c events. As a result, advertising and other commercial activities
have generated increased revenues for professional sports teams and, consequently,
demands from athletes for a portion of this revenue. Second, competition for an athlete's
services from new competitive sports leagues has provided athletes with greater
bargaining power and leverage when negotiating their salaries. Third, through the process
of free agency, athletes have the freedom to leave the sports team that originally selected
them and sign with another team. Because athletes generally do not have the training or
experience to deal with these social and economic developments, many athletes hire sports
agents to draft and negotiate their contracts with professional sports teams, to plan
financial and endorsement endeavors, and to interpret collective bargaining agreements.
The two main duties of a sports agent are recruitment and contract negotiation. A
common method of obtaining clients is by using personal contacts, friends and other
athletes to meet professional athletes. The more sports figures you know, meet and
represent, the better the chance of engaging some as clients. Knowing college coaches is
an obviously beneficial way to obtain clients. Success and good publicity also broaden
avenues of opportunity for sports lawyers.
The negotiation of contracts is just a small part of what it is that sports agent do.
Once a contract negotiation is up you won't do another contract for that person with that
entity for another 7 years sometimes. What are you suppose to do then? What you do is
"personal management." Make sure your athlete is prepared for today, tomorrow, and 5
years from now. Many people do not understand exactly what a sports agent does. Here
is a break down of the duties of a sports agent:
PREPARATION FOR PLAYING PROFESSIONAL ATHLETICS
o An all inclusive workout program; providing the best trainers avai...