Professional athletes are increasingly looking past endorsement deals and building real ownership positions in businesses, including car dealerships. Therefore, the Dave Cantin Group (DCG) has responded by launching DCG Athlete Investment Services, a new advisory practice designed to connect dealership groups with athletes seeking strategic business partnerships.
Dave Cantin, Founder, CEO, and Chairman; and Brian Gordon, President of the Dave Cantin Group, join us on the latest episode of Inside M&A to discuss the new venture.
Athletes & dealers: A shared drive to win
The appeal comes down to a shared drive to win, Cantin said. Cantin pointed to his prior partnership with Super Bowl champion and automotive retailer Brad Benson, as an example of what happens when that mentality meets the dealership floor. Pairing an athlete’s competitive instinct with a dealer’s grit, he said, creates a culture inside a store that customers, staff and the community can feel the moment they walk in.
As brand loyalty in the retail automotive market weakens, shoppers are prioritizing price and convenience over familiar names. An athlete partnership gives dealers a way to build the kind of local differentiation that is increasingly hard to create through advertising alone.
"Sports is the single most engaging thing that Americans are passionate about, period. When you look at where people spend all of their time, where they're spending their money, what they're watching on television, it's sports." – Brian Gordon
More than marketing
While there’s certainly a benefit to having a sports star’s name on a dealership, Cantin said this is about much more than marketing. Athletes are drawn to genuine involvement in the business and its community, he said.
Gordon pointed out that the partnerships that work best start with cultural fit rather than star power. A dealer group has to be honest about whether an athlete reflects its values and vision, and an athlete has to understand what role they are stepping into and what value they bring beyond their name.
DCG’s approach, he said, is to identify that fit first, then structure the actual investment through the firm’s core M&A advisory work.
An athlete’s presence can also help a dealer group strengthen its relationships with manufacturers, sharpen its case for new points, and improve recruiting and retention among staff, Gordon said.
Community matters more than championships
DCG’s move into athlete partnerships is already underway. Cantin said the company has signed tennis player Ethan Quinn and PGA golfer Quade Cummins as ambassadors. Gordon added that Cummins, whose family owns Cummins Auto Group in Oklahoma, brings a background growing up in the dealership business that makes the partnership a natural fit.
An athlete’s connection to a community matters more than sports stardom, Gordon said. He pointed to former NBA player Jamal Mashburn as an example. Mashburn’s dealerships are in Kentucky, where he played college basketball, not in the NBA markets where he played professionally. That community tie, Gordon said, is what drove the success.
Cantin added that a dealership built around a trusted name and community standing becomes a more valuable business in the long run, not just a more visible one.
Dave Cantin Group’s playbook for partnerships
Many dealers don’t realize all the benefits of partnering with a professional athlete, Cantin said. They often miss out on how much an athlete partner contributes beyond name recognition, including culture, employee retention and the kind of consumer trust that draws customers past competing stores.
"Car dealers really didn't know how to partner with an athlete. The athlete didn't know how to partner with the car dealer. But when they do, wow." – Dave Cantin
That’s where DCG’s advisory work comes in, Gordon said. The firm is prepared to structure deals in whatever form fits a given dealer group. That could mean investment across an entire organization or a stake in a single platform within a specific community.
DCG works directly with athletes’ agents and wealth managers, educating them on why current athlete-dealer partnerships have succeeded and framing the investment as a stable, cash-flowing asset rather than a marketing arrangement.
“The most important thing we want dealers to know is if they’re interested in this at all, they should reach out, because there are so many different and creative ways to structure these things… Now there’s somebody to sit down with and say, how would I go about this? Or I’ve got some questions, can you help me? That’s what we’re here for,” Gordon said.
Cantin and Gordon both said they expect the trend to accelerate as more dealers see the model succeed and more athletes look for their next chapter after retiring from professional sports in their 30s and 40s.
