Tom Condon, considered the most powerful agent in football, and Casey Close, one of the nation’s top baseball agents, can leave IMG and take their athlete clients with them because of unusual clauses in their employment contracts.
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Tom Condon (center) counts quarterbacks
Eli (left) and Peyton Manning among his NFL clients. |
The clauses were triggered when longtime IMG executive Peter Johnson, who ran IMG’s dominant athlete representation practice and who hired Condon and Close years ago, resigned last month.
Condon, who counts quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning among his 80 NFL clients and has signed more first-round NFL draft picks than any other agent in the last five years, is already talking to potential partners for his practice. In addition to other sports agencies, he has talked with Hollywood talent firm Creative Artists Agency, sources said.
Neither Condon nor a CAA spokesman would comment.
It was not clear whether Close, who represents New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and about 50 MLB players, was talking to anyone outside IMG. As president of IMG Baseball, Close leads a group of agents who represented more MLB draft picks than any other agency in every year for the last five. Close didn’t return phone calls for this story.
An IMG spokeswoman said the company has not been notified that either Close or Condon is leaving, but said IMG is “in great financial health” and that “if an employee or two leaves, it wouldn’t have a meaningful financial impact on the company.”
The spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on the employment deal of either agent or say whether IMG was trying to get them to stay. But sources said that if Condon and Close leave, they would be obligated to split client fees with IMG, at least for a while. As a practical matter, IMG might have a hard time hanging onto clients of either agent because athlete clients are typically more loyal to their agent than to their agent’s employer.
Additionally, the NFL Players Association and the MLB Players Association require that players sign representation agreements with individuals, not companies. The unions also allow players to fire their agents at will.
It was not clear if IMG owner and CEO Ted Forstmann knew that Johnson’s resignation could trigger the contract clauses. Some sources said Forstmann was not aware of the clauses in the two contracts until after Johnson resigned.
Johnson, who had been named CEO for sports and entertainment in late 2005, sent an e-mail to IMG employees Jan. 23 announcing his resignation after 30 years with the company. His memo was sent the day that IMG announced that it had hired NASCAR COO George Pyne and given Pyne virtually the same title that Johnson held — president for sports and entertainment.
Johnson wouldn’t comment for this story.
While the Condon and Close dramas are playing out, there is growing speculation that Johnson’s wife, Stephanie Tolleson, who as IMG senior corporate vice president runs the agency’s powerful tennis business, may also resign.
An IMG spokeswoman said, “Stephanie is a very strong leader of the tennis business and we have told her she has every opportunity to continue to be a leader. We don’t view Stephanie’s responsibilities in conjunction with her husband’s.”
Tolleson did not respond to an e-mail inquiry for this story.
If Condon or Close leaves the company, sports industry insiders believe it could damage the reputation of IMG as the most dominant athlete representation business in the world.
There is a perception held by people within IMG, as well as others in the sports industry, that Forstmann is much more focused on the television and media business side of IMG, which accounts for more than half of the privately held company’s revenue, than he is on the athlete representation business.
“We’re a media company now,” said one longtime IMG executive recently, echoing the views of many people in the sports industry.
But a source close to Forstmann said that perception is “clearly not true.” In fact, the source pointed out that Forstmann was personally involved in the company recruiting and re-signing top tennis player Roger Federer last year and has been involved with meetings with other prospective top athlete clients.
“He may well be one of the best agents in the company, he is so committed to the agent business,” the source said.
IMG founder Mark McCormack was an athlete agent, and he chose former athlete agents to run his company before he died in 2003. Those executives, former co-CEO Bob Kain (who started as a tennis player agent) and former co-CEO Alastair Johnston (who started as a golf player agent) now hold the lesser title of vice chairman under Forstmann.
McCormack created TWI, IMG’s television arm, but he always viewed the athlete representation part of the business as an important piece of the company, said senior IMG executives who asked not to be identified. “The reason we got as strong as we did in the media business is because of the integration of the other side of the company,” said one of those executives. “It was because we had both. That was the strength of IMG.”
IMG over the years became the home to agents of superstars, if not icons, in virtually all the major sports. IMG’s client roster includes Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam in golf; Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams and Roger Federer in tennis; Sergei Fedorov and Sidney Crosby in hockey; and Shaun White in snowboarding.
IMG started out representing golfers and then tennis players, but in the 1980s, McCormack tapped Johnson, an IMG agent who represented superstar athletes in multiple sports, to create a team sport athlete representation practice. Around 1990, Johnson hired Condon and his partner, Ken Kremer (who sources say can also leave IMG if he wants to), to start the football division. Johnson and Condon are close friends.
Condon and Mark Steinberg, who runs the company’s golf division and represents Sorenstam and Woods, are probably the two most powerful agents in a company full of powerful agents.
Johnson hired Close, a former minor league baseball agent who had just started in the agent business, to build the baseball division in 1992. “I wanted to build our baseball practice with a grassroots effort with our own guy that we could train,” Johnson told SportsBusiness Journal in 2001.
It is not clear whether, if they leave, Condon and Close would be replaced by Pyne, who was scheduled to start his job as Johnson’s replacement today. An IMG spokeswoman said the company would not address such hypothetical questions.
| IMG clients in play? |
 | | Condon |
IMG Football
Tom Condon, president;
Ken Kremer, vice president
(approximately 80 roster players)
Peyton Manning (quarterback, Colts)
Eli Manning (quarterback, Giants)
LaDainian Tomlinson (running back, Chargers)
Chad Pennington (quarterback, Jets)
Marvin Harrison (wide receiver, Colts)
Drew Brees (quarterback, Chargers)
Alex Smith (quarterback, 49ers)
Todd Wade (outside linebacker, Texans)
Grant Wistrom (defensive end, Seahawks)
Adrian Peterson (running back, Bears) |  | | Close |
IMG Baseball
Casey Close, president,
(approximately 50 players)
Derrek Lee (Cubs, first base)
Richie Sexson (Mariners, first base)
Carl Pavano (Yankees, right-handed pitcher)
Derek Jeter (Yankees, second base)
Kenny Lofton (Dodgers, center field)
Eric Milton (Reds, left-handed pitcher) |
Note: IMG Baseball’s Jeff Berry and Brodie Van Wagenen assist Close with some player representation, but neither are listed as the sole agent for any player Information based on rosters as of Feb. 16
Sources: SportsBusiness Journal research, NFL Players Association |
