Alex Rodriguez shares his toughest lesson in real estate ownership

When Alex Rodriguez stumped up the cash to buy a South Florida home at the age of 22, it was the culmination of a childhood dream.

“For me, it started a long time ago,” he told LinkedIn News. “I mean, I started thinking about it when I was probably 10 years old. My mom being a longtime renter, I felt, for better or worse, I kind of became an expert of being a tenant. And I always dreamed about one day changing places with the landlord.”

What began as a $250,000 purchase of a duplex some 25 years ago has now turned into a full-fledged career in property investment.

Yes, the man they call “A-Rod” is all the things you’ve seen on TV — a World Series winner with the New York Yankees, a baseball commentator for ESPN and Fox Sports, a celebrity that has graced tabloid and magazine covers many times over.. But he’s also a co-founder of Monument Capital Management, a real estate firm based in his hometown of Miami. Monument Capital functions as a subsidiary of A-Rod Corp, the holding company for much of Rodriguez’s business interests.?

“I would say our focus at A-Rod Corp … is a hair over 50 percent on real estate,” he said. “And in real estate we do a lot of things. We have a multi-family component. We have hospitality, with hotels and, over the last three or four years, we've been very aggressively buying single family houses for rentals all over the Southeast.”

In an interview with Next Play, LinkedIn News’ athlete-focused video series, Rodriguez explains how he developed his property investments while playing baseball, the toughest lesson he learned while doing so and the principles he follows in business today.

If you haven't already, check out the episode in the video above and follow Alex Rodriguez on LinkedIn here .

The Starting Five

Each edition of this newsletter will share five sports trends, stories or figures on LinkedIn that are worth following. Check out this week's starting five below.

Athlete Entrepreneurs in the spotlight

On April 28, during the weekend of the National Football League draft in Las Vegas, the NFL Players Association will host its annual Pitch Day competition. Pitch Day will see six startup founders present an overview of their businesses to a panel of six judges, half of whom will be athletes themselves, the players association announced in a post on LinkedIn .

Those athlete judges are WNBA player Kelsey Plum, NFL player Jaylon Smith and former NFL player Marshawn Lynch, the latter of whom made news in recent days after becoming a minority investor of the National Hockey League's newest team, the Seattle Kraken.

Pitch Day not only puts athlete entrepreneurs in the spotlight, it's also dedicated to supporting women and minority entrepreneurs, who are selected as the contestants. To get a sense of what the event is like, check out this video feature from LinkedIn News , which documented the 2020 edition of the event.

A first for women in baseball

Last week, during the early innings of a Major League Baseball game, history was made.

"Major League Baseball's glass ceiling keeps on taking hits," LinkedIn News' Bobby Armstrong wrote . "The latest occurred Tuesday night [April 12], when the San Francisco Giants made Alyssa Nakken the first woman on-field coach in MLB history. Nakken, 31, came on after first-base coach Antoan Richardson was ejected in the third inning of a 13-2 victory over the visiting San Diego Padres."

Nakken joins a number of women who have made history in baseball in recent years, including Kim Ng, who in 2020 became the Miami Marlins' general manager, and first woman to be appointed to such a position, as well as Rachel Balkovec, who earlier this year became first woman to be appointed manager of a minor league club.

D-Wade's latest venture

Last week, actress Gabrielle Union announced on LinkedIn that she and husband Dwyane Wade, the three-time NBA champion, were launching a skin care business called Proudly.

Union wrote that she and her husband were both, "inspired by our daughter Kaavia James—and all the other babies of color from different ethnicities—to create a world of baby care made specially to meet the unique needs of our melanated skin. PROUDLY products are made to nourish the diverse range of melanated skin with gentle, extra-moisturizing ingredients thoughtfully studied and selected by a Dermatologist of Color."

Proudly is far from Wade's first entrepreneurial endeavor. The former Miami Heat star is a minority owner of the Utah Jazz and also owns an equity stake in the Chinese shoe brand, Li-Ning, among other ventures and business deals.

Serena the cover star

The closer to the twilight of her career Serena Williams appears to be, the more she seems to grow as a star businesswoman. One sign of that growth is the number of publications that have detailed her impressive portfolio of business interests, and the story behind how she's putting it together.

Insider, which featured Williams as the star of its first ever digital cover, shared a post on LinkedIn highlighting some of that story.

"As her career has evolved, so have her interests," the post reads . "Her father taught her to think about the long game from the beginning, so she’s always seen herself as more than a tennis player. She’s started multiple businesses, but she’s planning to make the biggest impact through her investment firm, Serena Ventures, which aims to back founders with diverse points of view, and which raised $111 million in its initial round of funding."

Like father, like son

Just about every week, it seems like a collage athlete is making headlines for signing a unique sponsorship deal. This week is no different.

Sports restaurant chain Hooters, which has long been a sponsor of John Daly, the golfer and 1991 PGA Championship winner, announced this week that it was also sponsoring the golfer's son, John Daly II, a student athlete at the University of Arkansas.

"As part of the family's new deal with?Hooters of America , both John Daly and his son, John II, will promote the Hooters brand across social media, marketing activations, and other tour events," a LinkedIn post from Front Office Sports reads.

Since last July, collegiate athletes have been able to sign deals that see them profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL), an act that was previously barred by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Here's a look at other notable NIL deals that have made news over the past year.

On Deck

The upcoming edition of Next Play will feature former NFL player Adewale Ogunleye . Ogunleye played in the league for over 10 years. In 2003, he earned All-Pro honors, which distinguishes the best performers in a given season.

After retiring in 2011, Ogunleye went on to earn his MBA from George Washington University and. He eventually joined financial services giant UBS, where he leads a team that caters to clients in the entertainment and sports worlds.

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