The Athlete Value Stack
Its a game of trust and relevance.
Brands don’t buy athletes. They rent trust.
The problem? Athletes keep selling excellence while brands are shopping for relevance.
This is why negotiations feel broken on both sides. Athletes walk in with medal counts. CMOs walk in chasing follower counts. Both are measuring the wrong things.
Excellence is objective. It’s also boring. Relevance is subjective, narrative-driven, and—here’s the part most miss—negotiable.
The Proof Is Already Here
Ilona Maher won bronze in women’s rugby at Paris 2024. Niche sport. Third-place finish. By traditional metrics, she shouldn’t command top-tier deals.
Adidas signed her anyway. Not for rugby. For confidence. Her TikTok presence—body positivity, behind-the-scenes humour, radical relatability—made a niche sport feel universal. She didn’t sell rugby. She sold belonging.
Mikel Oyarzabal scored the winning goal at Euro 2024. But his commercial value to Basque sponsors like Kutxabank isn’t the trophy. It’s his more than 400 appearances for Real Sociedad. It’s being one of us in a region where loyalty is currency.
Both earn above their ranking because they possess assets the traditional model doesn’t even measure.
The Commercial Value Stack
Four dimensions that actually drive partnership ROI—for athletes to inventory, for CMOs to scout:
1. Story Assets: Your narrative isn’t background noise—it’s leverage. Comebacks, causes, origin stories. These are the reasons someone stops scrolling.
→ Do you have a story audiences can see themselves in?
2. Community Depth: A thousand fans who’d buy anything you recommend beats a million passive followers. The question isn’t how many people see you. It’s how many people trust you.
→ Does your audience act, or just watch?
3. Geographic Moat: In a fragmented world, local legitimacy is a defensive asset. Regional roots create resonance that global fame can’t fake.
→ Is there a place where your word carries weight?
4. Category Ownership: The most valuable athletes aren’t the best. They’re the only ones who can claim a specific space. Positioning beats ranking. Every time.
→ Can you finish this sentence: “I’m the only athlete who ______”?
The Scorecard
For each dimension, two gut-check questions:
Story Assets
Can I articulate my narrative in one sentence?
Has my story ever made someone feel something?
Community Depth
Do my followers reply—or just like?
Would 100 of them buy something I genuinely recommended?
Geographic Moat
Is there a region where I’m known by first name?
Could a local brand activate with me in-person, tomorrow?
Category Ownership
What space do I own that no one else claims?
If I disappeared, would anyone fill that exact gap?
Three or more “yes” answers in any single category? You’re more valuable than your ranking suggests.
The Implication
For athletes: Know your stack before you negotiate. Your medals got you the meeting. Your story assets close the deal.
For CMOs: The best partnerships live in the gap between perception and reality. Your competitors are chasing reach. You can rent trust—at a fraction of the price.
Excellence wins medals. Belonging wins markets.
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