Freedom players and endorsements/agents (WBJ article)

FearM9 · Sep 9, 2002

From the Washington Business Journal:

For sports agents, the playing field has changed
Cynthia Hobgood
Contributing Writer

Endorsements for women athletes

Agents for action-sports stars are not the only ones breaking new ground in athlete representation. A handful of agents are working to help female athletes in team sports such as basketball and soccer get a little extra cash to go along with their relatively small league-paid salaries.

Soccer star Mia Hamm of the Washington Freedom is one of the most visible examples of a female athlete who has won major endorsement contracts. Now a crop of new and talented young athletes also are working to get their due — and turning to agents for help.

The birth of basketball's WNBA and the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) has led many of their stars to think about getting someone to represent them.

Freedom striker Abby Wambach, 2002 WUSA rookie of the year, just hired SFX Sports a few weeks ago.

"Prior to that I had been called by a few agents to represent me, but I wanted a bigger company," she says. "Maybe their percentage is higher than an individual agent, but I figured I'm pretty young coming into this new sport. I wanted to get as much as I can because I'm not part the business side of soccer."

In soccer, most players on the National Team now have agents — a trend that started in the mid-1990s.

Those who don't have agents field their own endorsement calls, often for shoe deals. They read and negotiate the contracts on their own. But now some are starting to consider the idea of an agent more seriously.

"At some point if I continue to go the way I'm going, I'll get an agent," says defender Jennifer Grubb, Freedom captain and a member of the All-WUSA team, who has a shoe deal she negotiated herself with Adidas. "Once you get an agent, he or she does all the work. I haven't pursued it yet, but I'm thinking possibly for when we can renegotiate contracts following next year. I don't feel like I really need one right now because he can't really do much for me right now other than negotiate personal endorsements."

Playing the business game

Although women athletes are getting endorsements, the amounts are still below their male counterparts and often are heavily incentive-based.

Wambach's SFX representative, Danielle Cantor, worked to get her a higher base sponsorship salary when they signed a three-year deal with Nike after creating a bidding war with Adidas.

"These companies know they can take advantage of the players who negotiate their own deals because they don't realize they are capable of getting more money," Cantor says.

Wambach is thankful she has a representation company to guide her through the endorsement process.

"That's one thing I've learned from my parents — the one thing you really need to take care of is your bank account and be careful where you sign your name," she says.

People say "'just give me your money and I'll make you this amount,'" Wambach says, "and then it never comes."

Wambach also has the perfect business mentor in Hamm, who has managed to earn about $2 million a year in endorsements.

"I've been talking to Mia and the biggest thing she had to offer for advice is that's the business of this game and you have to be a businesswoman about it," Wambach says. "You have to take as much as you can. You can't be the nice guy because this is how you live. This is the money you get for your living. I think that was good advice, and it was important for me to hear that being selfish in that aspect of the game isn't bad. You have to do it."
Click to expand...

M9fanatic · Sep 9, 2002

Nice! thanks.