Sports Marketing: The Agent Athlete Relationship and Ethical Issues

Sport agents typically handle contract negotiations for athletes, as well as any public relation issues, finance issues, and endorsement deals (Evans, 2010). Over the years, however, sport agents have become more to athletes than just a contract negotiator; they have taken upon the additional tasks of marketing their client’s ability, persona, and brand. With the increasing friction from collegiate athletes over the fact that they continue to be unpaid while simultaneously generating millions in revenue, agents look increasingly more inviting with the cars, money, and gifts they offer promising young

Athletes want to be associated with agents who are reliable. Rosa states, "Athletes and entertainers face intense pressure and temptation, but many do not receive the education and counsel they need in order to plan for a secure financial future," (as cited in Levaux, 2015, p. 1). Sports are just a part of what athletes have to deal with, there’s also public relations. Any professional athlete has their own platform so when it comes to media relations, it would benefit them to have communication skills. A lot of athletes sign their first contracts when they’re still young so they have little experience dealing with media or huge amounts of money. That’s where agents come in and help them with managing money, and keeping them away from bad endeavors. The Sports Agent Responsibility and Trust Act ("SPARTA") aimed to deter sports agents from engaging in certain overreaching activities and to prevent the unknowing violation of NCAA regulations by universities and athletes (Willenbacher,

1.The athlete isn’t technically making money off their playing ability they’re making the money from the name on the back of their jersey.

While the NCAA may be making most of its money off of college football it would be unruly to not pay other sports such as soccer, lacrosse, and basketball for both men and women. A plan proposed for the payment of college players known as the “Free Market Plan” is the idea to let the market decide how much the players make (Dohrmann). Rather than allow schools to give stipends under the watchful eye of the NCAA, advocates believe athletes should be free to make as much money as they can on their own and accepting whatever lucrative inducements an agent might offer in the hopes of landing him as a future client . A problem with this plan is the NCAA’s approval due to the fact that the more affluent schools would be able to purchase the players that they want. This would leave schools with less money to essentially have worse teams which goes against NCAA’s policy of “one school should not, because of affluent boosters or rule-breaking coaches, have an unfair advantage over another” (Dohrmann). The only way to let the free market decide while maintaining some semblance of a level playing field is to have a clearinghouse for endorsement deals and payments from agents. It would also make sure that no deals are made just to give a program a competitive advantage and that none of a player's compensation is being facilitated by

Collective bargaining and unions have had a considerable effect on fans through professional sports. Because of these contract negotiations, athletes in recent years have benefited from an increasing share of ticket and television profits. Collective bargaining has resulted in strikes and lockouts and has disrupted several seasons through cancellation of games or even ending a season. The televising of sporting events has become the largest source of revenue

While at times the NCAA can develop some irrational rules in the context of sports agents the NCAA has been very active. While sanctions are still levied against institutions and players for violations the Uniform Athlete Agents Act (UAAA) developed by the NCAA is a great step (NCAA, 2016).

Sports Agents have not been around for a long time. “Until the 1970’s, very few players had agents because teams would not deal with agents (Masteralexis, 244).”

The social media celebrity has killed the traditional sports marketing agent. That’s at least what marketer Evan Morgenstein recently told Forbes. Morgenstein believes that, ”The athlete market is dead. Sports agents are losing so many deals that they used to get as full endorsement deals to ‘celebrities’ just willing to lend themselves on social media. [There is] no need for appearances or traditional advertising.”

Marketing plans and strategies are an important part of almost any business today. One of the biggest industries marketing plans have benefited and changed in a number of different ways is the sports industry. The development of the sports marketing industry has led companies to invest millions of dollars to have their product associated with specific teams, players, and sporting events attempting to connect with consumer and create profit for both parties involved. The money involved in sports marketing calls for these sponsorships and endorsement decisions to be made both strategically and confidently. After researching the sports industry from a business perspective the importance of marketing decisions is

I plan to use this article in my research essay to show readers that college athletes are not obtaining the proper education to handle themselves when it comes to big contracts. This is will show why it is important for an athlete to finish school and become educated in business I will show the lack of education

Reading chapter 1, Sport Agency and then comparing it to the article Confession of an agent it gave me a different perspective of the agency business. At first, reading the chapter it gave me the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the penalties and etc. Reading about Josh experience made me understand the other side of the struggle of a sport agent. Even though I don’t agree with Josh’s choices in the beginning he made the right decision at the end.

The ultimate goal of marketing is to become a household name, meaning that a product should be well known to everyone. Sports marketing has the same goal, except the product is associated with sports such as sports clothing, teams, or sports drinks. In an article titled “Career and Professional Development: Sports Marketing,” contributors describe the general classification of a sports marketer. The article explains that a sports marketer generally stays at the same level throughout his/her career due to its high satisfaction. Alexandru Mihai writes in his article “The Strategic Sport Marketing Planning Process” that there are certain steps a sports marketer needs to take in order to have success. A few of these steps include

I don’t know really where to begin with any of this. Education is a big part in getting a great job that is if you want a job. I want to be able to understand and have the best knowledge of whatever field I choose to go in. I understand that in my first two years I won’t really learn anything about what I am interested in. All I will get is my basic classes out of the way. You have to start somewhere. This is a make or break it kind of game you play once you become one of the well known agents. Players can ruin your career in heartbeat and I am hoping with the right knowledge and help from professors that I won’t be one of those people. I would like to be a sport agent or a sport lawyer. Either way you have to know what is going on in the

Power is a crucial element in the sporting world. Hargreaves (1986:3) defines power as: “a relationship between agents, the outcome of which is determined by their access to relevant resources.” Having a professional relationship with various organisations is likely to increase the access that a group or individual will have, to relevant resources that may be needed which will be beneficial. French and Raven (1960, cited in Holloway 1995:np) say that there are 5 different types of power: “Reward power, Coercive Power, Expert Power, Referent Power and Legitimate Power.” Each type of power should be taken into consideration when building relationships with others in the sporting industry to allow accurate communication flow. On the other hand,

Why do elite athletes need good behavioural contracts to stipulate what they can and can’t do? If their professionalism was to an ‘acceptable’ standard, then they would already know what they can and can’t do. Many of the behavioural contracts have clauses that stipulate that the elite athletes may