One day last year, Howard Nuchow received a call from his boss, Creative Artists Agency President Richard Lovett, about a client, former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and former chairman of Twentieth Century Fox Joe Roth, who was in the agency's Century City offices that day. | Howard Nuchow
Age: 37
Title: Co-head
Company: CAA Sports
Education: B.S., sports management, University of Massachusetts, 1992
Family: Wife, Gina; twin girls Sammy and Jackie (5)
Career: Was an intern while in college for the New Jersey Nets; worked in ticket sales for the Nets upon graduation, advancing to director of business development; joined Mandalay Sports Entertainment in 1997; hired as co-head of CAA Sports in January 2007.
Last vacation: Cabo San Lucas
Last book read: “Desperate Networks,” by Bill Carter
Last movie seen: “We Are Marshall”
What’s on your iPod? I really need to get one of those.
Pet peeve: Naysayers
Greatest achievement: Helping to build Mandalay Sports
Fantasy job: Working side-by-side with two of my best friends at the largest sports and entertainment agency in the world is my fantasy job.
Executives you most admire: The “Young Turks” who became the new management team at CAA in 1996 and continue to jointly lead the agency today. (CAA’s current senior partners Richard Lovett, Bryan Lourd, David O’Connor, Rob Light, Kevin Huvane and Rick Nicita)
Business advice: The best business idea is usually the one that everyone laughs at when you first say it. When they laugh, don’t back down. | "Richard Lovett called me and said, 'Joe Roth is interested in MLS soccer, in owning a team,'" recalled Nuchow, one of three co-heads of CAA Sports. "He said, 'Will you talk to him?'" Nuchow, who formerly worked for Hollywood mogul Peter Guber, walked into the meeting thinking it would be a short one, and that Roth was merely contemplating the idea of getting into sports. "Thirty seconds in, you realized that Joe really wanted to buy a team and he would be a great owner," Nuchow said. "He is not just a former studio exec looking for a toy." After several trips to Seattle, Nuchow, along with AEG President Tim Leiweke, helped broker a deal in which Roth would co-own the new Seattle MLS expansion team with Seattle Seahawks owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. "What is great about him is he is not only an agent, but he had all the operational experience on the team side," Roth said. "He went with me up to Seattle several times, and I realized that when I was sitting with him in those meetings, he asked things I would have never thought to ask. "In his own, friendly, upbeat way, he asked the tough questions. I think he is a gigantic addition to Creative Artists." Nuchow's involvement in that deal has not been well-known. But in the year since CAA Sports started up in earnest, when Nuchow, former Van Wagner Sports Group President Michael Levine and former Fox Sports Networks executive vice president David Rone were hired to run it, the agency has quietly started a sports team ownership advisory practice. Nuchow, who came to CAA after running Mandalay Sports Entertainment's minor league baseball business, has been advising eight other individuals or entities on buying a sports franchise. Nuchow would not name the clients or the teams they are eyeing, but said, "They are all big time. They are all major league teams and MLS teams." Lovett said: "Howie's 'anything-is-possible' attitude and entrepreneurial approach has led to many exciting new business opportunities for our clients and the agency. He has an exceptional reputation among his peers and is a natural leader and collaborator within CAA." Nuchow has a lot of experience in evaluating whether a particular sports team would be a good buy, because that is one of the things he did at his old job with Mandalay. "Howie joined us when we had two teams, and now we have seven," said Paul Schaeffer, Mandalay's vice chairman and chief operating officer. Guber, Nuchow's boss at Mandalay, calls him "an indomitable spirit" who is enthusiastic and passionate about his ideas. "He knows where the center of gravity is in a discussion," Guber said. "He knows what is urgent, what is important and what is irrelevant." Once he gets an idea, though, Guber said, "He can be a pain in the ass about it. He is like a dog that gets ahold of the cuff on your pants." Nuchow is adamant when asked if people in the industry view CAA Sports as just another foray into the industry by a Hollywood agency. "There is zero chance that anybody who knows this business would accuse us of being another Hollywood agency," he said. "Every single person here is sports homegrown." In addition to quietly building a sports ownership consultancy, CAA Sports has signed as clients the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the AVP Tour, mixed martial arts brand TapouT and NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson. "We are really just in the beginning and we have accomplished a lot," Nuchow said. "We are at step one." |
