Editor’s note: The following letter is in response to the story “Dentsu’s stake values Athletes First at $50M” (SportsBusiness Journal, May 11-17). Former IMG CEO Peter Johnson takes exception to the theme that the team-sport talent representation business offers low margins and was one of the reasons Ted Forstmann largely got IMG out of that business a decade ago.
When I resigned from IMG in 2006, Tom Condon and Casey Close terminated their agreements with IMG, invoking an option in their employment contracts. During the next few months, when they were deciding where to go, George Pyne and Forstmann tried hard to keep them by offering them new deals. Both individuals, their employees and later Pat Brisson of IMG Hockey decided to join CAA. That was the start of CAA Sports.
After Condon and Close left, IMG hired Spencer Stuart to replace them. When that didn’t work, Forstmann told people he got rid of the team-sport business due to its low profit margin. Given the book of business Condon, Close (now with Excel Sports Management), Brisson and the ex-IMG execs who run CAA Baseball had at IMG, not to mention what they have generated over the past 10 years, team sports was anything but a low-margin business.
Peter Johnson
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