NBA icon Michael Jordan and Jeffrey Jordan, his son, are teaming up for an entrepreneurial venture that connects fans with the athletes they adore.
HEIR, set to launch in 2022, hopes to “usher in a new era of digital culture” through a Web3 platform that offers incentives in the form of exclusive digital drops, assets and other events for fans to feel closer to their heroes. Both athletes and the first wave of fans to secure their “seats” would monetarily benefit from their investment in HEIR, the platform’s website claims.
The exclusive content seat holders will be able to access ranges from Q&A sessions and behind-the-scenes exclusives to the Netflix history of their favorite athlete.
“Seats” are HEIR’s version of memberships. The number of “seats” available corresponds to a percentage of the number of followers a given athlete has on social media. An athlete’s “huddle” is composed of all of their seat holders.
Athletes come away with 80% of the revenue from the initial sale of NFT drops, and HEIR’s holding company Heir Inc. pockets the rest. Revenue is split in half between the creators and the company on the following sales, according to Variety.
With each athlete hosting only a limited amount of “seats,” seat holders own their access to the “huddle.” Fans who wish to secure a “seat” after all the “seats” have been taken by early adopters will have to purchase their “seat” from a fan who currently owns one. This creates a fluctuating stock market where the price of a “seat” could theoretically become more valuable over time.
Heir collected over $10 million in seed funding from a hodgepodge of investors, from Thrive Capital and Solana Ventures to Executive Vice President of the New York Knicks William Wesley, Co-founder of Reddit Alexis Ohanian and Chicago Bulls player Lonzo Ball.
HEIR is a far cry from how Michael Jordan and players of his time approached capitalizing on fandom in their heydays.
“If you wanted to monetize your fanbase [back then], there was always a third party in between, like a brand or someone else that had to get that message through,” said Jeffrey Jordan. “Growing up in that era where athletes weren’t equal beneficiaries to that community, and now seeing the ability to monetize their likability, he was immediately drawn to this concept.”
HEIR’s products will join the growing list of sports-themed NFTs, including those featuring basketball legend Willie Mays and other Baseball Hall of Famers of yesterday.
