One of the largest vacation clubs in the world is teaming up with one of the most popular tennis players in history. It was Andre Agassi who, in a Cannon commercial, said “Image is everything”. Now Agassi is taking his squeaky clean image, devoting it to his business career and associating it with another big name.
Andre Agassi has spent the past twenty-one years on the tennis court building his personal brand. Now AOL founder Steve Case is betting that a partnership with the 36-year-old tennis icon will boost his Exclusive Resorts business.
“I was looking for a way to create memories with me and my family and found exclusive resorts and sort of thought that experience we go together and realized there was sort of a better marriage here than we anticipated”, said Agassi.
The two announcing that Agassi’s real estate firm, co-owned by his wife Steffi Graf, will team up with the luxury destination club business to build new communities, with tennis and fitness centers as a highlighted amenity.
“I think he brings a tremendous perspective not just as a tennis icon, but really, as a leader with a great family and a sense of how you build places that really do create the kind of magical moments and memories that people everywhere really want to have with their families”, said Exclusive Resorts Chairman, Steve Case.
Agassi, who retired this month after the U.S. Open, is evaluating what companies he wants to endorse in his post career, recently announcing a signature furniture line and now Exclusive Resorts.
“Me and my wife are looking forward to the challenge of really bringing a unique experience that gives families a chance to reconnect and sort of discover one another and themselves on a vacation”, said Agassi.
Case says he believes Agassi might be a better business partner than a doubles partner.
“My bet is that Andre will be known in the next twenty years for what he does, more than the past twenty years, even though right now particularly in the wake of the U.S. Open he’s really a hero to us all. I think his best years are ahead”, said Case.
Memberships to Exclusive Resorts costs between $235,000 and $450,000 dollars per year. The company currently manages more than 280 properties in the U.S., Europe and the Caribbean.