In October 2011, PGA Tour golfer Matt Kuchar became Mark Steinberg’s first big client (not named Tiger Woods) since Steinberg moved from IMG to join basketball agent Jeff Schwartz and baseball agents Casey Close and Victor Menocal at Excel Sports Management.

Expect Steinberg to gain many more golfer clients as he begins to settle in with his new company.  Recently, Steinberg signed Gary Woodland, who just became a student of Butch Harmon.  Woodland was 5th in driving distance on the PGA Tour in 2011.  Harmon is going to work with Woodland to make him a better all-around golfer.

Woodland was formerly represented by Blake Smith of Hambric Sports Management.  Blake’s father, Randy Smith, used to coach Woodland, but parted ways with Woodland after he left for Mark Steinberg.  Woodland finished 24th in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions to kick off the season.

On To The Next One: Gary Woodland from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

I am on my way up to Gainesville, Florida to return to my alma mater (undergrad and law school) and watch the Gators take on the Alabama Crimson Tide.  I can’t wait to see a lot of friends and watch some good football under the lights at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium (8 p.m. kickoff).  I will return on Sunday and then it’s off to the new office on Monday.  The new law firm is called Wolfe Law Miami.  It will be myself and Richard Wolfe, a very experienced entertainment law attorney.  Our office space is in Brickell (right next to downtown Miami, Florida) in the penthouse of a beautiful building.  Here are some stories I missed over the past week:

Basketball

• David Falk: “I would bet a lot of money that if we miss one or two games, we’re going to miss the whole season.” [Sports agent Falk says entire NBA season is in jeopardy]
• The ultra-punitive measures alternative [NBA owners budge on hard cap demand].
• Tyreke Evans is being counseled by Arn Tellem and “Team Tyreke” [Don’t Curb Your Enthusiasm].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (9/30/11) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Steinberg instead chose to become a member of Excel Sports Management, the ever growing basketball, baseball (with the additions of Casey Close and Victor Menocal), and now golf divisions. Tiger Woods will join Steinberg and become a new client of Excel Sports. Just prior to Steinberg making his announcement of joining up with Excel Sports, I had heard that he was also considering a move to another powerhouse – Lagardère Unlimited. Perhaps Lagardère will continue to look for someone to grow its golf division.

Steinberg’s transition to Excel Sports makes perfect sense. He became acquainted with the people at IMG when he performed in a summer internship while in law school at the University of Illinois College of Law. He started working for IMG before he even graduated law school and did not stop until May of this year. While at IMG, he became close with guys like Jeff Schwartz and the aforementioned Casey Close, who respectively lead the basketball and baseball divisions at Excel Sports. As Steinberg stated to Darren Rovell of CNBC.com, he has known Schwartz and Close for roughly 20 years. He further stated,

“We grew up in the business together and I truly felt Excel was a perfect fit. We intend to be a multi-sport agency that is an ideal destination for top clients and corporations.”

While the additions of Casey Close and Victor Menocal earlier this year already made Excel Sports a company to keep a close eye on, its expansion into golf with the addition of Mark Steinberg makes an already intriguing company even more exciting to follow. I have a feeling that Excel Sports will be receiving a lot of internship applications for quite some time.

Mark Steinberg Joins Jeff Schwartz, Casey Close At Excel Sports Management from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

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

I recently stumbled upon an excellent blog written by an up and coming professional golfer named Scott Stallings. Scott’s blog is a little different than most other celebrity blogs in that he blogs for B Net, which is a business and management specific website. In his blog titled “Chief Executive Golfer” Scott gives readers insight on an area that is rarely covered- the business of a player.

Scott extensively covers what it is like being your own business, and there was one post from July of last year that caught my eye. It was the time when Scott was starting out on the Nationwide Tour and looking for investors. He had no agent, and as many of you know, if you don’t make the cut, you don’t get paid.

Scott took it upon himself to find people who were willing to invest in the business of Scott. He created an 8 share LLC at $12,000 per share. He figured he’d need about $96,000 using the worst case scenario of not making any cuts. The returns seemed very attractive to investors offering a return for the life of his career.

Despite things going awry on Scott’s part, it got me thinking, would I invest in a golfer, or even any athlete at the start of his career?

The investment would be quite high risk, as a player who needs no funding would likely be seen as having a high potential of becoming successful and probably get funded by sponsors. A huge risk is that your investment (the “athlete”) gets injured, possibly career ending and you’ve lost your money invested. Also, what would happen if more money was needed for an athlete to sustain his career? Are you liable to put in extra cash? How would this affect your share?

One of the most attractive propositions is that you are involved with the athlete. You’re right there with him as he is going for birdie – his income is your income. People would much rather watch golf then read the Stocks pages every day to see how their investments are doing.

Though not as risky, I would put investing in an athlete in the same ilk as owning a race horse. There may be no prize money, no residual value (“royalties”) and an athlete may be not good enough or just simply decide he wants to end his career.

Thankfully this is not the case for Scott, who has earned his PGA Tour card for this year. Despite making no cuts thus far, things are looking bright as his season progresses. Not to mention the sponsors have started to roll in too.

Would You Invest in a Golfer? from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Baseball

• Casey Close was one of 10 members inducted [U-M Alum Close Enshrined into Cape Cod Baseball Hall of Fame].
• While we are on the subject of Casey Close.. [Derek Jeter's agent Casey Close says Yankees public hardball with shortstop is 'baffling'].
• Named to the adjunct faculty at Marquette University Law School [Bud Selig: law school professor].
• A lot of older guys were not offered arbitration [Teams offer arbitration to just 14 of 29 “Type A” free agents].

Football

• Questioning why Jimmy Sexton was included on the panel [Is NCAA’s Agent For Change Completely Insane?].

Golf

• I find it interesting that Steinberg commissioned a study that involved polling of a certain target demographic to determine when it was the right time to start talking business again [A Year Later: Tiger's Agent Opens Up].

Recruiting

• It’s a lot more complicated than just starting to pay student-athletes a salary [Pay college athletes? No].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (11/26/2010) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

The Sports Agent Directory is the most comprehensive sports agent directory in the world.  Sure, we provide links to various agency websites in our Sports Agencies feature, but the Sports Agency Directory, which is offered by Sports Agent 411, LLC provides everything you could possibly need in terms of information regarding athletes and their agents.  And information is power.

This product should be interesting to a wide array of individuals, including but not limited to, financial planners, concierge services, real estate agents, relocation specialists, nutritionists, training facilities, private jet companies, and web designers.  If you have a business that in some way may cater to athletes, this product will save you time, provide you valuable and up-to-date information, and save you money.

Best of all, the database is extremely easy to use.  Here are a few things you can do with it:

• Search for the agent, agency, or athlete name by simply typing a  name.
• Search for sports agents by sports specialization (MLB, NBA, WNBA, NFL, LPGA, PGA, NHL, ATP, WTA, MLS, FIFA), total salaries negotiated, total number of clients, or geographic state/region/country.
• Search for athletes by the sports the athletes play, teams the athletes play for, salaries earned, or by salary ranking.
• Download each and every agent’s vCard to your address book and export your search results to Excel or PDF.

A concern you may have is that the database will not have valid information since athletes and agents are constantly changing where they work and who they work with.  The first thing I decided to do was test the database a day after Dan Lozano left Beverly Hills Sports Council.  Sure enough, he was no longer listed with the firm, and the clients that he took with him from BHSC were listed with him and no longer with BHSC.  And the database is also kept fresh with new salary information, player-agent switches, etc.

Here is what you can expect to find when you pull up an agency:

• Sports agency name
• Web site addresses, mailing addresses, phone/fax numbers
• Agents, principals, and decision-makers within agency
• Option to download vCard to address book for each agent/executive
• Total salaries represented
• Number of clients
• Names of clients, including Sport (League) name, Team name, Salary, Status, Professional league profile page link
• Option to export detailed search results to PDF and save
• Option to export address list search results to Excel and save

The Sports Agent Directory includes over 590 sports agencies and 1,050 sports agents.  And if you thought that’s a lot of information on the sports agent side, wait until you see what is offered in terms of customization of results according to athlete selected:

• Search for athletes by name
• Search for athletes by sport(s)
• Search for athletes by team names
• Search for athletes by minimum/maximum salary range
• Search for athletes by salaries
  • Top 10, 25, 50, 75, 150, 200, or ALL by order from highest to lowest
• Sort by Athlete name, agency name, recent salary, team name, or sport
• Athlete search results include the following: Athlete name, Agency name, Sport (League) Name, Team Name, Salary, Status, Professional league profile page link, Comprehensive agency details (see above)
• Option to export search results to PDF and Excel and also save
• Directory includes the following recent contracts/salaries:
  • Baseball (MLB) $2,791,608,253.00 (1,100+ players)
  • Basketball (NBA) $2,028,572,288.00 (450+ players)
  • Basketball (WNBA) $8,077,242.00 (120+ players)
  • Football (NFL) $3,009,647,577.00 (2,000+ players)
  • Golf (PGA) $297,854,588.00 (500 players)
  • Golf (LPGA) $33,620,120.00 (115+ players)
  • Hockey (NHL) $1,722,204,565.00 (1,000+ players)
  • Tennis (ATP) $68,480,832.00 (130 players)
  • Tennis (WTA) $45,916,487.00 (65+ players)
  • Auto Racing (NASCAR) $166,438,043.00 (41 athletes)

I’m not done yet.  The listings only include sports agencies and agents who have clients, so you don’t have to waste your time pitching agencies and agents who do not have clients.  Additionally, you will receive email updates whenever new data is available, such as new client hirings, firings, etc.

So now the big question – how much does it cost? It is $2,500 for a 1-user yearly subscription or $250 per month for a yearly subscription.  $5,000 for a 3-user subscription and very favorable pricing plans for large groups/corporations..

If you are interested in testing the product feel free to contact me.  Readers of SportsAgentBlog.com may be eligible for a slight discount off of the stated price. I would not sell a product that I have not tested myself, and after trying out the service, I can see its true value.

INTRODUCING: The Sports Agent Directory from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

To be honest, I kind of did a lot of thinking in this offseason and I wanted to go back to playing golf because I loved playing golf again. It had nothing to do with not even wanting sponsorships or if there wasn’t availability there. I just used to love playing golf, I used to love going out to the course everyday and some of that stuff can kind of get in the way. This year, I wanted my focus to be golf, and golf only and just not even worry about that other stuff.

His father, Mike Moore, echoed his sons sentiment in a recent ESPN article, “It’s not about money — it wasn’t going into the year and it isn’t now,” Mike Moore added. “It’s about aligning himself with products that befit his game. … He has a way that he enjoys looking and a way that he enjoys playing the game. He’s a very unique individual and he feels it’s important to be true to himself.”  Unique is right. Moore, at various times throughout the season, has sported a headband, flashy v-neck sweaters with ties and puma shoes (just like a pair people where on the streets) but with golf spikes attached – all items purchased by Moore.

So was it worth it? Moore’s answer would be an astounding yes. Moore finished this season with personal bests of a 70.46 scoring average, just over $2.2 million in earnings and his first PGA Tour victory.  Furthermore, that $2.2 million in earnings is over $1 million more than he earned in his previous season on tour. So to all pf Moore’s naysayers who bashed his decision to forgo $300-500K, he quips “less is Moore.”

Moore For Me from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

CAA is the old IMG, shot up with a dose of corporate steroids.  Its football division is leaps and bounds above its competition, in a sport where new entrants come into the fold every day trying to take some of CAA’s share (with not much success).  Its baseball division is right up there with names like Sosnick-Cobbe, Hendricks, Reynolds, and Octagon.  Basketball and hockey are extremely well established divisions, too.  Condon, Close, and Brisson were formally with IMG before turning to CAA.  Is CAA now interested in prying away IMG’s long standing golf empire?

Even though IMG let many of its team-sports employees move on, it retained a strong presence in tennis and golf.  Mark Steinberg, a former interview subject on this blog, is the director of Global Golf Business, and represents names like Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam, among many others.  Is IMG nervous that it may lose its spot as #1 in golf?

CAA has wanted to get into representing golfers for a while now, and recently hired Andy Pierce, who was formerly the head of corporate consulting at IMG.  His role will be in “identifying and developing new business opportunities for CAA Sports.”  Establishing a golf division would definitely fall into those duties.

CAA Acquires Another Important Piece Of IMG from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Much debate has occurred throughout the past week over whether this is a good move [Tiger Woods' fee queried in Australia]. Premier John Brumby believes that Tiger’s presence at the tournament will net an estimated 19 million dollars to the Victorian economy. The tournament may now attract visitors from both interstate and New Zealand to catch a glimpse of Tiger. Ernst and Young have released a report estimating an increase in 10,000-20,000 more visitors, and at 50 bucks a pop that could end up at around 1 million.

Some people argue where this magical number of $19 million came from, as the event does not have a major television or sponsorship deal; if anything these two companies will benefit by snapping up a bargain deal early. The only way the money will be made up is by tourists spending money elsewhere, which is a high possibility.

Some welfare groups have criticized the fact that taxpayers money is being spent on sport when, with the global financial crisis, many families are struggling.

Tiger hasn’t played in Australia since the 90′s, as the prize money is that of some Nationwide events- hardly appealing for most international players. Some fear a similar disaster like that of when Woods was paid $4 million to play the New Zealand Open a few years ago. The event was washed out and the tournament lost millions.

Whether the presence of Woods in the Australian masters attracts international players remains to be seen; as I previously said, the money isn’t that appealing. Also, instead of spending $3 million on one player, would money be better spent across say 8 players? Why not attract a high quality field rather than just a marquee player? I feel this would increase the standard of the tournament.

Either way, Tiger’s got my money and I’ll certainly be attending at least one day. I just hope the rain stays away.

The Tiger Tax from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules