don't, I don't get distracted by things that don't affect me. And if you're not selling something, the price of it at that moment doesn't affect you.

• 12:59Speaker 00

  And that's how I do well with collectibles.

• 13:04Speaker 00

  I buy things for the long-term and I don't get upset if it's like half the price that it was when it was a bubble or red hot a month ago. It's not, I don't sell it. You know, if you don't sell something, you can't make the money or lose the money.

• 13:21Speaker 00

  That's my scoop. Thank you for the opportunity to chat. See ya. Everybody, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes. They're loaded. I appreciate your attention and thanks for being part of this.

• 13:36Speaker 03

  Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5 only at McDonald's for a limited time.

• 13:48Speaker 04

  Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.

• 13:51Speaker 00

  Journey. See you later.