Athlete Representation - What Would You Do?

Sports agencies weren’t always a thing of the past. Up until the past few decades, athletes would rely on their families, mainly their fathers and family lawyers to assist in their contract negotiations. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of individuals wanting to represent professional athletes. This increase can easily be explained by the high-profile status the sports industry has gained over recent years.

The great increase in salaries, sponsorships and benefits in professional sports have significantly expanded the need for the services that these “modernized” athletes require from agents. Today, agent representation of athletes has become a standard practice due to the increase in popularity surrounding the industry. Contract negotiations performed by today’s agents are a small part of their job functions. Today’s agents go as far as work with their clients’ financial advisers, marketing executives, insurance agents, tax professionals, travel agents as well as dealing with endorsements, promotions, appearances and public relations.

The competition to represent players in today’s sports market can be a vigorous task. With so many agents and agencies in the game and so many choices, players must decide what type of representation is the best fit for them; should they go with an agent in a corporate empire? or with an agent running a solo act?

The Pros of Agencies

-       Operate under corporate umbrellas

-       Represent a substantial number of professional athlete clients, giving them a great amount of experience in dealing with representation

-       Agencies often already have an extensive network of important contacts in the industry like head coaches, owners of major league teams etc.

-       Agencies have more resources and open avenues to explore

-       Large agencies can easily monopolize on top players making it easy for them to dominate the athlete representation market. Look at CAA for instance; they have become the most dominant sports agency in The United States because they represent many of the most successful players in major sports leagues.

-       More experience on the “business” side of athlete representation (sponsorships, endorsements, public relations etc.)

The Cons of Agencies

-       Its easier for an athlete to get lost in the shuffle if he/she isn’t a top earning client

-       Athlete will probably experience less individual attention and less face-to-face interaction

-       It might be harder for an agent to manage their time, their business and their client base in a larger agency

The Pros of Individual Agents

-       More personalized attention will come from individual agents

-       More personalized counseling will come from individual agents

-       Know your agent on a more personal level

-       Individual agents can be more invested in you because they depend on you for their livelihood.

The Cons of Individual Agents

-       Not as many resources available for marketability

-       Agent could be less stable financially

-       Lack of big-name connections

-       Might not have as wide of a reach in the industry as top agencies do

The bottom line is that athlete representation is about relationships. There are agencies and agents out there for everyone, it just depends what type of representation an athlete prefers. Whichever avenue an athlete decides to go down, they should make sure they take their time to explore the best options for their future careers.