Starting a Career in Sports with an MBA
None of what I’ve written so far will come as a surprise to sports management students. They have been tracking the rise of these leagues and witnessing audiences expand along with their international reputations. The more pressing question is about how to get in on the action. In this article, we will shed some light on the various ways that MBA students can find a sports career supporting the game that they love.
Continue reading…Alumni Spotlight: Sports Agent Drew Rosenhaus
If you are interested in the business of sports, it is highly likely you are familiar with the name of Drew Rosenhaus. Beloved and reviled in equal measure, no one has a neutral opinion of the man. Regardless of people’s feelings toward him, Rosenhaus has achieved the remarkable feat of becoming one of the defining figures in the NFL without ever having set foot on the field.
Rosenhaus is a football super agent who is relentless in fighting for his clients’ interests. He currently represents over 110 NFL players and has negotiated $1.1 billion in contracts. Rosenhaus’s industry presence was mythical enough for Cameron Crowe to base Tom Cruise’s character in Jerry Maguire on him.
The Start: University of Miami
Rosenhaus spent his entire youth watching the Miami Dolphins, his local professional football team. He went to games and practices whenever he could, and because his dad knew players through his work as a real estate agent and boat manufacturer, Rosenhaus had the opportunity to talk to players frequently. All of those experiences convinced Rosenhaus that he had to do something with football.
By the time he enrolled at the University of Miami Business School, Rosenhaus knew that he wanted to be a sports agent. However, he did not think that it was a real path until he befriended a classmate of his at Miami—Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin. Rosenhaus tutored Irvin and other students on the Miami football team. The players liked Rosenhaus’s ability to relate to them, and he liked being a part of the football world.
His First Client
After his experiences with Irvin and other football players, Rosenhaus pursued his desire to be an agent by enrolling in Duke Law School after completing his business degree at the University of Miami. In 1989, during his second year, Rosenhaus landed his first client, Robert Massey.
At age 22, Rosenhaus became the youngest sports agent working at that time. After going official, Rosenhaus decided to start his own firm, Rosenhaus Sports Representation. Rather than hire staff immediately, Rosenhaus convinced his brother, Jason, to get a degree in accounting so that they could work together; the plan succeeded. After Jason graduated from the University of Miami in 1991, the Rosenhaus brothers set out to create the largest agency in the NFL.
The Rise of Drew Rosenhaus
Rosenhaus’s status as a football agent rose quickly after signing Massey. As he noted in a question-and-answer session with ESPN, Rosenhaus says that he worked his way up to 12 clients within his first couple of years as an agent. The number of clients only increased after that. Rosenhaus believes his success is derived from the relationships he has with his clients.
As he noted in a 2011 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley, Rosenhaus works hard to maintain a personal relationship with each of his many clients. He said, “My clients are like my family, like my brothers—literally.” Like a brother, Rosenhaus always takes his clients’ calls: “If I get a call in the middle of the night, I have to take it. If I’m with a girl I have to take it. If I’m in the shower, I have to take it.” Like a brother, Rosenhaus always works to get his client the best deal possible, always watching out for their best interests in a sport that is notorious for its disregard of players.
This deep commitment to his clients and their welfare has made him into an extremely popular agent with players, if not necessarily with teams or other agents, who disapprove of his aggressive style. His clients range from exciting collegiate draft prospects to Pro Bowl veterans. Notable current clients include Antonio Brown, Trent Brown, and Kwon Alexander.
The Future
The story of Drew Rosenhaus and Rosenhaus Sports Representation does not stop at the NFL. While Rosenhaus stays active in the NFL, the firm is branching out into other sports. In the past two years, Rosenhaus’s firm has begun to sign baseball and basketball athletes. Although development in these areas is currently limited, Rosenhaus expects there to be growth in both these areas in the coming years.
Yankees Draft Stevens Finance Student, and More – New York News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from New York business schools this week.
From Ducks to a Dynasty: Yankees Draft Stevens Ace, a Star on Field and in Business Classes – Stevens Institute of Technology News
For the first time in nearly half a century, a student from the Stevens Institute of Technology was selected in the MLB Draft.
Charlie Ruegger, a junior in the school’s Quantitative Finance program, was drafted by the New York Yankees in the latter rounds of the 2018 draft, going in the 33rd round, 997th overall. In the midst of a demanding QF course load, Ruegger managed to earn Pitcher of the Year honors in the Empire 8 Conference with an 8-2 record. Stevens Ducks coach Kristaps Aldins prepared Ruegger “for the professional scouts who traveled to Dobbleaar Field to watch the Ducks and their star pitcher in action.”
Ruegger notes, “I learned to not overthink or try to do something I wouldn’t ordinarily do just because scouts are watching. You have to stay within yourself and keep your focus.”
While Ruegger’s focus turns to the Yankees, he is still very much interested in pursuing a QF career down the line.
“The professional minor-league life can be long and taxing. It’s important to me that, when the time is right, I can walk away from playing baseball and be able to move right into the business world.”
You can read the full article here.
Putting a Business Idea to the Test – Rutgers Business School Blog
The Rutgers Business School‘s Sulis team, whose innovative solar-powered water purification system recently swept the Hult Prize regional competition, is now crowdfunding to “pilot the business in India this summer.”
Team member Anurag Modak was the catalyst for the idea, which he hoped would “address the global issue of water scarcity through technology.”
The article notes that the Sulis team hopes to “market the technology to parts of the world plagued by inadequate water supplies or lacking adequate water purification.”
You can read the full article here and learn more about Sulis and the team’s crowdfunding campaign here.
Professor Anindya Ghose Comments on Facebook’s Effectiveness as a Crowdfunding Platform – NYU Stern News
The Wall Street Journal recently interviewed NYU Stern Professor of Marketing and IOMS Anindya Ghose about value of Facebook as a platform to get the word out about crowdfunding initiatives.
“An average Facebook user logs in multiple times a day… and if [the campaign] is right up in your face every time you log in, the probability you see it is high. So, I give a lot of credit to a platform like Facebook for amplifying content like this.'”
You can read the full Wall Street Journal article here (paywall).
Barack Obama to Speak at 12th Annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference
It was announced earlier this week that former U.S. President Barack Obama will be among the honorary speakers at this year’s MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
The 12th annual event arrives at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center February 23 and 24. Alongside Obama, the highly publicized conference will feature some of the biggest names in the sports industry, including: former Microsoft CEO and Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman, National Basketball League commissioner Adam Silver, former professional athletes like Steve Nash and Alex Rodriguez, and Seattle Storm point guard and U.S. Olympian Sue Bird, among others.
Co-founded by MIT Sloan School of Management MBA graduate Daryl Morey, the current general manager of the Houston Rockets, and Kraft Analytics Group CEO Jessica Gelman in 2006, the annual conference has transformed into one of the most formative sports business events in the world. Since its inception, the event has spawned and popularized numerous movements in the industry, including basketball’s strategic revolution (they call it MoreyBall for a reason).
During his tenure in the White House, Obama’s sports fandom became a much-publicized part of his public persona, appearing on ESPN throughout his two terms to discuss the NCAA tournament, college football playoffs, and more.
.@BarackObama, the 44th President of the United States, will speak at @SloanSportsConf February 23. We are pleased to welcome President Barack Obama, a well-known sports fan. Visit https://t.co/2E9wO8Qo5K for more details #SSAC18 #analyzethis
— Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf) January 6, 2018
Obama will be speaking on the first day of the conference, Friday, February 23. Alongside the notable speakers, the conference features career help seminars, a case competition, an in-depth multi-day look into esports, a hackathon, and much more.
The MIT Sloan Analytics Conference website reads:
“At our roots, we are about education and our goal is to provide more opportunities for sharing industry successes, to create forums to discuss the most challenging topics of the day, and to continue identifying new ideas. As a conference we are firmly committed to innovation. Each year, we have added new elements to push the larger analytics conversation forward. Recent years have seen advances from the Research Paper competition started in 2010 to the popular and successful Hack-A-Thon, the introduction of an esports room, doubling the number of Competitive Advantage talks, expansion of the Startup Tradeshow competition, and introduction of industry-specific workshops. Despite our past successes, we firmly believe that the best is yet to come.”
Find out more information about the event and register today.
SDSU Sports MBA Hits a Home Run with SportBusiness International
The Sports MBA at San Diego State University Fowler College of Business Administration was recently ranked as one of the best programs in the world—fourth overall to be exact. SDSU received its new ranking thanks to SportBusiness International, which is one of the leading classification systems for postgraduate sports management courses. Continue reading…
San Diego State Sports MBA Program Discuss Baseball
Sports business can be complicated, particularly when discussing global growth. At least that’s what Chris Park, Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Senior Vice President for Growth, Strategy & International, had to say at a recent event hosted in San Diego and attended by SDSU Sports MBA students. In his talk, Park explained that doing business internationally means that “you are always the road team,” a challenging prospect. Continue reading…
