Launched this week
Open Athletes
The Sports Business Daily Show
12 followers
The Sports Business Daily Show
12 followers
The sports business daily show. Hosted by Jeremy Wolf (former MLB draft pick). Live 10-11a ET every weekday.
12 followers
12 followers
I watched too many teammates retire with nothing after their careers ended; no job, no prospects, no idea what's next. I knew exactly what athletes needed, because I lived it.
Open Athletes lives at the intersection of sports, entrepreneurship, and technology. Our platform is the gateway to a network athlete-founders have never had, built and designed by a community of like-minded people who think and believe like they do.
My biggest takeaway after leaving the game: The system isn't designed for the athlete. It's designed around them.
I grew up in Arizona playing baseball. It was the only thing I knew how to do, and by the time I got to Trinity University I was good enough to lead the country in doubles, hit over .400 as a senior, and walk off the field as a Division III national champion (Go Tigers!). Two weeks later the Mets called my name in the 31st round of the draft. The signing bonus was $5,000, and getting my equipment for pro ball cost most of it.
That summer I made less than $800 a month. We shared hotel rooms, slept on floors, and ate what we could afford. The official line was that minor league baseball is a meritocracy: play well, you move up. The actual line is that you can be one of the best athletes in the country in May and out of a job by October. My back gave out in 2017, and they released me a few weeks after the season ended.
Nobody tells you what to do next. You walk out of a clubhouse where you've spent every waking hour for a decade and you don't know what you are anymore. I had a degree in Communications and a story most people didn't want to hear. My teammates were the same: smart, disciplined, broke, invisible. Half of them were back home in a month, working entry-level jobs, wondering what happened and what to do next.
I needed a reset, so I joined a national team and chased one more shot at the game. We played in Bulgaria, then Lithuania, Germany, and Italy, and qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. I moved abroad to coach and train. For the first time since I was eighteen I had time to think.
What I kept coming back to was "the system." The reason my teammates were struggling wasn't character, it was structure. Minor leaguers had no advocacy, no organized voice, no infrastructure. So I started one. More Than Baseball was a Twitter account and a link to donate: cleats for guys who couldn't afford them, food for guys who couldn't afford that either. Within a few years it had become the foundation of the Minor League Baseball Players Association, today the largest union in professional sports.
But the pattern didn't end at the minor leagues. College athletes were getting NIL deals with no representation and scores of people taking advantage of them. Olympic athletes were going broke between cycles. Retired pros were losing their identity, their money, and their network all at once, and the only people getting rich off any of it were the agencies and platforms built around the athlete, not for the athlete.
Open Athletes is my attempt to fix the whole thing. A daily live show to set the terms of the conversation and build the community we've needed for decades. A network to connect the next generation of athlete-founders, and Athletes Fund to commit to their mission. An agency to take care of the players still in the game and prepare them for what's next.
I'm doing it because I watched too many teammates retire with nothing and no idea what to do next. I knew exactly what they needed. I lived it myself. This is what it looks like when you build it and we're gonna do it together.
I look forward to building this with you.
- Jeremy
Would love to see a replay or clip feature for each episode, basically a quick highlight reel posted right after the show ends. Mornings are tough to catch live, and having 5-10 minute summaries would honestly make it way easier to stay in the loop throughout the week.
@onur1858256 I love it, thank you!
Love the live morning format with Jeremy, great move putting it in a daily slot so it becomes habit-forming. One thing that would help me actually stick with it as a regular listener: a short daily recap email or 2-minute podcast clip for days I miss the live window, since 9-10 ET is tough with my schedule.
@dnebhqs thanks for the comment! I've considering pushing it back 1 hour to start at 10am ET and this was the validation I needed. Plus, the later time will be easier on my guests, thank you!
Caught the live show this morning while making coffee and Jeremy's baseball background really comes through, especially when breaking down front office moves. Solid morning listen for anyone in the sports business space.
@yeliz957285 Thanks for the comment, we're excited to see the reach that our show has across the sports-world. Stay tuned for much more!
Caught the last 20 minutes of today's stream and Jeremy's breakdown of the minor league TV deal was genuinely useful, not just surface-level takes. The live chat moves fast but the host actually responds to questions, which kept me around longer than I expected.
@irmakmgs6 Thanks for your comment! Stay tuned for more on our channels :)
Love that they kept it to a tight one-hour window every weekday, way easier to build into a routine than those bloated two-hour morning shows. Jeremy's MLB background adds a really credible insider lens to the business side too.
@elifnurkklyhfl We love a tight hour! Excited to see what form the show takes over time. Stay tuned!
love the morning slot choice, 9 to 10 feels perfect for catching people on their commute. and having a host with actual pro sports background right away makes it feel legit from the jump.
@alpergrbzobpev Thanks for your comment! I've heard a lot of great feedback today about pushing 1 hour to allow for guests on the west coast to participate early in their workday, which is totally reasonable. Episodes will publish daily on Spotify/Apple immediately after the show.