Previous iterations of the PRO2CEO Report have examined the most successful transitions of former professional athletes in modern day sport. This includes a brief look into the respective business portfolios of these athletes, trends against more unique paths, and additional insight into the next wave of current athletes aiming to set themselves up for excellence in transition. The overarching purpose remains the same for this Fall 2024 edition. However, this latest entry will also mark two PRO2CEO firsts: an individual sport and male and female combined rankings. 

To date, the PRO2CEO Report has maintained a focus exclusively on team sports. Major League Baseball was first and was followed by the NFL. Each side of basketball was also examined in subsequent reports, with the WNBA following our examination of NBA transitions late last year. The report’s transition over to the individual side will introduce new factors and raise a number of thought-provoking questions as part of the discussion of transition, while at the same time maintaining the focus on traveling the same avenues as previous editions.

The PRO2CEO Report has traditionally highlighted two main groups within both Honorable Mention and the list itself. The former highlights successful business endeavors that have led to accumulated wealth, but not quite inside of the main list threshold, due to the list’s organization by net worth. Athletes who fall within this group may not fall into the top earners since their transition – the basis on which the list is organized – but still merit a mention due to their aspirations since leaving sport. These typically include start-ups that have less of a historical standard or are more specific to their sport. The latter, though, represents a more black-and-white group, wherein they have straightforward business pursuits that fall within a more traditional model. This has allowed them to reach certain thresholds of business success and leads directly to their placement deemed as one of the “top” transitions. Regardless, the organizational component of ordered-by-earnings remains a practical means of organization and not an actual limitation on successful transition. Notably, our findings can change yearly upon the success of a top 10 or 20 and honorable mention list of former athletes as they elevate or fall out depending on their business. This could occur as an individual athlete experiences substantial gains to knock a current athlete out of the top list and or decline due the everchanging business landscape. 

Individual sports, naturally, feature plenty of former athletes who have gone a traditional business route. This includes standard investments and ownership stakes. What is fairly unique about individual sports, however, is the direction non-traditional routes have gone for certain athletes. These might include a product or brand almost exclusively within the athletic space they occupy (tennis, in this case). Interestingly, these less traditional routes have allowed individual athletes to maintain a presence directly within their sport, largely in a way that we don’t typically see within the team sport arena, save for those who might be coaches or commentators. 

This is also to say nothing of the longevity that many individual sports provide. While team sports offer a clear threshold between active and retired, many individual sport athletes – tennis included – are able to remain in competition well beyond their days of upper tier competition in non-major events or lower-level circuits. This has led to a much higher volume of athletes remaining in participation. As such, it makes tracking the cumulative transitions of all tennis athletes a much more cumbersome task.

The questions raised by this edition of the PRO2CEO Report are borne almost directly out of these factors. Tennis is an individual sport. While it features coaching & a team behind-the-scenes in the same way, these athletes are part of their own individual brand and persona. As such, one must wonder about a number of elements. How do individual sport athletes measure in terms of earnings? Given that tennis, like golf or boxing, is a merit-based sport, the earnings vary more drastically. There is not the level of stability that team sport athletes may find there. That question, at least, is an easy one to answer. It does, though, only lead to more.

Regardless of more or less in earnings, does the individual nature of their sport have an impact on transition? Are they seeking a more traditional path in business? Or does the publicity granted by serving as their own entity allow for them to step outside of the typical venture capital or investment strategies that we have witnessed in previous editions? Does the individualized component present more unique opportunities than the more standard approach wrought by being part of a collective (i.e. team sport)? These questions read as almost identical, but they speak to one of the more worthwhile components of this edition. As in all editions, we measure the type of transition against its counterparts in the world of sport. Baseball transition was different than football transition. NBA & WNBA more different still. Tennis offers us a unique opportunity to step almost entirely outside of the mainstream idea of athletic transition that we have examined to date.

It’s a complex study. But complexity represents a thematic concept within examining an individual sport. These athletes are the sun at the center of their own solar system. As we navigate the idea of transition itself as part of this edition, we must also seek to answer the myriad questions that arise within the complex nature of individual vs. team sport.