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A Taste To Start
Sports are only sports until someone who doesn’t give a damn about sports has something to gain from them; then sports suddenly become economics.
Market Tasting
The Cellar — Alternative assets, ranked by momentum
Tastemaker’s Note
Let’s look at the hard facts: sports is the original alternative asset →
- The 1952 Mantle card at $12.6 million.
- The Kashmir sapphire Sabalenka wore to the US Open.
- The game-worn jersey that outlasts the season, the franchise, and sometimes the sport itself. What's happening now is the formalization of something collectors have always known: proximity to greatness holds value. The gemstone market is up 30–40% in two years not only because of jewelry trends but because untreated, origin-certified stones are the new portable wealth and athletes are wearing the portfolio. Sports memorabilia is a $70 billion market growing at 18% annually. In 2026, the most interesting alternative investments are sitting courtside. Sports is the connective tissue of the alternative investment world. Here, the watch gets worn, the jet gets chartered, the hotel gets built, the gemstone gets its moment, and the card gets its story. The story gets retold and market simply explodes…
Letter From The Tastemaker
If you’ve ever sat in a stadium to watch a game, the energy is untamed, ferocious, completely unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. Personally, for me, that energy sits in tennis.
Even if you don’t like sports, I challenge you to try it. Get tickets to a game, sit close enough to be forced to pay attention, and watch the spectacle unfold before your eyes.
Something incredibly special is happening in sports right now. Family Offices & VC’s have always invested in memorabilia, teams, athletes, and more. One of my contacts consistently seeks $25-million worth of sports assets for her FO annually.
Sports is after all, the connective tissue of the alternative investment world.
Hotels, especially branded residences and athlete-backed properties like Messi's MiM hotel empire, have quietly become one of the most compelling plays in the sports investment stack, where the name on the jersey becomes the name above the door and the asset appreciates on both.
Meanwhile, diamonds and gemstones are center stage at the US Open, as Aryna Sabalenka (world #1) graces us with her newest 127-ct. necklace and earrings set full of color.
The stunning set was designed by New York jeweler Material Good for the 2026 US Open: sapphire, tourmaline, garnet and tanzanite stones chosen to reflect "the energy and multiculturalism of New York City." Material Good's design lead, Atara Lev, called it the brand's "boldest look yet," engineered specifically for durability and movement during play.
The underlying story here is, “Why now, and what actually counts as a sports asset?” Better yet, why is capital pouring in, and what, specifically, is it buying?
Because it's clearly not just teams anymore.
A few weeks before Sabalenka's necklace made headlines, an ocean away, Ralph Lauren was running a version of the same play at Wimbledon →
building an entire three-week "clubhouse" on Sloane Square, Ralph's Coffee pavilion and all, just to be close to the All England Club for a stretch of June
Lacoste has been doing this even longer: fifty years as Roland-Garros' exclusive textile partner, and this year they parked a full café inside The Plaza for the Open, two blocks from where Sabalenka was warming up.
Neither brand needed to sell a single croissant to make that math work. What they were actually buying was proximity, to be seen nearby or handed a seat inside a moment they couldn't manufacture on their own.
(Photo: Tennis Warehouse)
In a recent survey of 111 billionaire family-office principals overseeing more than $500 billion, the share holding controlling stakes in sports teams jumped from 6% to 20% in just three years.
Team ownership is now their favorite specialty asset. Yes, that’s ahead of art, ahead of cars, ahead of nearly everything else old money has historically chased.
One of them said it plainly: "This is a business pleasure, and something we really want to do. We are making a lot of money over time." (Fortune)
Which brings me back to my contact and her $25 million sports asset search.
She's not chasing a hobby either. She works entirely on sports deals, assets and concepts that grow over time.
So, you see → Hotels, diamonds, coffee shops, a wearable company you've probably strapped to your own wrist are courses on the same menu.
None of it is a coincidence. We break down exactly how it connects below.
(Read The Future of Sports Ownership from Five-Course Tasting 👇)
Trend Forecast
What’s Shaping The World
Tastemaker’s Note
A quick note before you dig in to the tasting: none of these five are about buying a team because that's the old version of this story. The real money is moving into the layers underneath it.
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5-Course Thursday Tasting
Inside the $495B Sports Ownership (+ Future of Sports Invesments)
The First Bite 🫒
Setting the table for transformation
🏟️ Buying the team is no longer the pointSports ownership is a $495 billion industry, and one of the fastest-growing corners of alternative investing that family offices can't stop chasing.
→ The entry checks start at $25 million.
→ The marquee deals top $10 billion.
→ And the team itself is often the least interesting thing being bought.This week we break down who is building the next generation of sports assets, why the capital keeps pouring in, and where the openings still are for anyone looking to get in.
Some investments come with dividends. Others come with courtside seats, chicken nuggets, and my favorite, caviar.
Choose your portfolio accordingly. And remember: invest in things worth watching.
P.S. Like my style (and taste)? Work with me.
