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In-Depth

2021 trends to watch: Labor

Labor relations will play a big role in how leagues deal with revenue lost to the shutdown of 2020, while agents will find themselves navigating changes to NCAA rules on name, image and likeness.

Trendsetters

Tony Clark, executive director, Major League Baseball Players Association
The MLBPA has long been considered the strongest union in North American sports for the unity of its members and its ability to fight off a salary cap. The MLB collective-bargaining agreement is set to expire in December 2021, and Clark will be leading the players through a negotiation for a new deal after owners and players both suffered financial losses in the pandemic-shortened season.

Tony ClarkAP Images

Jonathan Barnett, agent and co-head, ICM Stellar Sports
Barnett and global football’s other super agents are likely to be in a legal battle with FIFA if soccer’s governing body tries to institute rules and regulations on agents, including cutting their fees. Barnett recently told Sports Business Journal that “hundreds” of agents worldwide are ready to sue FIFA in multiple countries if FIFA enacts the regulations. ICM Stellar Sports is looking to grow by hiring or acquiring the business of U.S. NFL and NBA agents.

Michele Roberts, executive director, National Basketball Players Association
The union announced last year that it was searching for a successor to Roberts, who wants to retire. That search was suspended due to the pandemic and modifications needed to cope with it. Roberts, the first woman to lead a men’s sports union, will continue in her role during the shortened 2020-21 season and keep a close watch on the health and safety protocols that come with playing in home markets amid a surge in the coronavirus. 

Trends

Labor relations

The impact of COVID-19 on sports league salary caps, as well as overall labor relations between the unions and the leagues, may come into focus in 2021. Players unions and leagues were forced to work together to agree on health and safety protocols to play amid the worst public health crisis in modern sports. But there is no doubt that revenue, which dictates the salary caps in sports, was down all over. Whether unions and leagues will be able to work out solutions, with or without rancor that could lead to work stoppages, remains to be seen.

COVID’s impact on NFL draft

It will be interesting to see if the pandemic has any impact on the drafts of the major sports leagues, especially the NFL. Early on in the 2020 college football season, NFL team executives said they would not be interested in drafting players who opted out of playing. Will that still be the case? Also, agents wonder what kind of screening teams will have to detect any potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on players who had and recovered from the virus.

Agents of influence

It is expected that student athletes will be able to hire agents and negotiate name, image and likeness deals in 2021, which has the potential to change the sports agency landscape. If athletes are able to negotiate marketing deals, it will be marketing agents — not playing contract agents — who may take the lead in recruiting them. Additionally, unscrupulous agents who recruited players by paying them while they were still in college could find that their leverage no longer gives them an advantage.

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