Sports Law

• Do you have it in you? Top notch publication [Call for Papers: Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (11/11/2011) 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

Staying with Mark Steinberg. Total confidence in him. Excited about the next stage in my professional life. Fond memories of Mark McCormack.

June 6, 2011 9:23 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@TigerWoods

Tiger Woods

I have not read anything regarding whether Annika Sorenstam will also continue to be represented by Steinberg, leaving IMG for wherever Steinberg goes.  Further, I have not yet been informed as to whether Steinberg will set up his own practice or join an existing agency.  It would be a very interesting play for Steinberg to sign with Creative Artists Agency (CAA).  The company recently hired Peter Bevacqua, who had been Chief Business Officer at the United States Golf Association (USGA).  Bevacqua was hired by CAA to develop new business for CAA’s Golf Division.  Hiring Mark Steinberg would be a very good start.

Tiger Woods Sticks With Mark Steinberg; Leaves IMG 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

Football

• Final cuts are never really the final cuts [Guys who made the cut shouldn't uncork the champagne yet].
• It’s a big win for Revis. The Jets make decisions differently than the Raiders! [Darrelle Revis Didn’t Get the Nnamdi Asomugha Money He Wanted, So Why’d He Sign with the Jets?]
• Note that the 85% rule is only applicable in an uncapped year [Sources: NFLPA monitoring trades].
• Joe Haden and Gerald McCoy find themselves in good situations [Under The Cap: Top 10 Draft Picks].
• Continuing to dig into the Blake/Wichard relationship [Former UNC coach had agent on speed dial].

Basketball

• For anyone who scoffs at starting out as an intern [Grant has tough task ahead of him].
• Read the thoughts from the anonymous agent at the bottom of the post [The NBA and Weight Clauses: Derrick Caracter joins Glen "Big Baby" Davis as Weighted Players].

Sports Law

• More attention to be paid by both sides in negotiations [The Impact of Tiger Woods Scandal on Morals Clauses in Endorsement Contracts].

Sports Business

• Chris Dingman answers some questions about his niche athlete real estate business [How Do Pro Athletes Handle Their Real Estate Needs?].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (9/10/2010) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

It was not all that long ago that IMG was known for its Client Management division, which included many talented athletes not named Tiger Woods.  Jonathan Blue was focused on investing in non-sports businesses and Creative Artists Agency (CAA) was known as one of the best Entertainment agencies in the world.  Today, IMG only manages athletes in individual sports (i.e. tennis and golf), while Blue Entertainment Sports Television (BEST) and CAA are two of the largest athlete representation firms in existence.  CAA represents LeBron James, Peyton Manning, and Ryan Howard. BEST represents John Wall, Reggie Bush, and Chris Johnson.  While CAA has a slightly better roster of talent at the moment, BEST may make a push to take over the top spot.  Lagardere Unlimited, a large French talent-management company, is expected to buy BEST in the near future, which may create a new World War between mega worldwide sports and entertainment agencies.

Meanwhile, Casey Wasserman’s Wasserman Media Group (WMG), is taking notice, but it is doubtful that the company fears the change in the sports agency landscape.  Year after year, WMG’s Arn Tellem defies all odds by continuing to manage clients in the double digits in both basketball and baseball, while finding the time to serve on the Board of Directors for a couple of basketball-related philanthropic events and also write a weekly column for the Huffington Post.

WMG does not represent football players.  CAA, through Tom Condon and Ben Dogra have the most successful football agency, and it is only a division of a larger agency.  It is very rare for an agency to involve itself in another sport in conjunction with a practice in football.  CAA does it, as does BEST, Octagon, and Mark Bartelstein’s Priority Sports, but Drew Rosenhaus and David Dunn of Athletes First are not venturing outside of football any time soon (although Dunn does represent some coaches).

What can be concluded?

1. It is very difficult to manage athletes in more than one sport, especially when the agency has a football division.
2. WMG and Arn Tellem will survive no matter how much other companies grow through acquisitions.
3. CAA’s utter dominance may be threatened.

Roughly a year ago, I suggested that CAA’s dominance may be threatened by a merger.  At that point in time, I made that assumption based on the merger of Endeavor and William Morris Agency.  I presumed that the new mega-agency would develop a sports practice to rival CAA.  Fortunately for CAA and the rest of the industry, that new practice never took shape.  Instead of WME, CAA needs to take note of the potential buy out of BEST by Lagardere.

State Of The Sports Agent Industry from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

An interesting part of the Woods discussion centered on whether he was instructed by his advisors to take the course of action that he followed or if he was advised to act differently, but did what he thought was best.  I believe that his advisors most likely told him accept responsibility and apologize at an early stage (which would be the appropriate thing to do), but that he ignored is because he believed that he was truly invincible.  What we saw last week, which was hardly a press conference, was Woods’ realization that he could not escape the media and slightly gave in to the public’s desire to hear him speak.

As advisors, all we can do is suggest the way we believe our clients should act.  At the end of the day, we are employed by the athletes (the principals); if they don’t want to listen, they do not have to.  But if they are not going to listen to us, then why pay us in the first place?  That’s what Gilbert Arenas figured.  The guy negotiated his own 6-year, $111 million contract.  Would an agent have done any better?  Maybe not.  But would an agent possibly helped Arenas after Arenas was found storing guns in his locker and drawing a weapon on his teammate?  Quite possibly.  Arenas acted very stupidly thereafter, but eventually came to his senses, hired an attorney from Washington D.C. and accepted full responsibility and apologized.

That’s the key: Accept responsibility and apologize as soon as possible (unless you are being charged with killing somebody – Stallworth).  The problem comes when an athlete is employing all of these different “advisors” who are pulling the athlete in different directions.  Another thing I think is important is that even though social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter allow instantaneous communication between an athlete and the entire world, the 4th Estate (traditional media) cannot be forgotten.  Tiger Woods basically gave the media the middle finger throughout his career, so why would they do him any favors at this point.  Make the media your best friend, or else they will look for any opportunity to pin you and your clients.

Since speaking on the panel, I have read one article that makes me shake my head sideways and one that makes me shake my head up and down.  The sideways: Elijah Fields Got Paid, Kicked Off Pitt Football Team. The up and down: Anything Worth Doing.

The post about Fields shows the potential harm that sites like Twitter can cause for athletes.  One act of stupidity can kill a career.  The other post is about the damage control used by Jeremy Jeffress’s agent after he received a 100-day suspension for substance abuse.  While Joshua Kusnick and I have had our differences in the past, this particular post on his blog is brilliant.  Here are some parts of his piece:

The first step in repairing a damaged image is to apologize but only if its sincere. The second step in this process was finding a place for this player to get help for his problem.

And that’s the game plan when something goes awry. 1.Get everyone calm. 2.Contact the media and apologize 3. Get help. 4. Apologize more. 5. Live up to all the promises you have made. It doesn’t take dangerous gypsy magic to rehabilitate an image, just genuine contrition and the desire to right your life.

No one is perfect.  Apologize, be sincere, mean it, and act on it.  For the most part, the public will not forget, but they will forgive.

Athletes Overcoming Their Indiscretions from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Baseball

• I really don’t think that Scott Boras represents Freddy Krueger or the shark in Jaws [Know Thy Enemy: Scott Boras].

Football

• Forces a few agents to come to Indy early and creates a divide between agents who were invited and those on the outside [Union will brief agents on CBA progress February 24].
• It’s officially front office season [Upcoming Front Office Decisions].
• How does this hurt/help the UFL’s expansion plans? [The Arena Football League is back]
• Another one goes to Rosenhaus [Vickerson changes agents].

Basketball

• Arn Tellem’s best post to date, where he says, The awful truth: NBA players would be in a stronger position without a union [Stern und Drang].

Sports Agents

• Jeff Rubin could not have been pleased with the $10,000 bill [Tiger Woods Former Mistress Michelle Braun Runs Up Hotel Tab For Sports Agent In Miami].
• Lowell Taub answers Rovell’s questions as you would expect a smart agent to answer them [One-on-One With Bode Miller's Agent].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (2/19/2010) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Baseball

• Buster Olney wonders if the fact that many 2nd tier starting pitchers have the same agents will drive up their costs to teams [Starters with same agents could push prices].
• Interesting that the owners and the MLBPA may be interested in an international draft [Is the international draft inching closer to reality?].
• I actually tested the software for Bloomberg…cool stuff [Bloomberg Technology Embraces Baseball].
• The Winter Meetings are a bratwurst fest [Suitcase Chronicles: It's Raining Men].
• Technically still not retired, though [Bonds' agent concedes slugger's playing days are over]
• A good bit of information about baseball agent, Scott Boras [The man fans love to hate].

Football

• Maybe the UFL could learn a tip or two from the CFL [CFL Stays True To It’s Brand…].

Coaches

• The first college coach (including football and basketball) to break $5 million per year. Pete Carroll can’t ask for more after this season [Mack Brown gets raise, will be highest-paid college coach].

Golf

• A view that Tiger Woods can’t expect to remain a private person and needs to get out in front of and in control of the news cycle [Tiger Woods news: sports agent Leigh Steinberg on Woods].

Shabbat Shalom: Friday Wrap-Up (12/11/09) from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

Scott Boras

Carl Poston says Woods and his team should’ve acted sooner in dealing with the public relations nightmare.  “He’s never been in any trouble before,” Poston says, “he’s the golden boy.”  Poston says he would advise the golfer to hire a crisis management specialists to deal with such a public issue like this. [MyFoxHouston.com]

Steve Zucker: “I think the kind of companies that he’s tied himself up with are pretty much married to him for the length of those (sponsorship) contracts, and they are long ones.” [Crain's Chicago Business]

What are your thoughts?

Certain Agents Weighing In On Tiger Woods from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules