Andre Agassi, Sloane Stephens And Other Athletes Invest In Ballers Sports Facilities Startup

Forbes

2 days ago

Ballers, a startup company set to launch indoor sports and entertainment facilities across the U.S., has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round from a group of investment firms and professional athletes.
Ballers plans on opening its first venue next month in Philadelphia, which will have six pickleball courts, three padel courts, two squash courts, four golf simulators, a putting green with sand bunkers and a 95-foot by 45-foot turf field that will be used for soccer and other sports. The 55,000-square-foot facility will also have two bars and a full-service restaurant and will be located within the Battery mixed-use complex that Lubert-Adler developed on the site of a former power plant in the city's Fishtown neighborhood.
Ballers expects to have another location in Boston's Seaport District in August and two more in Miami and Los Angeles by the middle of next year. Ballers was formed by Vero Capital, a real estate and private equity firm, and Good City Studio, a design and hospitality company. Daniel Bassichis, Vero's founder and managing partner, and David Gutstadt, Good City's founder, are longtime friends and former colleagues at Goldman Sachs.
Ballers had previously raised $7 million for the Philadelphia location and sought additional capital to fuel its growth.
Sharp Alpha, a venture capital firm based in New York, and RHC Group, a New York-based family office, led the latest round. Several athletes also participated, including tennis Hall of Famers Andre Agassi and Kim Clijsters, longtime tennis pro Sloane Stephens, Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey, FC Dallas goalie Maarten Paes, Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum, former NFL safety Malcolm Jenkins and Connor Garnett, who is No. 3 in the Professional Pickleball Association rankings.
Bassichis has worked with professional athletes for more than two decades starting with Hall of Fame basketball player David Robinson, who teamed with Bassichis in 2008 to launch Admiral Capital Group, which is now known as Vero Capital. Bassichis said that athletes have increasingly become interested in business as their salaries and endorsement income have grown and word has spread about preserving and increasing their wealth.
Some of the athletes view Ballers as a way to invest and be hands-on, according to Bassichis. For instance, Garnett plans on hosting clinics at the clubs, while Maxey will host an event at the Philadelphia location to support low-income families and other causes he supports and Stephens will host events for her foundation and sell her line of beauty care products at Ballers. Beachum, an art collector, plans on displaying some of his pieces at Ballers, too.
'They're not just passive investors,' Bassichis said. 'They want to get involved. They want to help. They want to promote it. They want to weave in philanthropy and community into the investments.'
Ballers will sell memberships to people who want access to a high-end gym and locker rooms and other perks, but it will also be open to people who want to book court time, eat or drink or for corporations or friends who want to rent it out for events, parties or other celebrations.
Gutstadt and Amanda Potter, who co-founded Good City Studio, previously worked together at Equinox, which has more than 100 high-end fitness clubs in the U.S. and other countries. In 2019, they opened the Fitler Club, a social club in Philadelphia where people can work out, eat, drink and hold events. Gutstadt held several senior-level hospitality roles before serving as the Fitler Club's founder and CEO, while Potter had a background in design and architecture before becoming Fitler's head of design.
Vero Capital helped Gutstadt and Potter raise money to get Fitler Club off the ground. They now see Ballers as an extension of the Fitler Club but more inclusive in that people don't have to pay a monthly or annual fee to join. Gutstadt is Ballers' CEO, while Potter is its chief creative officer.
Ballers is part of what Sharp Alpha founder Lloyd Danzig calls the 'eater-tainment' industry where people can play sports, socialize and eat and drink. Other examples include TopGolf, Bowlero, Puttshack, F1 Arcade and Poolhouse, which is set to open its first location early next year in London.
'We're seeing a clear shift toward experiences that foster connection and community,' Danzig said. 'Competitive play is becoming the new social glue and Ballers is building modern social clubs that thrive at this cultural crossroads.'
Since Bassichis founded Vero Capital, the company has invested more than $3 billion across the country in various commercial real estate property types, including apartments, hotels, offices and shopping centers. As such, Bassichis and his team are familiar with numerous cities and have relationships with brokers and other real estate professionals who can help Ballers identify opportunities to expand. For now, though, Ballers is focusing on the Philadelphia location as well as getting the Boston, Miami and Los Angeles facilities open in the next year.
'I think we're fairly early even in this new version of the urban athletic club trend,' Gutstadt said. 'You've seen some social wellness clubs pop up. But I'd say the early iterations of the ones focused on sport are still evolving. And I think ours is going to feel a lot more fully formed than much of the stuff that we've seen out there.'