Doubledown Media, LLC (http://www.doubledownmedia.com), announced its newest magazine launch, The Players Club — a magazine by and for professional athletes launched in partnership with New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies All-Star outfielder Lenny Dykstra. The Players Club will be focused on providing athletes with the resources to make well-informed financial and lifestyle decisions.
Dykstra, a member of the 1986 World Champion New York Mets, who has since emerged as very successful businessman and influential financial columnist on theStreet.com, says the Players Club is about financial security, both through advice in the magazine and customized financial products geared specifically toward athletes.
“For the first time a player will have the ability to have guaranteed, recurring cash-flow for himself and his family,” said Dykstra. “This way, when a player retires at 35 or even younger, he will have the ability to continue to support his family, while still enjoying a
comfortable lifestyle.”
The Players Club will have a circulation of 20,000, with copies sent directly to athletes in the ten major sports including: baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, professional 
tennis, golf, NASCAR, Formula I and others. Agents, team management, team offices and financial advisors will also receive the magazine.
“Players helping players is something that has been needed for a long time, The Players Club makes a lot of sense,” said NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, who is part of the Players Committee.
The Players Club will debut in April of 2008, to coincide with the opening of Major League Baseball. Pre-sold advertisers include Mercedes Benz and AIG.
Randall Lane, President of Doubledown Media, publisher of Trader Monthly, Dealmaker, Private Air, Corporate Leader and The Cigar Report, noted that professional athletes fit perfectly into Doubledown’s model of reaching affluent affinity groups.
“Hedge fund managers, investment bankers, CEO’s – each of these individuals has risen to the top of a very sharp pyramid and made sacrifices to get where they are,” he said. “For athletes, the competition to be at the top is even tougher, coupled with a career that is, by definition, much shorter than that of someone in traditional business. The brilliance of The Players Club is that it’s going to help them enjoy their fantastic earnings and show them ways to make sure that they’ll continue to live well even when their playing career has finished.”
Tim Brown, who won the Heisman Trophy in 1987, and went on to a storied career with the Raiders, is a member of The Players Club’s Players Committee.
“When you’re playing football you have this wonderful fantasy that it’s going to last forever, and you’ll retire when and if you decide to,” Brown said, adding, “And then comes the injury that ends your career, and you have to figure out how to pay your bills.”
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