Tiger on his future with @IMGgolf and agent Mark Steinberg: "I'm committed to both."

May 24, 2011 10:35 am via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@GolfweekSMartin

Sean Martin

So which one is it?  Woods will have to either pick staying with the agency that has represented him since his start on the PGA Tour or the individual agent who personally represented him for most of his career (Woods was first represented by Hughes Norton at IMG).  My guess is that he sticks with Steinberg.

In early April, I had started to hear rumors that Mark Steinberg was strongly considering leaving IMG when his contract expires in June.  In fact, I was hearing that he was thinking about switching over to powerhouse Creative Artists Agency (CAA) as so many former IMG employees have done in the past.  At this point in time, there have been no indications as to if Steinberg will join an existing agency or set up his own shop (a la Dan Lozano).  But keep an eye out on CAA.  I heard back in April that it was not the first time that Steinberg considered a switch to CAA.

A little more background info on Mark Steinberg’s relationship with IMG:

• He did a summer internship with IMG while in law school at University of Illinois College of Law.
• IMG offered Steinberg a job in his 3L year at UI Law.
• IMG initially had Steinberg working strictly on the women’s golf circuit.

Mark Steinberg Leaving IMG, Tiger Woods To Follow? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Football

• No one beats Professor Feldman when it comes to explaining NFL Collective Bargaining issues [NFL Labor Negotiations: Are We Headed for the Doomsday Scenario?].
• More bad news for the young league [UFL faces another lawsuit].
• Darren Rovell dipping into the realm of Sports Law [New Ruling Gives College Athletes Edge Over NCAA, EA].
• Good information regarding the medical evaluation process [An intense Combine time].
• Proposal to ban players who lose their student-athlete eligibility from participating in the NFL Combine [Combine could help clean up college game].

Basketball

• NBA teams are asking Mark Bartelstein for information regarding NFL Franchise Tags [After Stagnant 12 Months, N.B.A. Faces Its Own Labor Countdown].
• The senior director of public relations at BDA Sports [Ilana Nunn, NBA power player].

Baseball

• Players beat owners 2-1 in this year’s arbitration hearings [Hunter Pence beats Astros in final arbitration hearing of winter].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (2/25/2011) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Immediately, I think back to the case of American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League.  The NFL did not only suffer a loss in the Federal Supreme Court, it was a unanimous loss (9-0).  The basic holding was that the NFL is not recognized as a single-entity.  Instead, for antitrust purposes, it is made up of thirty-two separate teams, all with separate motives and interests for their licensing of intellectual property, even though they all obviously share an interest in the long-term success of the NFL.

The NFL’s new contract with Nike is a licensing contract.  Unless American Needle and the NFL eventually settle out of court, which would remove the precedent already created by the legal battle between the two entities in the past, the NFL’s agreement with Nike may not be etched in stone.  The American Needle case was remanded for further proceedings.  My guess is that the NFL will not wait long to settle with the company, as I imagine the Nike deal is extremely favorable for the league.

Here is a good quote from Justice Stevens, who delivered the opinion of the Court,

“Decisions by NFL teams to license their separately owned trademarks collectively and to only one vendor are decisions that ‘deprive the marketplace of independent centers of decisionmaking … and therefore of actual or potential competition,’ “

Why shouldn’t the Miami Dolphins be able to wear Nike jerseys while the Atlanta Falcons wear Under Armour uniforms?  The NFL and Nike may not admit they are concerned about the American Needle lawsuit, but unless there is a settlement, I cannot imagine that it is not on executives’ minds.  Here is a Q&A between CNBC’s Darren Rovell and Nike Brand President Charlie Denson:

Darren: Do you think the American Needle case could possibly negate this deal?

Denson: We’ve watched that case with great interest and at this point in time we’re not taking it into specific consideration. We’ve entered into this deal that starts in 2012 and hopefully by that time it will be resolved and we’ll be able to go full speed ahead.

American Needle Could Get Between Nike And NFL from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

But what happens when the lower payroll teams start beating out the big spenders?  Will the big spenders stop throwing their money at the players who have their hands out constantly asking for more?  And will the non-spenders continue to balk at the idea of spending, since they have enjoyed success without dishing out close to the amount of money that the “big market” teams have spent?

Only 3 (Giants, Phillies, and Yankees) of the top 10 teams when it comes to payroll have made this year’s playoffs.  4 teams from the bottom half of payrolls made the playoffs (Rangers, Rays, Reds, and Braves).  Does this mean that parity is possible in a league that is not bound by any type of salary cap?  Darren Rovell says it is not only possible, but that the MLB has the most parity of any sport, with 19 different World Series champions in the past 30 years.

Does Payroll Of Playoff Contender Affect Future Contract Negotiations? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Earlier this week, Darren Rovell wrote a post on CNBC that has been making waves throughout the blogosphere and Twitter.  The post, titled, Time For A New Jerry Maguire?, says that the movie is outdated.  Rovell believes that many agents no longer make athletes’ parents the focal point of their recruiting, and instead, go through intermediaries who often do not have athletes’ best interests in mind.  Oftentimes, those intermediaries have their own agendas and will come to the agents with hands open, expecting their own payday.

Rovell’s post is partly inspired by Dwight Howard’s recent decision to drop his agent (Aaron Goodwin) in favor of most likely having his extended family/friends manage his future contractual negotiations.  Time will tell whether that was an idiotic move on Howard’s part or not.

I would love for Rovell’s Jerry Maguire II to come out.  Because it would educate the athletes who watch it.  I have said it before (including yesterday on Twitter) and I will say it again – the only answer I see is the education of athletes.  No, I do not mean making players stay in college past one year before going pro, and I am definitely not advocating that we create some Professional Sports Business major for athletes.  I do think that education has to start in college, however.  While baseball and hockey players can skip college and go straight to the pros, basketball and football players don’t have that luxury.  And truthfully, where most of the problem lies, is with those two sports.

So what can be done?  It needs to start with the NCAA and then trickle down to every Compliance Office at every NCAA school.  I don’t care if it is the head coach of each college team, the Compliance Officer him/herself, or even a private consulting company like Synrgy Sports that is brought in to spoon feed student-athletes this important information that will affect the rest of their lives.  It cannot happen in the normal class setting; it has to happen when their attention is captured.  They need to read stories like this and this so that they understand that in the real world runners and AAU coaches are paid to connect them with agents.  Student-athletes need to feel secure that they can make the decision on their own, or with the help of people who truly understand their wants and needs – not some “friend” who is more in it for himself than anyone else.  They also need to realize that there are “bad agents” out there who will steal from them and also try handing over money/gifts that may be against NCAA/state/federal rules and laws.

We know about the problems.  Let’s talk about solutions.  And let’s start implementing them on a national level.

It Keeps Coming Back To Education from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

David Falk calls Coach K the Michael Jordan of coaching.  Not many people would be able to defend such a claim, but I guess Falk can, as he repped Jordan in his playing days.  Falk has looked to create long-term relationships for Coach K with 5 main companies.  He is not interested in one-offs, but instead, has focused on a few companies that match Coach K’s ideals.

I thought that it was interesting that Falk stated that he does not think that Ed O’Bannon will win his lawsuit.  Need a refresher on what his case is all about?  Click here.

David Falk Talks About Representing Coach K from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Darren Rovell has a very interesting piece on his blog that describes the development of Jack Marucci‘s bat company, which has its products used by some of Major League Baseball’s best hitters.  Marucci’s clientele includes Pujols, Howard, Ibanez, and Teixeira…hitters who come to mind when you think of “power swing”.  I agree that it is interesting that Marucci has not paid any players to use his bats or endorse his product.  There is no stronger endorsement than a person using a product out of pure choice, with no monetary consideration involved in the equation.  It is also very rare that a professional would do this, and actually pay for the product (or have his team pay for it), instead of getting free product at a minimum (and possibly being paid to use the product, if it is a prominent player).

Not everyone has a product that players may willingly purchase, however.  With that statement in mind, I thought that this was a particularly telling part of Rovell’s piece:

As for whether big hits by players using his bats help out sales?

“We see it,” Marucci said. “Someone watches Jason Werth hit a home run last night. They see our logo in the paper or during the replay -– HD has helped us a ton -– and they find us.”

So while Marucci does not pay for this beneficial publicity, the quoted passage says a lot about endorsements, in general.  Players and fans have no idea whether Jayson Werth is paid to use the Marucci bat when he steps up to the plate, but they are paying attention to the equipment that successful players are using.  This should be of use to companies deciding whether it is worth it to supply free equipment to players and their agencies of record, in exchange for the use of such equipment in the hope that someone will notice it and possibly make a related purchase, or at least spread word about the company.  For the higher-end players, free equipment may not be enough, and actual payments to the player may be justified by the increase of exposure, especially in an era where practically everyone has an HD TV.

Jack Marucci Has A Product That Players Want To Buy from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

One of the biggest weekends of the year in Gainesville, FL.  While Tennessee looked pretty weak against UCLA, the Gators should never take them for granted.  HHR looks at arguments for both teams.  Happy Rosh Hashanah to all my Jewish people!  Leigh Steinberg will be on the new Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California Wall of Fame.  How about my client, Pete Parise?  He has appeared in all 5 of the AAA Memphis Redbirds postseason games, racking up 4 saves in the process without giving up a single run.  I’m just a little excited about that.  Here are some stories I missed over the past week:

Baseball

• Another great piece by Doug Glanville.  He is turning out to be an excellent writer [Keeping It Real].

Football

• Tank Black tells his story for the first time [Tanked!].
• A football agent’s life, month by month [The agent cycle].
• Jake Delhomme isn’t losing his endorsement deals anytime soon [He can throw; can he pitch?].
• Put a client on a practice squad before sending him to the Browns? Harsh [Sources: Agents steering players away from Browns].
• The Patriots were the driving force behind the 5-year maximum length of rookie contracts drafted #17-32 overall [Patriots’ role in altered CBA ‘clarified’].

Entertainment

• He’s playing an agent on a show girls love [Interview with Robert Buckley, The New Ladies' Man on 'One Tree Hill'].

Sports Business

• From the geek at the sports network to the cool guy at the business network [Darren Rovell: CNBC’s Multi-Beat, Multi-Platform Game-Changer].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (9/18/09) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Sports Agents

• Bill Duffy gets on the Honorable Mention list [The top 25 Bay Area sports power players].

Baseball

• Interestingly structured contracts [Diamondbacks To Pay Bernard Gilkey Until 2017].
• Upper Deck can’t use team logos…going to be tricky to get around that [Topps Gets Exclusive Deal With Baseball, Landing a Blow to Upper Deck].
• 22nd rounder gets $990,000 signing bonus [Coffey Gets Unprecedented Deal].

Football

• Darren Rovell is not a fan of how Vick has treated the media post-jail time [Michael Vick’s Next Mistake: His Media Plan].
• Jerome Stanley is pissed [Agent points to Mangini for WR's injury].
• What problem would IMG have with the contract? [CAA and IMG squabble keeping Eli Manning from signing Giants contract].

Basketball

• Last year, 18 of the 60 NBA draftees spent time in the NBA D-League [Rookie Transition].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (8/14/09) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Lottery picks are not stupid, and neither are their parents, AAU coaches, handlers, and whoever else might be involved in the agent selection process.  In most circumstances, agents for lottery picks do not make a dime off of the initial contract.  The first time they will make commission on a team deal will be in the second contract, which will be very lucrative for those rookies who outperform the competition.  If the contractual agent is not also acting as the marketing agent for the player, that means that the agent will be working pro bono for quite some time.  To make matters worse, other agents will be hawking at your lottery pick client nonstop.  If the client leaves you, you may lose quite a lot of money and time over this kid who was supposed to be “The One” to bring your agency to the top.

Recruiting money is never paid back, but often times, lottery picks will basically pay back the costs of workouts and travel expenses that the agent incurred in the pre-draft process.  You can call that a commission on the first contract, if you’d like.  Rovell is correct, most agents who represent lottery picks actually lose money…their hope is that long-term, these athletes end up paying for themselves and much more.

Still Want To Be An NBA Agent? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules