Tony Godsick: Tennis turbulence, finding a place for the Laver Cup and the business of Roger Federer

20:37Tony Godsick:What is life like? How different is life as an agent now that you are working with a retired athlete? It's harder. It's a lot more work. Oh yeah. I mean, by far, I'm traveling twice as much because before Roger had the excuse, I'm playing, I'm practicing, I'm on vacation. The playing and practicing is over. So he's got all this time. So there's so much more opportunity. Before, the only thing we would discuss is, you know, what's my schedule? What's the appearance fee? What endorsements are you looking for? Now he's saying to me, what can we own? What can we invest in? You know, these aren't things that just happen overnight.

21:14You've got to go meet people and do things. So it's, for me, it's a lot more exciting, to be honest with you, than it was. I spent so much more time with him. I always communicated a lot with him, you know, when he was on tour, but you had to leave the athlete alone so he could, you know, do his craft. Now I'm on the phone with him all the time. I'm seeing him all the time. I'm back and forth 10, 15 times a year to Switzerland. That's just Switzerland. I'm in Asia with him and different places. So it's - Maybe South America, Tony. Maybe. There are rumors. Yeah, maybe South America. One of the things Roger loves is he's truly comfortable being a global athlete still.

21:48So every year he would go to China and play the role like Shanghai Masters. Since he stopped playing, he's gone every year and he will continue to go every year. He likes that part of the world. And it's very important to some of the businesses that we've invested in. Before it was just, you know, these small little deals. Now it's, you know, let's go around, let's go meet people, let's go see what's possible. And so it's been exciting. The journey for me is in a way we were talking about the other day is actually just beginning, which is wild because we've been at this for, you know, over 22 years.

22:14Tony Godsick:Yeah. And obviously the way that he played was a real differentiator, I think, in terms of from a, you know, corporate speak here for a sort of brand value point of view. Obviously, people still have the absolute memories of him playing. And, you know, there's all the footage and the films and the documentaries and that very much lives on. But in your mind and the conversations that you're having with partners, whether it's brand partners or some of these, you know, more equity-based relationships, have the brand values changed in your mind? To put it crudely, is what you're selling different now.

22:51Tony Godsick:Absolutely. You know, I can no longer sell a person who's going to be out there on center court at the championships, potentially on the final Sunday. You know, I can't, he could sit in the Royal box on the final Sunday, but I can't actually sell that he's going to be there. So it's something else. And look, in the end of the day, what does Roger bring to the table? Um, over the years, you know, trust has compounded, you know, and you bring trust to the table with him. I mean, he has, we just extended one of his partners for an additional five years, and that'll put that deal at over 20 years.

23:23He has been with Rolex already for over 20 years. I mean, he's got four or five brands that are contracted for over 20 years. Why? Because Roger brings other things to the table. I mean, you know, I told someone recently, he's more valuable to you now that he's retired than he was because he actually can meet your customers. He actually can come in and inspire your employees. With our partnership with On, which is obviously a long-term and a wonderful partnership, he lives in Zurich. The headquarters is in Zurich. Before, in a relationship like this, it would be like, oh, could you come down at this time to do an appearance with him?

23:57Now it's he just drives into the garage. He's got his own parking spot. He goes in. He meets the designers. A lot of times, the leaders in the company don't even know he's there. These are the kind of things that he's doing much more of. And it's exciting. and he likes to build things. I like to build things. You know, yes, the Labor Cup is one of them, really exciting, but we're looking at other things that we can do. And that, I think, is what's his greatest attribute is he brings so many years of experience on the global stage. He knows what players like, athletes like, consumer likes. He knows what different cultures like.

24:32So he sort of can bring these things to the table,

24:35Tony Godsick:which I think there's very few athletes that can do that. And from your point of view in the agent role, there are very few athletes like Roger Federer in terms of there are no athletes. There are wonderful athletes, but he is one of one and they threw the mold out. And I'm very comfortable saying that. Totally. And in terms of fame and recognition and, you know, continuing influence, not just over the sport, but more widely across sport and beyond that. I just wonder what your experience has been of operating at that level as an agent. And obviously that results in a change in value and what you deem valuable and his value.

25:12Tony Godsick:But beyond that, what has that been like versus being an agent to still very good, but by comparison, you know, what you might call run-of-the-mill athletes? Yeah, look, there are other wonderful athletes out there. Of course. And, you know, and I sort of say it as a joke, he's one of them, but in my opinion, he is. Look, I feel so blessed that I've had the opportunity to work with this guy for such a long period of time. He has never changed. Never. He became a little bit more famous, a little harder to sort of walk around with him, but he hasn't changed. I do feel very fortunate. I pinch myself every day because I do realize that it could have been different.

25:47You know, I could be working with another athlete in another sport. It would have been great, but after all these years, I would have figured out this is not real. You know, there's something here, but he hasn't changed. He always shows up. I don't have to babysit for him. You know, so many agents have to spend so much time worrying whether or not their athlete or their entertainer or whatever it might be, their client is going to show up, is going to behave, is going to wear the right thing at the right time, say the right thing at the right time. Sure, Roger said things that might light a fire from time to time, but I don't have to worry about that stuff.

26:19And so what do I worry about? Business development, creating things, and obviously doing it together with him. We did it when he played. Obviously with a lot more time now, I can do it. So I'm super lucky. I don't take it for granted. He's very special, but it's not just him. I mean, I still spend a lot of time with his parents. These are amazing people. They haven't changed. You've seen so many situations where all this money has come into someone's life, whether they've earned it through endorsements, prize money, wherever it might be, and then the whole family structure changes. Nothing's changed.

26:50It's been really wonderful. And I do realize it's not like that for every agent. And I do feel like I'm very fortunate.

26:57Tony Godsick:You, of course, know all the agents who are operating across the sport these days. I just wonder what your sense is, if you were doing it all over again with a young player coming into the sport in 2026, to what extent you feel the role of agent has changed given the state of the world, the opportunities, the good bits, the bad bits? You know, look, I think there's some good agents out there and there's not some good agents out there. What I would tell an athlete is find someone who's not transactional, is not looking to just do the deal to make the commission. I know it's hard because if you believe in your talent, now some players you might say, you know what, the player had a great result.

27:37Let's go do this deal because it might not be here. Roger and I always call it the Pac-Man strategy. There's a lot of athletes that just bam, bam, bam. They collect every deal. None of them makes sense. You've got a luxury brand here and a non-luxury brand there and they do it for two years and they move on to the next. There's tons of them. But if you believe in your talent and you as the agent believe in your client's talent, then don't go for the quick deals. Go out before you go do your production companies. Everyone wants a production company. Everybody wants to do this stuff. Before you do that, go win.

28:10Really important because winning will make it a lot easier to align yourself with the great brands. I'll never forget Rolex. Jura was a local deal we did. It was the first deal I did for Roger. It was very important to do a local deal, but Rolex was really the first brand that stepped in in 2005. He had been with them a long time ago, went to another brand, came back to Rolex. And once I did that deal, it wasn't for the most money in the world, but once I did that deal, other brands said, you know what? If Rolex believes in this young champion, so should we. And then Gillette came on board and then Mercedes came on board and Credit Suisse came on board.

28:45And I give Rolex the credit because they were advertising him in the most classy way around the world in places where he was not playing. And people had a chance to say, wait a second, who is this guy? What's he all about? And, you know, I give them a lot of the credit. But my advice to these young players is don't let these agents today say you've got to do this. Go win. Focus on your craft first and the rest will follow. If you try to get ahead of it and you try to promote yourself too much, but you're losing early and you're not consistent. I mean, Roger's success, like Rafa, like Novak, but Roger's success was based on consistency.

29:20He won so much. And I know a lot of people say, well, I can't be Roger. Yeah, obviously. And I can't be Rafa. Obviously. But you could do a little bit of winning because in the end of the day, a lot of these deals are distracting. There was one, I won't give the name of the player that I managed years ago, back in the early 90s. And I always used to say to this player, and I won't say he or she, I used to say, listen, you want the Hollywood stuff and you want the tennis stuff. It doesn't work because the tennis stuff goes from six in the morning to six at night. The Hollywood stuff goes from six in the afternoon to six in the morning.

29:52I have just giving you zero time to rest, recover, and train. That's 24 hours a day. So you really need to focus on your craft first and then go do the Hollywood stuff afterwards and go do all these other deals. So I think there's a lot of minefields that some of these players, they're being presented with all these things. They just need to be very careful.

30:11Tony Godsick:Right. Talking of minefields, let's dig into a few matters of moment in tennis because my goodness, there's a lot going on, right? There sure is. Let's start with your, as an observer, as somebody who's deeply embedded within this sport. What is your overall business health check of professional tennis in 2026? Amazing. If it's a stock, I'm going long and I'm going to throw everything into it. Tennis has its problems, but these problems are not new. There's no synergy. Everything's fractured. But I do believe that the players are getting together. The tournaments are getting together. And eventually both will come together, which will be much better for the health of the sport, but there's going to be new chance.

30:53Everyone said, oh, when Roger retires and Rafa and Serena, I mean, Serena's back now, but when Roger and Rafa retire, the sport's done. No. Remember there was Agassi, Sampras, they said it was going to be done. Then Roger and Rafa, it's going to happen again. I wasn't expecting Sinner and Alcaraz to come so quickly. That has been great. But at any point in time, a new champion is going to be crowned. I feel it's coming soon, a Roger beating Pete Sampras kind of moment. I feel that's coming. Maybe on the men's side, the women's side, I don't know.

31:23Tony Godsick:But tennis always produces incredible champions and they're coming. There's a lot of change, a lot of fight over prize money. I think it's, personally, I think it's healthy because the players want more, which they always do. But this actually gives the majors an opportunity now to explain to the players who are all sort of aligned and together what we're investing in. You know, we're building these roof facilities, We're building new wellness centers. We're adding all this stuff for you, building new media centers. And the players can say, okay, but we are also providing a really good Broadway show for you.

31:57So we need more. So I think people will come together. Where there's noise, there's always sort of an opportunity to come together. So I see that happening. The ATP is growing. The WTA is growing. They've got some big stars. I see maybe some, you know, you see Saudi Arabia's got a new event, you know, coming. Let's see what happens there. We saw it happen with Live Golf. You know, I think it will be different with tennis. I do. We see incredible sponsors coming into the sport of tennis, not just at the Labor Cup, but at all the different events. You see these lifestyle brands that are coming in.

32:25Gucci has come in. You know, LVMH is in it in a big way. You've got new brands that are coming in. You've got On, obviously, doing really well. You've got Viore is to come in. You've got Wilson now. That's not just a racket sport company, but a really good textile company. I mean, there's a lot of great things going on. And everyone talks about how Nike, you know, I would go long on Nike in a big way, too. This is a strong band. And so the health of the sport is great. There's parity. There's new stars. It's global.

32:52Tony Godsick:So I'm really excited for the future. The power dynamics are often talked about in tennis. And as you say, there's a lot of noise and always have been. One of the things that's happening, and you alluded to it, is the change in the sport. And actually, at leadership level, there's a lot of change at the moment. I think you will have, as and when Sally Bolton departs as CEO of Wimbledon, new leadership at three of the four Grand Slams. You've got a relatively new CEO coming in at the ATP and the International Tennis Federation, soon to be World Tennis. WTA has been through some change as well. And I just wonder, as somebody who's worked in this sport for a long time, and you have mapped out the current scenario and some of the key storylines and the key things that need to be worked through.

33:39Tony Godsick:What are the attributes that you think tennis leaders should have going into this next phase of, hopefully for everybody concerned, growth? Great question. And now you actually lay it out, there is a lot of change, you know, coming in the sport of tennis. My hope is that the leaders they bring in to some of these institutions or that they have brought in, but specifically the vacant ones, maybe come from other sports or come and bring other things to the sport of tennis. That's why the Labor Cup actually worked because no one innovated in this sector. I hope they come from other sports and they bring some of the great things from their other experiences and apply them successfully to tennis.

34:15I love the move of Craig Tiley leaving Tennis Australia. He did a lot there. That went from being a slam that people rarely talked about to actually one of the most incredible events out there. And he and his team there did an incredible job. He's going to do the same thing, I hope, for U.S. tennis, not just at the U.S. Open, But, you know, look what the Italians have done. They put tons of tournaments out there. They've got the World Tour finals in Turin. Rome is getting better and better every year. And now all of a sudden, surprise, you've got all these incredible players. I think Craig Tiley is going to be able to do that there.

34:49The championships, I think it's a very interesting time for the All England Club because they'll bring in a new CEO. And, you know, they had for many years farmed out a lot of that agent work to other people. And maybe it starts to become time where they start to bring some of that stuff inside, in-house. And so whoever they hire probably will have a set of skills that can do something like that.

35:11Tony Godsick:And there's also big potential at Wimbledon, of course, for the development, the infrastructure project, which might be a skill set that they would be looking for. I mean, literally, they are going to develop another site directly across the street. And I hope the players recognize that. And I hope that the tournament recognizes, which I know that they probably will, that that will mean more revenue to share with the players. So these are all great things that are happening with the sport of tennis. You touched on the player protests and there's been a sort of truce through Wimbledon announced after an initial boycott of some media activity or a shortening of media activity, building on what the players did at Roland Garros.

35:49Tony Godsick:You suggested it's worth having the conversation and raising the conversation and actually useful as an explainer for the Grand Slams to come back and talk about what they're doing and why they're doing it and at what pace. The headlines around all this inevitably go to threat of player boycott, etc. Do you think that is ever going to be possible for a group of competitive individuals at that level? Yes, but there will be players that will step in and play. There's no lack of tennis players. Now, I don't see it happening. And I think it would be treacherous and so damaging to the health of tennis if it does.

36:25But these are really important events for the players to play. The majors are the events that make you. You can go win three Masters 1000s in a row, great, but it still doesn't add up to winning the championships. I can tell you from experience, whether it's Lindsey Davenport, Monica Sellis, Roger Federer, when they win and won majors, that was the catalyst for more deals and for more opportunities. So I don't see it happening. But at the same time, if it were to happen, there are other players to step in, but it can never happen. But I don't think that the majors should get to that point. And I think, I hope through this latest, I don't want to call it fight because it's not really a fight.

37:03They're all here. Discussion.

37:04Tony Godsick:Healthy discussion. Well, look, when Roger was president of the ATP Player Council, he would sit himself with the Grand Slam administrators and get stuff done. I don't think that's happening right now. And I think there's middle people involved and that's unhealthy. The players need to sit directly and hear from the people running the majors exactly what it is that they're investing in so that they understand. The events need to hear what is it that's important. It cannot just be a bigger paycheck for the winner, and it cannot just be a little bit more money. Are there things that are important in the long run?

37:38You know, a pension. What also needs to happen too, and I think it will, the ATP and the WTA need to be careful because the boomerang is going to come back and say, okay, we're done with the slams. we want more prize money here with you too. Yeah. You know, now everyone needs to sit at the table. I think it's happening. I really do. I'm so optimistic about what's going to, yeah, there's this little scuttlebutt and stuff like that, but I really am optimistic in what's going to happen with the sport in the coming

38:01Tony Godsick:years. Because there's also this interesting dynamic between the Grand Slams, all of whom, with the exception at the moment of Wimbledon, but they're working on it, are expanding physically in terms of their site. as you say, investing heavily in facilities, but also broadening out to effectively sort of three weeks of fan entertainment and tournaments. And we've seen innovations like the mixed doubles at the US Open and the one shot slam. Was that what it was called? One shot would be ridiculous. One point slam in Melbourne. And that obviously has a knock on effect for the tours who are also have been over the last few years, expanding their biggest events into fortnights rather than than weekly tournament, all of which means there's, you know, there's still 12 months of the year to play with.

38:45Tony Godsick:I just wonder what you feel about the continuing, the sort of importance of the Grand Slams and then how the tours continue to have their place and also be the sort of bind for the whole calendar, I suppose. Yeah, look, I think that everyone needs to recognize that the four majors are the pillars of the sport. If you want to fight that, you're going to lose. So instead of fighting it, embrace it. The tours need to embrace it. The players need to. I think there was a stat at some point a few years ago where 80 % of their revenue in tennis went to the four majors and the 20 % went to everybody else.

39:19The two tours, you know, Davis Cup, or Billie Jean King Cup, Lever Cup, everything. That's a huge share of the pie for four events. So you can fight that or you can sort of lean in and try to figure out how can we all work together. So I think that's really, really important moving forward is understanding that that's probably not going to change.

39:42Tony Godsick:Just to finish off, Tony, and really appreciate you popping in to see us during a very busy fortnight. Beautiful studio, by the way. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'd be really interested. You in this sport for a long time in a variety of guises and Roger Federer apart. I just wonder who are the two or three executives or leaders within tennis over that long period of time and go as niche and as specialist as possible that have really impressed you, influenced you? Great question. So Mark McCormick, for sure, number one. I was very fortunate to be an intern at IMG right when I was still in college.

40:21And then when I graduated from Dartmouth, I went right to IMG as a young 21-year-old executive. And because I was working with Monica Seles, I had an opportunity to be close with him, learn from him, which not a lot of young executives do. So he is by far the most impressive person that I've not only because he was the first one, but I saw what he did. I mean, he was so far ahead. He saw all this coming and he saw it back in, well, I started working at IMG in the early nineties. So he's number one. Number two is Phil Knight at Nike. Yeah. I mean, without a doubt, Nike came out at a time. I'm not sure they focus on tennis as much as they used to, but he really was into tennis and they really leaned into tennis.

40:58And he taught me about storytelling and they taught me about storytelling with Monica Sellis, with Lindsay Davenport, with Tommy Haas, obviously with Roger Federer being there. I don't want to say any administrators and any tournament directors because there have been so many of them. I mean, Craig Tiley really helped us get the Labor Cup launched off the ground. There's tons of people, you know, who believe in us at the USTA. Obviously, you said Roger aside, but the championships and Wimbledon made Roger Federer. First, you know, one junior Wimbledon, He had his first big win over Pete Sampras.

41:32He won his first Grand Slam here. He broke the sports all-time record. I mean, the All England Club is where Roger Federer was kind of born. And so I've never taken that for granted because so much has come out of that. So there have been so many chairpersons at the All England Club. Tim Phillips, you know, Debbie Jevons. I mean, there have just been so many. John Curry back in the day. So there's been a lot of them. And that's been the case at other events. Our friends, Charles and Michael, the tournament directors at the Shanghai Rolex Masters, they've been great. And then, you know, to make sure that my marriage stays healthy, my wife married Jo Fernandez, without a doubt.

42:06Started dating in the mid-90s, got married, have two great kids. But she's taught me about the sport. Not only has she taught me how to play a little bit better because I'm an awful tennis player, but I got a little bit better because of her. But she was a player back in the day. She crossed all these generations. You know, she started with the Chrissy and Martina generations, and then she kind of, you know, had her Sabatini and Steffi Graf generations. And then she played actually, she beat Serena at the French Open one year in the late 90s. And so she got to play. So she had a vision of the sport that she taught me a lot.

42:40And although she's not an executive in it, she's a commentator. She worked for ESPN for over 20 years. I've learned so much from her. But there's been so many people. There have been other agents. There's manufacturers. I mean, that's what I love about the sport. There's people in the media that I've learned a lot. I mean, I won't mention the person's name in the media, but there was a media member that actually helped us when we were starting the Labour Cup. I would bounce things off of this person. What do you think about this? Because members of the tennis media, they sit there. A lot of them have been here for a long time.

43:09They've seen the generations. They've seen what has worked, what hasn't worked. And so there's a lot of people. I feel very, very, very fortunate.

43:16Tony Godsick:Good stuff. I completely forgot to write down a question about, you know, deep analysis of your forehand, Tony, but unfortunately we've run out of time. It would be quick and it would be awful. And luckily, I know this is on video, but there's probably a few floating around, but hopefully you never find them. Excellent. Challenge accepted, I think. Tony, we wish you luck in London later this year and really appreciate you stopping by. Thank you. And thank you for covering the sport of tennis.