By Mark E. Goebel Putting Their Clients~ I Mouths Where the i Money Is i - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -~ - - - -- I A look at the firms, agents and marketing reps i that arrange endorsements for athletes hirty years ago, if an like Coca-Cola. But the vast majority simply lived off their salaries from playing, and even that wasn't much athlete was on a box of compared to what players earn now. Wheaties, he had made Today, every athlete, from a star quarterback to a it to the big time. \l'hile utilty infielder, has an agent. Back in 1965, very few did. An athlete really didn't have any use for one. With play- selling Wheaties wasn't ers tied to the same team for their entire career, the own- the only endorsement ers held all the cards in salary negotiations. And endorse- ment opponunities were few and far between. opportunity available to sports celebri- Times have changed. ties back then, there weren't many.more With some form of free agency in the four major pro- fessional spons, and companies increasingly looking for than that. athletes to help peddle products, players' incomes have Sure, some athletes did radio or newspaper advenise- exploded. And so has the demand for agents who can menrs for local businesses and department stores. And negotiate salaries and secure endorsements. Thev also the really big stars may have endorsed national products help athletes manage their moneY, an extremely Únpor- tant task i ranges fromgiven 3 1/2the yearsaverage for career foot- ball players to 5 1/2 years for hockey players. -. Who he Thése Guys? Agents, like the athletes they represent, come in all shapes and sizes. First, there are the large, full- service agencies such as Interna- tional Management Group (IMG), Continued on page 22 20 NEW Y 0 R K S P 0 R T seE N E NOVEMBER 1995 Continued from page 20 and sell television programs. ProServ, Advantage and Falk International. They do What do these all-under-one- everything from salary negotiations to bil-paying to roof agencies charge for their estate planning. IMG, the oldest and largest, and the one services? Their fees range from with the most diverse client list, was founded by Mark 15 to 30 percent of a player's McCormack over 30 years ago. The agency's first promi- earnings and an additional two nent clients were Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. It to three percent if they handle now represents over 500 athletes, has over $1 bilion in all aspects of their clients' income, 1,000 employees, and 46 offices worldwide. It financial planning, tax returns, runs athletes' investment ponfolios wonh $150 milion estate planning and bil-pay- and claims to advise on more than $1 bilion worldwide. ing. For investment services alone, they charge $5,000- $6,000 for each $1 million Sampras, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Montana, For- managed, on par with most Former Cowboys coach mula I race car driver Michael Schumacher and Wall Street money-manage- Jimmy Johnson has been ~ represented by Burns g Italian soccer star Robeno Baggo. ment firms. :D In addition to the full-ser- Sport' Celebrity Service I MG's clientAmong list the includes other large Andre agencies, Agassi, ProServ Pete spe- of Chicago. cializes in tennis, representing, among others, Gabriela vice agencies, there are the l:i Sabatini and Stefan Edberg. Its founder, Donald Dell, is guys who have set up shop on their own or with a pan- a former Davis Cup player. Advantage International has nero Typically, they have a handful of clients and most a more diverse client list, including David Robinson, o&en focus on representing the players in salary negotia- Steff Graf and Michael Chang. tions. There are hundreds of them Falk Associates of Washing- roaming the campuses of America ton, D.C., on the other hand, :-The biggest feather in looking for business. Not many of focusses on athletes from team Fal Associates' cap has them do well, however. sports, particularly basketball One of the few who does is players. Its client roster includes ;~to he Michael Jordan, Leigh Steinberg, the best known some of the most recognizable ~,'who is easily the most and most successfuL. Steinberg, names in the game, including ~successfully DJketed whose clients are ptimarily profes- Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourn- sional football players, has negoti- ing, John Stockton and Bobby .::,athete in history. He .. ated some of the richest contracts Hurley. Football clients include. hauls in Ovr $30.mion, in sports, including those of Troy Chris Doleman and Desmond .":..;a year from enliorse- Aikman, Drew Bledsoe and Steve . Howard. Young. Steinberg has also delved However, the biggest feather ments,. includig a Nike into other spons, representing-Wil in the firm's cap has to be deal ~hich is considered Clark in his lucrative deal with the Michael Jordan, who is easily the Texas Rangers. -"to he the best in spo:its. most successfully marketed ath- Steinberg, like many of his col- lete in history. He hauls in over leagues, got into the business by $30 milion a year from endorsements, including a Nike chance. He was studying law at the University of Cali- deal which is considered to be the best in spons. fornia at the same time Steve Bankowski was quaner- Another Falk client is New York Jets' quarterback backing the school's football team. Bankowski, who had Boomer Esiason, who may have been dra&ed by the Atlanta Falcons, asked his friend seen his best days on the field, Steinberg to negotiate with the team on his behalf. Stein- but is reaching new endorse- berg, who at the time was 25 and had every. intention of ment hêights. Givèn his less- becoming a defense lawyer, managed.to arra'~ge"a than-sterling performances in $650,00, four-year deal with the Falcons, at the time a recent years, it is amazing to record for a rookie contract. some people the number of Steinberg now represents over 100 athletes. However, national television commercials he won't take on just anybody. "If a player is not inter- Esiason appears in, including ested in serving as a role model, I am not interested in Diet Coke, Frito Lay, Hanes, him as ; client," he said. Among other things, Steinberg Reebok and Wheaties; not to insists that the athletes give pan of the money they make mention his local ads for The from spons to charitable causes. Wiz. Big agencies like IMG also Hey Joe, Wana Doa Commercial? .. ~ Falk associates of Wash- market sporting events-golf . The newest genre of spons middlemen"are the spons .5; ;¡ '" ington, D.C. handles and tennis tournaments-to marketing companies, like Integrated Spons Internation- " '" business matters for sponsors, broadcasters and the al (151) of East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Spons Mar- g many notable athletes, keting Group of Dallàs and Burns Spons' Celebrity Ser- " inCluding the Knicks' public. They do public relations Patrick Ewing. work and occasionally produce vice of Chicago. These companies don't represent play- 22 NEW YORK SPORTSCENE NOVEMBER 1995 BUSINESS ers in salary talks, nor do they perform financial planning. Their sole role is to market athletes and, in some cases, teams and other spons organizations. "The marketing potential of athletes is too great and the business too sophisticated to be handled by agents or lawyers," said Frank Vuono of is!. "If an athlete really wants to maximize his off-the-field income, he should rely I on people with sales and marketing expenise." i I ¡ i Steve Rosner and Frank Fried, Vuono was I ¡ vice president of licensing for NFL Proper- i I I ties. Fried is the former head of worldwide I P nor to establishingmarketing for ISI ProServ with and his Rosner two panners, was presi- i i dent of Pro Asset Management, a New Jersey-based finan- I cial management and spons promotion agency. j Since its founding in May 1993, ISI has struck a number j ! of innovative deals that attest to the growing sophistication with which players and teams are being marketed. They I included Coca-Cola's $l4-milion "Monsters of the Grid- i iron" campaign, which starred 28 NFL players, including 1 six ISI clients. ISI was also instrumental in landing Howie i Long as an NFL analyst with Fox Spons and represented i i Dan Jansen, the Olympic speedskater, who signed with I CBS. ¡ ISI handles licensing and marketing activities for the 4gers, putting together a uniquely wide-ranging series of events, including an off-season fantasy camp, a collectibles and memorabilia business, and golf and tennis tourna- ~ ments that raise money for the team's charitable founda- tion. ISI is also assisting the team with the production of television and radio shows. iiôÌí'Êôdôríeìñenl ,", ISI had a hand in the recent renaming of Candlestick Park to 3Com Park. The ;;:Income Among ':~:.i~~).:":':::::;.' deal bêtween the City of San Francisco, which owns the facility, and the ~~lhlele~-'t~Â,"'1Lr",~:¿'LF" "",1 high-tech firm, 3Com, was brokered by Vuono's com- 1 pany. Another of the big marketing firms, Burns Sports' Celebrity Service of Chicago, focuses on booking commercial en~ . dorsements and persónal appearances. It works with advertising agencies and companies seeking active or retÍIed sports celebrities for commercial endorsements, motivation- al speeches or personal appearances. Their client Leigh Steinberg, one of the most list includes many of the successful agents In the busi- ness, negotiated a lucrative .:. Steff Grat.. :':~c::". .,enms ..p,,;.;',:" 6 million '1,. I country's Fortune 500 contract for Troy Aikman of the companies, and they have Cowboys. represented some of the biggest names in sports, including Bil Walsh, Roger Staubach, Jimmy Johnson, Mike Ditka, Bil Walton and t!l¡~t~~II!illlfiitll~f~.1 Brooks Robinson.