‘Old hands’ keep their grip on the first round

Just as baseball players go to the same few surgeons each year, first-round draft prospects seem to sign with the same few agents. The reason is simple, says Relativity Baseball CEO Mark Pieper.

“You see the same surgeons over and over for Tommy John surgery,” said Pieper, who oversees agents who have represented 8 percent of the baseball players drafted in the first round over the last six years, first at SFX Sports and now at Relativity Baseball. “It’s not intended to be disrespectful to all the qualified surgeons out there, but for these players, they have one chance of going to who they think is the best so they never have any regrets.

“They don’t want to look back at their career and say, ‘This just didn’t work out because I had the wrong agent or I chose the wrong doctor.’”

Would-be agents continue to pursue their dreams of representing players in Major League Baseball, as well as the NBA, NHL and NFL. Last year, for example, 260 people took the NFL Players Association’s certification exam, and 182 passed.

But SportsBusiness Journal research, studying prospects and their draft-day representation, found that in the last six years a handful of major agencies represented half or more than half of the first-round picks in the four leagues’ drafts (see chart).

Don Meehan’s Newport Sports is a major player in hockey. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

From 2009 through 2014:

■ In MLB, six agencies represented 49.3 percent of the first-round picks.

■ In the NFL, seven agencies represented 58.4 percent.

■ In the NBA, five agencies represented 50.8 percent.

■ And in the NHL, where the concentration was highest, three agencies combined to represent 63.4 percent of the first-round picks.

The numbers account only for draft-day representation and do not factor in players who leave their agent to sign with another. The rest of the first-rounders are represented by a combination of independent one- or two-sport firms, as well as lawyers and other sole practitioners.

Newport Sports, started by agent Don Meehan 33 years ago, was the most dominant agency in any sport, representing 29 percent of all the first-round draft picks in the NHL over the past six years.

Meehan, 63, notes that Newport Sports employs seven agents, each with more than a decade of experience, in some cases several decades. He said that young hockey players with first-round potential — as well as their parents — do not want to risk a career to an agent without experience.

“There is a track record that is at hand there,” Meehan said.

Staking out turf

As in hockey, leaders in other sports are agencies that feature a powerful agent — or agents — at the forefront who have represented top prospects for years.

Single-sport agency Boras Corp., headed by Scott Boras, 62, had the most MLB draft picks over the past six years, 14 percent.

In the NBA, Wasserman Media Group, which established its team sports practice by hiring veteran NBA and MLB agent Arn Tellem in 2006, had the biggest share over that time period, 14 percent.

CAA Sports represented the most NFL draft picks from 2009 through 2014, at 19 percent. That practice was headed up by three veteran agents who started their careers elsewhere: Tom Condon, Jimmy Sexton and Ben Dogra. (Dogra was fired by CAA Sports in November and joined Relativity Sports as co-CEO of Relativity Football last week.)

“My sense is the old hands long ago staked out their turf, consistently delivered great results and made their reputations as player advocates,” said Tellem, 60. “In the end, the first-rounders would generally rather align themselves with well-established agents who’ve had demonstrable success in dealing with teams than a newcomer who might get steamrolled. The risk is too great.”

Meehan, Boras and Tellem are what some in the industry call “name agents.” Most of the other agents or agencies on the list are also well-known. But SportsBusiness Journal did find one little-known agency, Jet Sports Management, finished fourth for representing the most first-rounders in baseball over the past six years.

“I kind of like being the oddball of the group,” said B.B. Abbott, who founded Jet Sports Management in 1999. “I like that we compete against the big agencies and take pride in the fact that we are in [the mix] with some of the best agencies in the world.”

Scott Boras’ firm had 28 first-round picks in the last six MLB drafts. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

CAA Sports led all agencies with 14.2 percent of all first-round picks in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL drafts. CAA Sports was launched in 2006, but it was built when its parent, Hollywood agency Creative Artists Agency, hired top agents from pioneer sports agency IMG — Condon, Casey Close and Pat Brisson — to build its football, baseball and hockey divisions, respectively.

CAA Sports co-head Michael Levine attributes the agency’s success to a combination of hiring seasoned, experienced agents and being able to offer other services for clients, including endorsements, licensing, speaking, philanthropy, video games, film, television, music, digital media, and beyond.

“This is a specialized business, and successful agents who build a practice within a strong infrastructure can thrive over long periods of time,” Levine said. “Also, we have shaped our offering to meet the needs of our clients. In turn, that offering tends to be fairly appealing to potential clients. The entire process feeds itself, which has helped established players like CAA succeed.”

Meehan’s Newport Sports represented such a large chunk of NHL first-round picks that it finished tied for second place across all sports with 5 percent.

Octagon also represented 5 percent of first-rounders across sports. Wasserman Media Group and Boras Corp. each represented 4 percent.

Tough to break in

The dominance of veteran agents and mega-agencies does not bode well for newcomers who want to enter the business.

In the 1980s, and even into the late 1990s, a lawyer who wanted to be a sports agent and had some contacts in the industry could hang out a shingle and, with luck and hard work, achieve success. But agents interviewed for this story could not come up with the name of an agent who had made it that way for quite a long time.

Young agents trying to sign a top draft prospect may walk in with drive and ideas, but they can’t offer a roster of talent for whom they’ve done it before.

Veteran agents “use their client lists and experience,” said Tom Santanello, 34, who became certified to represent NFL players in 2010. “The more they have, the more they are going to use it.”

Santanello is one of the lucky ones, able to represent a first-round draft pick only a few years after he opened his own shop, Elevate Football. Santanello represents defensive tackle Dominique Easley, who was picked No. 29 in last year’s NFL draft by the New England Patriots.

Parents and prospects want to know whether prospective agents have had a top draft choice before, Santanello said. “They actually say, ‘Have you had a first-rounder?’” he said. “Now, I say, ‘Yes.’”

As for helping players get drafted, Santanello said, it’s the player who matters, not the agent. “If you have a guy like Andrew Luck or [Jadeveon] Clowney, he is going to go [No.] 1, no matter who represents him. And you know that.”

Joseph Clayborne agrees with Santanello. Clayborne, 26, co-represents Carolina Panthers defensive end Kony Ealy, a second-round pick last year, with veteran agent Andy Ross.

“You know players are drafted based on their talent,” Clayborne said. “Talent dictates everything. Not only the talent, but who they are on and off the field as players is a part of where they are drafted.”

Clayborne said he co-represented Ealy with Ross to combat the notion that he was not experienced enough to represent such a high-profile player. This year Clayborne, who founded his own firm, Agility Sports, is representing another highly rated player, University of Missouri defensive end Markus Golden, on his own.

There are advantages to being a young agent. “The upside is I am able to build lifelong relationships with my clients and relate to them on an entirely different level than the older agents in the industry,” Clayborne said.

Lal Heneghan, a partner in Cornerstone Sports, which advises about a dozen Division I schools and their football student athletes on agent selection, said that during recruiting meetings, agents talk more about the first-rounders they represented than they do other things, such as free agent contracts they have negotiated. “They will mention the players they represented, from what schools and where they have been drafted,” he said.

Before joining Cornerstone, Heneghan worked for the San Francisco 49ers as general counsel and executive vice president of football operations. He also has held positions with the Cleveland Browns and with the NFL, working with the NFL Management Council.

“I don’t know if there is as much concern on the club side about who the agent is,” he said. “You just want to be sure the player is well-advised.” But Heneghan notes that NFL club executives have naturally developed relationships with certain agents they have had to deal with over the years. “It’s natural to be more comfortable with people you know have brought players through the process,” he said.

Rod Higgins, former president of basketball operations for the Charlotte Hornets, said NBA draft prospects like the fact that veteran agents have existing clients with clubs and business relationships with those clubs and the player personnel executives.

“These kinds of agents stand out because of their credibility, their resources and their ability to give players information,” Higgins said. “It can be a ton of information, like, ‘Is this club going to be interested in me in this part of the draft or at my position?’ The agent, like an Arn Tellem, is going to have inroads at those clubs.”

Jeff Schwartz, president of Excel Sports Management and an NBA agent, notes that he is able to do things, such as get owners of teams or top executives at corporations on the phone, that he couldn’t have done 20 years or even 10 years ago. That is one of the things that athletes are looking for, as well, in an adviser.

Schwartz noted that sports is a relationship-driven business and the relationships in the industry are deep.

“There is a reason why most agents who are really successful are a little bit older,” Schwartz said. “It takes a long time to get to that level and it doesn’t normally happen in your 30s. It just doesn’t. Most guys are in their 40s or their 50s.”

And that is not good news for young entrepreneurs wanting to start an independent practice from scratch. “I think we are in a time period where it’s maybe the hardest time for younger agents who are out on their own to make a dent in this,” Schwartz said. “It’s just tough right now.”