Grandstand

In just a few weeks, the Olympics kick off in Paris. More than $9B will be spent on spectacular stadiums, exquisite planning and logistics, and nonstop global coverage across a dizzying array of channels and platforms. Yet most Olympians themselves will be barely scraping by. 60% of Team USA athletes in 2021 made less than $25k per year. 75%+ of Team USA won’t have an agent or personal sponsors paying much more than a small stipend or a few bucks for a sponsored post or two. Unlike in the NCAA, there’s no imminent Supreme Court ruling that’s about to flip the playing field, or Caitlin Clark coming along to fundamentally change the market dynamics for these athletes. But starting today, they have the best tools available to tap into the best possible source of direct funding for athletes: their fans. Starting today, YOU can contribute directly to Olympians or Paralympians and support their journey. Through our Fan Funds, you can help them cover the mounting expenses they're juggling for things like equipment, rehab, and travel expenses. You can help them buy a plane ticket for their parents who have shown up for every big moment of their careers but can’t afford the trip to Paris to see their kid on the podium. Today, we launch Fan Fund (fanfund.grandstand.io). After Paris, we launch the best Fan Funding platform in the game. And together, we change how athletes are funded, and how sports works. Join us.

🎙️ NEW WRK & Win Episode! 🎙️ The relationship between athletes and their fans has evolved dramatically in the digital age. How can athletes foster deeper connections and create meaningful engagement beyond the field? According to Sandeep Rajan, Founder and CEO of Grandstand, a pioneering platform akin to Patreon for athletes, designed to forge direct connections with fans, embracing innovation and inclusivity is key. In this episode of WRK & WIN, host Corinne Milien talks with Sandeep about leveraging technology to create deeper, more authentic athlete-fan connections. They discuss how exclusive content and interactive experiences can strengthen fan loyalty, open new revenue streams, and reshape the sports industry. #letsdowrk #podcast #leadership https://lnkd.in/gieJvrsk

You’re one of the best women college basketball players in the world. You’re living your dream – you’re a top draft pick in the WNBA. Your salary? About $70,000 – but that’s if you make a roster. Each team only has 12 spots – and 12 teams = 144 spots in the entire WNBA. A single NFL team plus its practice squad is about 70 players (and practice squad players make $216k for the full season). Many draft picks don’t make a roster. The ones that want to keep playing move overseas, bouncing from league to league doing their best to break even. For the few that do make it, it’s far from smooth sailing. Sure, the Caitlin Clarks of the world can make up the difference through brand sponsorships, but the rest of the roster usually doesn’t have the same opportunities. Yesterday, Emily Engstler was signed to the roster of the Washington Mystics. She was a college basketball star before becoming the 4th pick in the 2022 WNBA draft. After a season with the Indiana Fever, she spent a stint overseas. Last Friday, she launched on Grandstand. On her first weekend, she had 40+ paid signups, which projects out to a few thousand dollars, a meaningful bump to her base salary. Her fans are hungry for more. To support her. To get to know her. To help her earn what she’s worth. This isn’t going to solve the pay disparity — we’re going to need to watch, attend, and promote a lot more games to get there — but there's no doubt fan funding is a core part of the athlete revenue mix of the future. Em’s season starts tonight – catch the Mystics vs. Liberty at 7pm ET. She’ll be on the court and at https://lnkd.in/dkWbn_-H.

Welcome to Grandstand, Taryn Arnold! As our athlete community grew, we knew we needed to help them understand their brand and voice and easily tell their stories despite not being full-time creators – and in doing so, help us build a self-serve athlete marketing playbook that would unlock a path to scale. As we started to think about who might help us do that, I recalled a chat last summer with Taryn Arnold (via a very timely intro from Tyler Palmer), who did pretty much just that at Patreon in its earliest days. Taryn also happened to be a former child tennis star, current Angel City season ticket holder and a very successful creator herself! After a few months of side-hustling with us and helping us identify and define our voice, Taryn joined us full-time today as we ramp up our athlete marketing efforts and prepare for a huge summer heading into the Olympics! Congrats Taryn and welcome to the team!

A few weeks ago, Chase Johnson saw James Nicholas launch on Grandstand and reached out to us. He knew he had a story to tell but didn't love doing it on social, where it takes a ton of work for an athlete to break through the noise. Soon after we started working with him on Grandstand, he received the Charlie Sifford Exemption from Tiger Woods to the Genesis Invitational, Tiger's annual tournament. The PGA TOUR was kind enough to allow us to follow Chase around for a few days and capture the story of his special week. At any given week at any major sporting event, there are countless incredible stories that get crowded out because there's only so much air time to go around. At Grandstand, we're finding new ways to combine incredible storytelling, deep fan engagement and a business model that directly benefits the athlete in a way that helps get stories like Chase's out to the world. Follow Chase in action this week on the PGA Tour at his Grandstand: grandstand.is/chasejohnson