Sports Agents: Roles, Negotiation, and Career Paths

Introduction to Sports Agents

The terms sports agent, player agent, sports representative, and contract advisor are commonly used interchangeably. Each term — whether identifying a lawyer or a non-lawyer — describes a delegate who performs essentially the same service. It is the duty of these professionals to represent, counsel, advise, and assist a professional athlete in the negotiation, execution, and enforcement of the player's contract. As of April 1993, two hundred seventy-three major league baseball players earned a salary of one million dollars or more, and agents typically receive four percent of the player's salary as their fee. This has caused a dramatic growth in the number of persons seeking to represent athletes.

There are countless definitions of athlete representatives, but the bottom line is this: to be a good sports lawyer, one must first be a good lawyer. A sports lawyer is frequently a business or corporate lawyer who adds the specialized ingredient of sports law to their area of expertise. Sports law is a remarkable combination of many legal specialties. Contract negotiation is one particularly prominent and profitable subset. Some sports lawyers specialize in negotiating contracts on behalf of a player, while others may represent a team in player contract negotiations. The services provided by law firms primarily involved in contract negotiation vary greatly in range — from the singular act of negotiating a contract to a full-range package involving negotiating, legal counseling, securing endorsements, financial planning, career planning, marketing the athlete, and resolving disputes over employment contracts.

Becoming a Respected Player Agent

The key to being a highly regarded player agent is to identify the client's best interests and to work diligently to achieve those objectives. Numerous factors determine an agent's distinction: integrity, background, experience, expertise, and preparation. Although it is not a requirement for an agent to also be an attorney, the athlete is generally best served by an attorney-agent, due to the added security of the attorney's code of professional responsibility.

The professional athlete is also better served by an agent who maintains a low public profile, rather than by an agent with a reputation for confrontational, public negotiation or for causing clients to miss preseason training. This is not to diminish the substantial value of favorable publicity — there are some successful confrontational agents. There are, however, hazards to negotiating in the media rather than directly with the team. For example, a marginal player in danger of losing a roster spot might be placed in particular jeopardy by a confrontational agent. Additionally, a team faced with a choice among players of comparable ability competing for limited slots may favor those represented by less confrontational agents. It is easy for management to keep players whose agents maintain a low profile over those whose agents court conflict.

Registration and Certification Requirements

Registration with or certification by the various players' unions is a prerequisite to entering the field of athlete representation. Certification may not be granted if the agent cannot reasonably be expected to perform the responsibilities of representation. The unions require that all agents attend annual seminars covering current updates relevant to their duties. A key benefit of certification is access to valuable salary information for union members, as well as scouting information on college seniors.

An athlete's representative may also be required to register with individual states, pay registration fees, and post a bond. This can be costly, as posting bonds of up to $100,000 in various states requires substantial resources. A representative should carefully weigh the number of states in which to register, balancing the reality that registering in too few states limits where they can work, while registering in too many may place an undue financial burden on the representative.