Patricof Co's Rare Metals Fund For Athletes

Athletes Are Now Walking Hedge Funds

A decade ago, athlete investing meant a sneaker deal or a seed check into a brand they loved. Now, the best athlete-investors are starting to look more like CIOs: activist stakes in consumer turnarounds, precious-metals sleeves to hedge the market, and even NCAA stars stepping into professional team ownership before their first pro contract.

Just in the past few weeks:

• Patricof & Co. launched P/Co Metals, a precious metals fund for athletes to invest in amidst a roaring surge in the sector.

• Travis Kelce, with JANA Partners, took a 9% activist investor stake in a turnaround deal to save Six Flags.

• JuJu Watkins, a USC women’s basketball star, leveraged NIL earnings to invest in the Boston Legacy NWSL franchise – even before her own first pro contract.

The perfect storm of athlete’s distribution power, smart infrastructure around them, and timely market opportunities are literally turning some athletes into walking hedge funds.

Let’s dig in.

Athlete Compensation Is Ballooning

Amongst the big four U.S. leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL), total player salaries exceeded $21B+ last year. This is a 74% increase since a decade ago. Amongst just the top 10 highest-paid, elite athletes took home $1.38B in 2024, up +24% from the year prior.

With headline contract deals now hitting $300M-$700M (ex: Shohei Ohtani’s $700M MLB deal, and Jaylen Brown’s $304M NBA extension), athletes are now positioned, and properly moving like sophisticated investors. Many are earning $20-50M+ annually, creating war chests for diversified portfolios.

But high pay doesn’t equal safety. Athlete finances have historically been volatile: short on-field earning windows, lump sum bonus structures, and average high-spend have led to substantial post career stress. Financial risk remains real; an NBER study found ~16% of NFL players file for bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement.

With record salaries making headlines each year, we thought it’d be interesting to analyze the evolution of their wealth accumulation & preservation.

What began as forward-thinking athletes trading their name, image, and likeness for endorsements and occasional equity has now transformed into multi-strategy investment platforms powered by larger-than-life personal brands. Here’s how athlete investing has evolved – and where it’s headed.

Players → Portfolio Managers

As eye-catching as it is to see compensation balloon to highs every year, the more interesting story is the new infrastructure being built around athletes to preserve & grow their capital.

As we speak, macro tailwinds are allowing athletes to diversify their portfolios in unique ways that extend beyond the traditional early-stage equity investments we see in the headlines.

1. P/Co’s Precious Metals Fund for Athletes: The precious metals market is trading near all-time highs after a blockbuster year, with gold up +60% YTD, silver hitting +85% YTD, and platinum/palladium rebounding 60-70% with the auto & green-tech demand.
   1. This stems from a perfect vortex: persistent 2-3% inflation, U.S.-China trade tensions, aggressive central bank gold buying, Fed rate cuts weakening the dollar, and explosive industrial use.
   2. For high-net-worth athletes managing $20M-$100M+, this presents an entry into an inflation-beating asset class.
2. Travis Kelce’s Activism Capital & Personal Brand to Save Six Flags: Through his LP stake in the firm, Travis Kelce & JANA Partners disclosed a 9% activist stake (~$200M) for a turnaround push in Six Flags Entertainment.
   1. The theme-park operator shares have fallen ~ -47% YTD amid post-merger integration failures, weak attendance, and outdated guest experiences.
   2. Kelce, a lifelong Six Flags fan, is bringing along his 150M+ social reach, podcast platform, and authentic enthusiasm to revive the company. The stock jumped 18% on announcement alone.
   3. For other athletes, this is a playbook: leverage personal brand and fan followings to unlock value in consumer-facing, distressed public companies.
3. The 20-Year-Old Who Invested in a Pro Team While Still In College: JuJu Watkins, a USC women’s basketball phenom, just became the first active NCAA athlete to directly acquire a minority stake in a professional sports franchise.
   1. The reigning Naismith Player of the Year, used her NIL earnings as seed capital for one of the highest growth assets in sports - the new NWSL Boston Legacy FC team – alongside Caleb Williams, Aly Raisman, and a powerhouse group of investors.
   2. The silver-lining is this NIL boom is creating new pools of capital for younger athletes to invest from. Rising stars are building enough influence and capital to build pre-pro empires in appreciating assets that outpace traditional investments.

The Future: Will Athlete Capital Be Used For Special Situations Investing?

As athlete compensation continues to rise year-over-year, players & the people around them becoming financially smarter, and younger generations accumulating wealth at unprecedented rates, what will the future of their investing look like?

We believe the next evolution of athlete capital may be special situations investing - deals that are short-dated, highly structured, and creatively financed. Think revenue-backed loans for venue upgrades, or working-capital bridges tied to attendance performance for emerging teams & leagues in dire need of cash. To take it a step even further, is there also a future where athlete capital is pooled for non-sports special situation financing – like emergency funding to keep local airports afloat amidst a government shutdown or help prevent shutdowns all together?

While the latter is unlikely in the near term, the trend is that athlete capital continues to expand in domains we’d never expect. Athletes of the past posed for endorsements so the athletes of today can allocate like active portfolio managers.

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