NFL spokesman Greg Aiello mentioned that Doty’s ruling on Vick’s bonuses was upheld in large part because the 8th Circuit found the contract’s forfeiture language ambiguous.

The ruling allows the Philadelphia Eagles backup Quarterback to keep more than $16 million in roster bonuses from the Atlanta Falcons.  The court claimed that Vick had already earned the bonus money before he was convicted of federal dog fighting crimes and the money was NOT subject to forfeiture laws.

Vick could certainly use the additional money to help pay off creditors and start over now that he is back on the playing field.  He is set to earn  $1.6 million from the Eagles this year with a team option for the second year at $5.2 million.

Obviously the NFL was not happy about the appellate court’s decision to agree with Judge Doty’s previous ruling.  Doty has handled NFL cases including Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) matters for years.  However, after his first decision in this case, the NFL began accusing the Judge of being biased and attempted to end his oversight of its contract with the players union.

Unfortunately, after the decision that the 8th circuit handed down, it looks like the relationship between the NFL and Judge Doty will continue a bit longer.

Finding a professional athlete work during a lockout might amount to getting him on teams in other countries or minor leagues in North America. This strategy was widely used during the last NHL lockout in the 2003-2004 season. Players like Chris Chelios played with fringe minor league teams close to home and family while others like Joe Thornton, who went to the Swiss Nationalliga, gave a boost to European leagues across the pond.

Agents and advisors learned from the 2004 lockout and came up with strategies to maintain cashflow to their client in the event of a future lockout. With the current NHL-NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement expiring after the 2011-2012 season (unless the players use their option to extend it), agents are negotiating a very practical provision into newly signed contracts. The Lockout Provision calls for a player to receive his signing bonus in the year in which a lockout could occur.

Milan Lucic is the beneficiary of this new provision. Lucic recently signed a three-year, $12.25 million contract extension. Most of the buzz about this extension centered around the fact that Lucic will be paid over $4 million in each year of his contract, yet he only tallied 69 points in his two NHL seasons. Obviously, Lucic got a great deal and should be very happy with his agent’s work here. But Lucic can also play the next couple seasons without the insecurity of possibly not getting paid after the 2011-2012 season; that’s because the Boston Bruins agreed to pay Lucic a $1 million signing bonus in 2012.

Not only does the Lockout Provision provide players with financial security in a time of job insecurity, it may also enhance the NHLPA’s bargaining position during CBA negotiations. If the Lockout Provision becomes more common in contracts, the NHLPA can use the fact that some players will be paid regardless of whether they play as leverage.

My reading of Matthew’s piece is at a very apropos time.  I just placed my first basketball client overseas, and earlier today, discussed a possible NCAA rule change that would allow high school graduates to play professionally overseas and retain their student-athlete eligibility.  I believe that the rule change would open the NBA up to even more competition against the international market; athletes will be more comfortable with traveling across the ocean to play in a foreign country if they have previous experience playing there before college.

Matthew’s premise is that basketball competition overseas is now credible, which serves as a big threat to the NBA under its current collective bargaining agreement (CBA).  The The Union of European Leagues of Basketball (ULEB) and its exclusive Euroleague have been able to acquire strong talent from the United States in the past few years.  While the NBA does not allow any athletes under the age of 19 to play its game, FIBA (the entity in charge of creating rules and regulations in Europe), allows 18-year-olds to play in the ULEB.  FIBA does not regulate player contracts or salary caps, but teams may be bound by their country’s or European Union’s labor laws.  No salary cap means that players will be valued properly…remember rumors of Kobe Bryant considering going overseas…purely because the NBA’s salary cap restricts his ceiling.

Other benefits of playing overseas include the creativity that owners are able to use to secure players.  They often offer cars, residences, rent, and flights in their contracts.  Sometimes, players are even given the right to become partial owners of their team and can sell advertising space on their uniforms.  And then compare the Euro to the U.S. Dollar.

Meanwhile, the NBA implements a salary cap, allows owners the possibility to have restricted free agents, and tells 18-year-olds ready to play after high school, that they have to wait a year.

Epps says that a free agent transfer agreement with Euroleague is not plausible.  It would be challenged in U.S. and EU courts.  Instead, Commissioner Stern might want to consider expanding into Europe now, and create a few NBA teams across the Atlantic Ocean to compete in an NBA Europe.  I believe that an NBA Europe is an interesting idea, but it would have to be totally distinct from the NBA in the U.S.  Although there could be a “World Championship” between the winner of the NBA Finals and NBA Europe Finals.  That would make for some good T.V.

Another solution: Get rid of this one-and-done rule!

In June, I wrote an article describing the future implications of the “decade deal” as I called it, on the National Hockey League. A player typically signs a deal longer than ten years for tens of millions of dollars. There are elements of risk and reward for each side. The team gets the player signed at a lower salary cap number than the player might have got on the open market, but a contract that long can sometimes weigh a team down (eg. the New York Islanders and Rick DiPietro). The player takes a little less money per year, but has the security of knowing that his contract is guaranteed for the long term, and if it is bought out, he still receives a significant portion of his salary.

Late last week, word surfaced that the NHL was probing the long-term deals that were signed by Chris Pronger and Marian Hossa shortly after the free agency period began on July 1st. Hossa signed a 12 year, $62.8 million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks, while Pronger signed a new 7 year, $34.9 million with the Philadelphia Flyers shortly after being traded from the Anaheim Ducks. Hossa’s cap number is just over $5 million per year and Pronger’s is just under $5 million. However, both players will earn the vast majority of their money in the first years of the deal. Under Hossa’s deal, he will earn just $3.5 total million in the final three years of the deal. Pronger will earn just $1.5 million total in the final two years of his deal. If not for those years, the players’ cap hits would be much higher.

The league is concerned that these types of deals violate the “spirit” of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Since they will be earning far less money in the later years of the contract than the earlier years, it has been predicted that both players will choose to retire since they will have most of their money made. The league is investigating to determine whether this was considered by the teams before the deals were signed. If it is found that this was part of the negotiations, the Hawks and Flyers could face heavy fines and could possibly lose draft picks.

While it is unlikely that any stiff action will come out of the league’s investigation, it again raises the likelihood that this issue will be addressed in the next round of CBA negotiations. Gary Bettman has stated that he does not believe that these types of deals do not circumvent the salary cap, but all signs point to several heated discussions when the league and players’ association meet to begin negotiations within the next two years. It is up to the individual teams to determine how they spend their money, but if the league has its way, there will likely be one more restriction in place to limit spending and maintain parity.

For those players who make the cut and are offered a job in the CBA or NBL (one level lower than the CBA), they can look forward to lavish lifestyles of $20,000+ per month, living expenses paid for, and a league looking for guys who can bang it down low and take control of the block.  The NBA has taken notice of the extreme growth of basketball in China and has begun to establish a stronger presence in the country.  Kobe Bryant’s jersey sells like hot cakes there.  But just maybe, not everything is peaches and cream for Americans who decide to cross the Pacific to get paid.

According to Dan Levin of the New York Times,

American players and agents describe broken contracts, unpaid wages, suspicions of game-fixing and rising resentment toward foreign players. Several players have left China after failing to receive paychecks. Last month, the league announced that it lost $17 million last season, which ended in May.

In the article, Levin also discusses the possibility of games being fixed in the CBA.  As an agent, I hate to hear that there would be any fixing or bribery occurring, but would have even more concern about the possibility of my players not being paid on their contracts.  It is a lot harder to litigate against a CBA team for failing to make good on a contract than an American team in an American court of law.  Just something to consider before you pack your client’s bags on a one-way trip to Beijing.

Football

• Largest increase in 3 years. And I predict a new CBA will be signed before the start of next season [Final adjustment increases salary cap].
• Sheldon Brown deserves more money, but who told him to sign a 9-year deal when he was 25-years-old? [The Early Extension of Young Players' Contracts].
• The guy has made a lot of money for his clients.. [Drew Rosenhaus, good or evil for the NFL??].
• My man, Kevin Sullivan, gives his advice to the Vick Camp [The PR campaign: A four-point plan for Vick].
• And Adam Ostrow of Mashable.com has some ideas of his own [Can Social Media Help Repair Michael Vick’s Image?].

Basketball

• King James makes roughly $25 million a year from endorsements alone (including a nice deal with Bubblicious) [NBA AM: LeBron James Staying Put].
• Shaq is serious about a career in broadcasting [IT'S ALL SHAQ-ADEMIC].

Sports Business

• What do you think about Danica Patrick’s new Twitter campaign? [Danica Patrick, Twitter, and Sponorships].

1) So that he and the general manager of his team does not enter a personal arena where playing on the team becomes uncomfortable.

2) Because he is “not trained in the language, rules or wording of legal documents.”

There are obviously many other legitimate reasons to employ an agent, but these two presented by Brown seem to be the most basic and traditional ones.  Point #1 can never be substituted for, but can point #2?  Seth Godin’s recent piece, Where have all the agents gone?, got me thinking a little bit about our profession.

Travel agents… gone.
Stock brokers… gone.
Real estate brokers… in trouble. Photographer’s agents, too.
Literary agents?

I have one to add: Sports agents?  Besides point #1, what makes us different than the other middle-men that have been forced out of their respective industries?  The only other thing that separates us is that our clients are a lot busier than a majority of those that employ travel agents, stock brokers, real estate brokers, etc, and while it is a stereotype and definitely not one that can be applied across the line, athletes tend to be less educated than many who would employ the aforementioned middle-men.  But that being said, can we be so confident that our profession will still exist five years from now?  In ten years?  If so, will there be a large downsizing due to a number of players deciding to go the route of self-representation?

Will someone or something come along that is cheaper, faster and more efficient?  While 5% on an MLB contract, 4% on an NBA contract, and 3% on an NFL contract may not mean much for the agent representing his client, it is money out of that player’s pocket nonetheless.  Is it money well spent?  When will there be an alternative to the standard agent, what will that person/thing provide, and what will be the cost?  It is a matter of time before someone steps into our profession with a new idea that changes the sports agent landscape forever.  In travel, it was the creation of sites like Kayak.com.  In stocks: ETrade, Scottrade, etc.  Real estate has also gone online with the spread of easily obtainable information.

So will the internet revolutionize our profession?  One thing is certain: athletes will soon be paying less for agents’ services, but that may not hurt agents’ bottom line.  I think athletes will get smarter and sign with agents who are the best at their profession, not those who pay the most for some face-time.  With lower recruiting costs, lower commissions are actually possible.  Athletes no longer want a “traditional sports agent”, and I do not blame them.  There is nothing “traditional” about the world we live in.  Every day, a new web 2.0 platform is unveiled that can be of benefit to a player.  How many players even know what web 2.0 is?  Should agents?

Will athletes ask their agents for the material that the agents use to negotiate deals, but negotiate them on their own?  Such a method takes care of Doug Brown’s second concern, but still does not get around point #1.  High-demand athletes will also continue to need someone to manage their appearance, endorsement, autograph, etc. requests.  Musicians have separate managers; athletes oftentimes do not.

Godin’s main point is that anonymous agents are unnecessary.

Middlemen add value when they bring taste or judgment or trust to bear on a transaction that isn’t transparent.

So maybe our job is safe afterall.  We supposedly go through the training: law school (not mandatory), learning the collective bargaining agreements, studying various performance bonus clauses used in the past, etc.  We bring a lot of qualities to the negotiating table that very few athletes can: a knowledge of the game outside of the game.  No matter how much you tell a player about how he compares to players at his position, age, height/weight, etc, nothing can make up for 3 years of law school or countless hours of studying a CBA.  So maybe Godin’s post does not apply to our industry.  Perhaps sports agents are necessary middle-men that should not believe that their job will be threatened any time in the near future.

The best ones provide a differentiated service that is worth paying for. Instead of being middlemen, then, they are the front men, the attraction, a key asset…

I think that is actually the main point of Godin’s piece that should resonate in our minds.  The best agents are the only ones that athletes will pay for.  To succeed, you need to innovate and buck tradition.  How can you use a site like Twitter to help your clients, how can you strengthen your firm’s online presence to help out your clients, are you connected to the new-age journalists who shape public opinion, are you busy trying to find new endorsement opportunities outside of traditional TV/print, etc.?

When markets change, agents can lead the way, not follow along grudgingly.

Call me whatever you want, but one thing I am not, is a follower.  Be a leader.  Show potential clients that you are willing and able to be innovative, which will only serve to better their careers.  That’s our philosophy at Dynasty.

There has been much concern about the financial conditions of NHL teams the past few months.  Obviously, a struggling economy isn’t good for any sports team.  So how will the depressing economic conditions of both North America and the National Hockey League affect NHL player agents?

NHL General Managers held their winter meeting last week, where they addressed the issue of how to counter the downtrodden economy.  It is expected that the salary cap will be reduced next year to help franchises deal with declining profits.  Since the 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement was established, the salary cap has been $39M, $44M, $50.3M, and $56.7M this year.  A fair estimate is that the cap will decrease about $3M.

With the above in mind, let us consider the situation in which an agent represents an elite player on an average team.  Actually, make it twins, twins who have played together their entire lives.  They are equally talented and want to keep playing together.  Their contracts are about to expire, and it’s time to begin negotiations for contract extension (the NHL CBA prohibits contract renegotiation and allows extension negotiations only in the final year of the contract term).

This is the situation that player agent J.P. Barry faces in representing twins Henrik and Daniel Sedin.  Thus far, negotiations have gone well, but no agreement has been made.  The Sedin twins play for the Vancouver Canucks.  Vancouver’s GM, Mike Gillis, is faced with the challenge of fitting two elite players into a shrinking salary cap in a league with shrinking revenues.  On the other side, Barry is faced with the challenge of trying to secure valuable deals for two elite clients, on the same team, who have never played without seeing their twin brother streaking down the other side of the ice.  Players of similar stature have garnered significant contracts this year: Henrik Zetterburg signed a 12-year deal for $6.1M annually, Eric Staal signed a 7-year deal for $8.25M annually, and Anze Kopitar signed a 7-year deal for $8.6M annually.  The Sedin twins should be making somewhere in that ballpark.  It would be a significant raise for the twins who each currently make $3.575M annually.

Barry has called off negotiations to let the twins and the team focus on the rest of the season, so there won’t be much time to negotiate an extension when the season is over; NHL free agency begins on July 1^st.  A tough reality that NHL player agents must face is that their players’ salaries may not increase as much as they should.  The Sedins should be making around $7M a year, but their special circumstances of wanting to stay together, combined with the NHL’s less than desirable financial situation, create the reality that it just might not happen.  A mechanism that is extremely useful to MLB player agents, performance bonuses, is not available to Barry in negotiating the Sedins’ extension.  Per 50.2(C)(2), the NHL CBA allows performance bonuses for three categories of players: (1) players signed to an entry-level contract, (2) players at least 35 years old who sign one-year contracts, and (3) veteran players (played more than 400 games) who sign one-year extensions after returning from long-term injuries.  The Sedins don’t fit into any of the three categories.

Barry’s challenge in negotiating an extension for the Sedin twins will become the norm for NHL player agents if NHL franchise revenues continue to fall.  Negotiating lucrative deals for NHL players is harder than ever before.  So, to those agents representing elite players seeking more money…good luck.

If you have had trouble keeping up with Clay Moser over the years, it is understandable. Twenty plus years of experience in the basketball industry can make for a difficult task. Moser’s wealth of knowledge has led him to his latest stop as head coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA Developmental League.

Moser’s career began back in 1984 where he was an assistant coach at the junior college level. He was then fortunate enough to have his first NCAA Division 1 coaching experience under the legendary Jim Valvano at NC State.  Since that time, he has been an assistant for two more teams, including the San Antonio Spurs summer league squad in 2005, has been a head coach twice, and served as an advanced scout for the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, and most recently, the Orlando Magic. One of Moser’s jobs brought him overseas, where he acted as head coach and team consultant of the Jilin Northeastern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association. Moser’s extensive coaching experience positions him incredibly well to be a coach in the NBA.

Aside from a coaching standpoint, Moser has also spent time in the front office. He was the Senior VP & VP of Basketball Operations for the CBA, CEO of the Idaho Stampede, an NBA Consultant, and Vice President of Business Development for the New Orleans Hornets. In his role as an NBA consultant, Moser ran a variety of projects in Basketball Operations, International Business Development and Team Business Operations. Not only is Moser more than qualified to coach a team, he has the credentials of an NBA GM, as well.

There is no doubting how impressive the track record is that Moser has compiled over the years. He has shown a tireless work ethic during his surge through the ranks and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. He is enjoying his current stay as a head coach in the Developmental League and his well-rounded NBA background leave him with no other place to go but up from there. With continued success in its farm system, don’t be surprised to see Moser take his numerous skills to the league as a top assistant or even head coach in the near future.

Wells went 17-37 from the floor and shot 5-15 on three-pointers.  He also had seven steals in Sunday’s game.  Some un Bonzi-like numbers if you compared them to his NBA statistics.

Wells said, “I was really nervous before the game and I was only thinking about turning my nerves into energy.  I never thought that today I would score 48 points, that is not my normal style.”

Wells averaged 12.5 points and 4.6 rebounds in his NBA career, which he spent with Memphis, Sacramento, Houston and the Portland Trail Blazers.  In Shanxi, he is teaming up with former NBA coach Bob Weiss.

A major change to the Chinese league has occurred this season.  Last season, each team’s two foreign players were only allowed to play a total of 60 minutes a game, but this year both foreigners can play the entire game.  The team had Bonzi coming on board with hopes of moving Shanxi far away from their last-place finish in the 2007-2008 season.  Shanxi is currently in seventh place (9-7), but with the addition of Wells, the club is expected to be one of the CBA’s elite.

Along with Bonzi, NBA guard Kirk Snyder, former Indiana center David Harrison and one-time Golden State Warrior Chris Porter, represent the Americans overseas playing in China.