Ahmad Nassar knows a thing or two about the commercial value of elite athletes.
As founding chief executive of OneTeam Partners and the former president of NFL Players Inc., Nassar has helped develop group licensing opportunities and maximise the collective marketing potential of top stars across a range of major team sports.
Now, as executive director of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), an independent player advocacy group set up by Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil in 2020, Nassar is working to create new earning opportunities for male and female tennis players internationally. Installed in August, the American also doubles as chief executive of the Winners Alliance, the PTPA’s for-profit commercial arm.
In this episode, Nassar sheds light on what the PTPA is – and also what it isn’t. On the agenda:
- The creation of the PTPA (23:47)
- Why tennis players need collective representation (26:55)
- Providing financial security and improving working conditions for players (29:36)
- The PTPA model and its place in tennis (35:15)
- What the Winners Alliance hopes to achieve (39:54)
- Structuring, valuing and negotiating group licensing agreements (44:02)
- Making money from the PTPA (54:50)
- Lessons from golf for the tennis status quo (57:46)
Prior to George’s conversation with Ahmad, SportsPro editorial director Michael Long dials in to discuss some of the big – and not-so-big – sports business stories of the week, including reports that Fenway Sports Group is looking to offload Premier League giants Liverpool (00:35), the NBA’s latest private equity venture (07:58), and news of fresh investment in pickleball (12:25).
