Sports Agents
People have been entertained by sport since before the gladiators in the Roman Coliseum. In the 20th century, the publics’ passion for sport consumes more and more of their free time. As sports figures became internationally recognized, athletes began to realize their need for professional representation. Thus, sports agents were born. The field of sports agents has grown since then into an enormous field. Agents now deal with every aspect of an athlete’s life. Agents can be considered professional mangers who find the best place for their client’s talent.
Sports Agents have not been around for a long time. “Until the 1970’s, very few players had agents because teams would not deal with agents (Masteralexis, 244).” Many times players found that having an agent was a disadvantage to them. For example, “In 1964 Jim Ringo brought his financial advisor (agent) to help negotiate a contract with Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers. Lombardi excused himself for a minute, when he returned he told the agent that he was negotiating with the wrong team (Masteralexis, 244).” Agents had been around since prior to the 70’s, but were few and far between. C. C. “cash $ carry” Pyle is though to be the first Sports Agent. The first account of negotiations came when Pyle “Negotiated a deal with the Chicago Bears for Red Grange to earn $3,000 per game and $300,000 in endorsement and movie rights (Masteralexis, 244).” A few years later Babe Ruth allegedly consulted sports cartoonist Christy Walsh to serve as his financial consultant through the depression. These early accounts are the beginning of the Sports Agent. It took years for the agent to develop however.
Since the 1970’s the Sports Agency business has sky rocketed. There are five main factors that account for this. The reserve system is the first factor that lead to the growth of the Sports Agent. The reserve system was a restrictive system that limited the free, or open market. This enabled owners to retain rights to players and depress their salaries. Major League Baseball had the first system, which consisted of two parts, the reserve clause and the reserve list. The reserve clause stated that each player’s contract could be renewed by the team season after season, for as long as the club wished. The reserve list was sent to each team by the league. Teams had to place the names of r...
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... sport, but is generally under five years. Therefore, it is the agent’s job to maximize earning potential during and after the athlete’s playing career. At the same time it is the agents job to protect the athlete from overexposure. “The agent must balance the need to maximize exposure with doing what is best personally and professionally for the athlete” (Masteralexis, 1998). This function also includes the agent investing time, energy, and money into the athlete’s career before the player has made it big. If the athlete’s career doesn’t take off, this results in the agent losing money.
Dispute resolution follows career and post career planning on the list of functions. Dispute resolution is somewhat self-explanatory. It includes the agent resolving disputes with the league, team, teammates, fans, referees or umpires, the media, and endorsement companies. “Renowned baseball agent Dennis Gilbert likens the role of the agent to a shield, stating that it is the agent’s task to shield the athlete from the headaches that go along with resolving disputes” (Schwarz, 1996). This so called “shield” allows players to concentrate completely on their sport, without outside distractions.
African-American baseball players had been a part of professional baseball when it was first starting in the 1880s. Some black players had signed a contract already with their team, but the International League banned blacks from signing anymore. Blacks that were already under contract were able to finish until it was up, but they were not allowed to renew it. Ever since that, Major League Baseball was a segregated sport until the late 1940s. The major league owners had conspired together and wrote what was called a “gentlemen's agreement” to keep black players out of the game. This did not stop African-Americans from achieving their goal of playing baseball. They organized their own teams and played “pickup games” with anyone that ...
As long has there has been business, Management and Labor have warred against each other for a bigger piece of the pie. Major League Baseball is no different. In the early years of professional baseball the owners controlled the salaries of the players and decided where they could play and what they would be paid. The players were bound to their team by the Reserve Clause that stated, the services of a player will be reserved exclusively for that team for the next season. This resulted in keeping the player’s salaries artificially low because the players were not allowed to offer their services to any other team. The Reserve Clause was in effect for more than One Hundred years of baseball history. It was challenged several times but the owners had won every time, until in 1970 when the St. Louis Cardinals traded outfielder Curt Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies. Flood refused to play for the Phillies and sued to become a free-agent. Flood’s case was in court for several years going all the way to the Supreme Court. He was never able to play in the Major League again. While he did not win his case, he laid the groundwork for a later case that involved two pitchers, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally who filed a grievance against the league contending that, because they didn't sign contracts with their previous teams they were free agents. The owners and the Players Association agreed to submit to binding, impartial, arbitration in order to settle this case. On December 23, 1975 the arbitrator Peter Seitz ruled in favor of the players and the Reserve Clause was broken, and the era of free agency began in the Major Leagues. In 1976 when free agency began the average player salary was only $52 thousand dollars, but it has increased steadily ever since. By 1990 the average salary for a Major League Baseball player had risen to $589 thousand dollars. This Year baseball will start the 2001 season with an average player salary of more than $2 million, about 40 times higher than the typical wage in 1976 when free agency began.
Baseball has historically been known as America’s pastime because the American people cannot only enjoy games that they play themselves, but attend professional games and have a good afternoon with friends. But in 1972, Curt Flood challenged the reserve system in court and became the first free-agent, a player who is legally able to sign a contract with any team he chooses for a...
Kahn, L. (2009). Sports, antitrust enforcement and collective bargaining. Antitrust Bulletin, 54(4), 857-881. Retrieved April 24, 2012, from the EBSCO Host database.
As a fan of basketball, the NBA has always been the center of every discussion I partake whenever basketball is involved. Since its inception in the late 70s and the popularity of the American National Basketball Association, basketball has been cemented as one of the most iconic games played today. Whether a fan or enthusiast watches the game live or on replay, the high-voltage intensity and addicting thrill of every turnover and every score made just makes the person go wild. Of course in every game, some people often wonder how much money the players have in each season. I am one of those people who often think about how wealthy these players are and the more I see advertisements and high profile appearances these players partake, the question just keeps on popping up in my head. Reading through discussion boards, articles and even editorial papers about the issue, I have found this to be an interesting topic to discuss and with these sources in mind, this will be my foundation for this topic. In this paper, I intend to prove through an intimate discussion and debate that the players of the NBA are overpaid with regards to how much their salary and contracts are worth.
Ms. Jennifer Fontaine does not support the idea that athletes are overpaid. Ms. Fontaine suggests that athletes who are superior in their skills and talents associated with their respective sport should be duly compensated. Ms. Fontaine also states that the money earned by these athletes is justified because professional athletes work harder than people in almost any other profession. Last, it is her premise that the money earned by these highly talented athletes help to cover the high costs of medical treatment for serious, if not life-long, injuries such as knee, back/spinal, and head injuries.
hired by different high schools, colleges, and professional sports for different sporting events to ensure
Staudohar, Paul D. "Salary Caps in Professional Team Sports." Compensation and Working Conditions 3.1 (1998): 3-11. EBSCO Host Connection. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
Excellent post this week! Just as with any other aspect of the sports industry, in the event of a lockout, a sports agency will begin to feel the effects of a lockout of any sport. What sort of time frame do you believe that it will take for a sports agency to begin to feel the effects of a lockout? What do you believe other benefits of having former athletes involved in a sports agency would be? Which type of agency do you believe to be best for the athlete to choose? Does it differ from athlete to athlete? Most athletes will typically wish to work with a full-service agency because they do not have to worry about having different aspects of their life split up between different agencies.
Elite Sports Players are entertainers; they put people in the stands. They sell tickets, thus, they make money. Also, outside of a team's franchise, they also promote endor...
Sports transformed into a business where profit was the main concern. “As the pecuniary returns of the game increased, the value of the individual player was enhanced: the strength or weakness of one position made a difference in thousands in receipts, and this set the astute managerial mind at work” (Ward 315). This pertains to baseball, football, basketball and any other sport today. The more money a person could make off the game, the more significant the players became. The players were the ones making the money for the owners or the gamblers, and so many of these people no longer saw the person in the player, only the prowess in the player. The players soon began to be thought of as property and were often coerced into giving their permission to be traded to another club. “[T]he buying club bought not only the player’s services for the unexpired term of the contract, but the right to reserve or sell him again” ( Ward 315). Clubs claimed that this right to the player’s prowess was necessary to conserve the game and so many clubs abused this idea and ignored getting the player’s
The controversy of athletes being overpaid dates back to 1922, when well-known baseball player George “Babe” Ruth received $50,000 within the first year of his career. Ruth’s extensive wealth was bolstered by dozens of endorsements (Saperecom). As it is shown in figure 1, in the Fortunate 50 Tiger Woods takes the number one spot for highest paid athlete. Tiger’s salary for 2011 is $2,294,116 and like Babe Ruth, his endorsements exceed his salary earning $60,000,000 making his total $62,294,116 (Freedman). It’s crazy to think that 89 years ago professional athletes scarcely made more than the average person today. This is of course not counting the inflation that has occurred since the years which Babe Ruth played baseball.
Crafting the national pastime's image: The history of major league baseball public relations William B Anderson. Journalism and Communication Monographs. Columbia: Spring 2003. Vol. 5, Iss. 1; pg. 5
In today’s society many will argue whether or not professional athletes are overpaid. In the present time athletes are being paid phenomenally large amounts of money for their entertainment. It is my claim that all professional athletes are overpaid because they do not offer society an essential function that improves or enhances our world in comparison to other professionals such as medical doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Society does not value entertainment enough to warrant such high salaries such as those of many professional athletes. There is no reason that these athletes should demand these tremendous amounts of money. This is why you have to put into question their reasoning for demanding such high salaries.
While sports for the spectators are merely entertainment, the economics of the industry are what drives businesses to become involved. Sports have become more of a business entity rather than an entertainment industry due to the strong economic perception of the over all industry. There are several instances in which economics may contribute to the effect on the sports industry, such as: the success of a team, the price of a ticket, the amount of money an athlete will make, and the amount of profit a team will make. The success of an...