Seven years after leaving the agent business,
Jason Levien, now owner and managing partner of D.C. United, has hired a young agent to help him negotiate deals involving the MLS team.
Sam Porter, formerly an NBA agent and director of basketball at Exclusive Sports Group, has taken the newly created position of director of business and legal affairs. He will report to Tom Hunt, D.C. United chief operating officer.
Porter co-represented about 18 basketball players with NFL and NBA agent Buddy Baker, owner of Indianapolis-based Exclusive. Those clients include a number of basketball players playing overseas as well as Sacramento Kings point guard David Stockton, son of NBA hall of famer John Stockton. Baker said the parting with Porter is amicable and they remain friends. “I still talk with him every day,” said Baker, adding that Porter will remain as an adviser to the agency.
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Porter said the move for him was not about leaving the agent business, because he enjoyed working with Baker and their clients. “This was more about an opportunity to work with a top franchise in the MLS that has a lot of exciting things going on,” he said.
Earlier this month, D.C. United and the District of Columbia completed a deal to build a $287 million stadium that is expected to open in 2018.
Levien said Porter will be involved in negotiating deals involving the new stadium development as well as player contracts with D.C. United general manager Dave Kasper. Contracts involving international players and the team’s designated players involve millions of dollars and many things to negotiate, Levien said.
Levien owned Levien Sports Management from 2002 to 2008, and his clients included NBA players Kevin Martin and Luol Deng. He worked as assistant general manager of the Sacramento Kings and CEO of the Memphis Grizzlies before taking a much more active role with the United last year.
“I got to know Sam when he was an agent and I was working on the [NBA] team side,” Levien said. “I thought he was particularly bright and got along with players and management and had a lot of breadth to him.”
> NFLPA MAKING CHANGES TO SRAs: The NFL Players Association will notify agents this summer of a change to the way agents are listed on the standard representation agreement for NFL players, a union source said.
Under the new rule, which is expected to take effect later this summer, the first agent listed on the form, which is known in the business as the SRA, will be the agent to whom that player is required to pay fees. Agents must send in SRAs to the union when they sign league players and draft prospects.
Multiple agents may still be listed on the SRA, but the first agent listed will be the agent who can claim fees for the player, said this union source, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
A number of agents have left agencies in the last year, causing confusion and in some cases conflict over which agent should receive the fees. The maximum fee an agent can charge is 3 percent of the contract value.
“We don’t want agents in the middle,” said this union source. The change was discussed at the NFLPA annual meeting this spring, but it has not been formally communicated to the agents.
The new rule will not apply retroactively but will be in effect for SRAs that are signed going forward. That means the change should be in effect for this coming NFL season and for the recruiting season for the 2016 draft. College players begin signing with agents in early December.
At many agencies, it is common to have more than one agent listed on the SRA, and sometimes, agents recruit players in teams. Sometimes players want to be represented by an experienced agent and a younger agent. There also are situations in which agents from two agencies recruit, sign and co-represent a player. It is not clear how agents will resolve these situations in the future or how it will affect recruiting.
> RELATIVITY SPORTS SIGNS ABREU: Relativity Sports has signed Chicago White Sox first baseman and 2014 American League Rookie of the Year José Abreu for representation. Agent Diego Bentz will lead his representation.
Abreu was formerly represented by Praver Shapiro.
Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @SBJLizMullen.
