Ten months after merging its talent operations with IF Management, The Montag Group merged with another agency: Vision Sports run by Maury Gostfrand.
The combined companies will work under The Montag Group name.
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“A lot of people thought that The Montag Group would be a boutique agency,” said Sandy Montag, who founded the company in 2014. “We’ve developed into a medium-sized agency. In the world we live, I like the size we are now. We’re not a one-man operation. We’re not worldwide. But we have a really good imprint in the industry.”
Montag said the merger will give the company increased bargaining power when negotiating several talent deals with networks rather than one at a time.
“It gives you a bigger power base of information knowledge,” Montag said. “It’s more on the brainstorming and sharing of information.”
Montag, who worked with IMG until he broke off on his own three years ago, comes to the venture with some of the biggest names in sports broadcasting, people like Bob Costas, Jim Nantz, Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt.
IF Management’s Steve Herz (Dan Shulman, Brian Anderson) and Gostfrand (Kenny Smith, Jay Glazer) also have big-name clients. Montag said Herz and Gostfrand have been effective at finding new talent.
“Steve and Maury have a great ability to find sports broadcasters when they are on their way up with a ton of upside,” Montag said. “When I started my own, we had 65 really good clients. I believe in playing a little more defense sometimes. If you have great clients, you want to make sure they are happy as opposed to trying to find someone coming out of Utica, New York.”
The newly merged company signed three new clients, including former Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell, NBC Sports’ Kathryn Tappen and NFL Network’s David Carr.
Since January, the merged company operated under two names: The Montag Group and IF Management. Now, everything will be branded under The Montag Group except for IF Management’s news division, which will retain the IF brand, Montag said.
