Why Can’t I Find a Sports Agency
Meet Jack, a well-established sports agent. Jack’s lifestyle is comfortable: he drives a luxury car, takes extended vacations, and his family enjoys a good life. His work is prestigious – he mingles with the top athletes, negotiates exclusive high-profile deals, and is known in the sports world for getting his clients what they want. But behind the glitz and glamour, there’s a hard truth about Jack’s business model that’s impacting athletes in emerging sports.
Jack faces a decision: Should he represent one athlete worth $1 million in a sponsorship deal, or represent 20 emerging sports athletes, each potentially bringing in $50,000?
If Jack chooses the latter, his workload would increase significantly. He’d have to manage 20 individual sponsorships, build relationships with each athlete, spend time negotiating multiple contracts, and constantly balance the various demands and expectations of his clients. Sure, Jack would still earn well – but the workload would skyrocket, and his cushy, low-effort lifestyle might take a hit.
Alternatively, if Jack chooses to represent the single high-profile athlete, his work becomes much simpler. He negotiates one mega-deal with a single brand, earns a supersized commission, and focuses his time on just one person. Fewer headaches, more prestige, and an easy way to maintain his comfortable lifestyle. For Jack, this choice is easy – he drops the 20 emerging athletes and sticks with the elite. It’s a pattern he’s repeated for years, and it’s a strategy that has shaped the sports sponsorship industry as we know it.
The Gatekeeping Problem
Jack isn’t the only agent making this decision. In fact, traditional sports agencies operate under the same exclusive logic, and this is where the problem lies for athletes in emerging sports. Instead of nurturing rising talent or discovering athletes who are deserving of sponsorship but not yet on the radar of big brands, agencies like Jack’s are laser-focused on a few elite athletes who command enormous deals. This creates a scarcity of opportunity for everyone else, effectively gatekeeping sponsorships from most deserving athletic talent.
Agencies like Jack’s know that scarcity drives up the value of their services. The fewer athletes they represent, the higher they can jack up the price tag on the ones they do work with. This inflation doesn’t just hurt the athletes who are excluded from these opportunities – it also hurts the sponsors, who are forced to pay higher prices for exclusive access to top-tier athletes, often at the expense of discovering authentic, grassroots talent.
For Jack, working with just one top athlete doesn’t only simplify his workload – it allows him to demand higher commissions. Typically, agents like Jack take a 20-40% cut of a sponsorship deal. So, if his one high-profile athlete secures a $1 million contract, Jack walks away with $200,000 to $400,000 for managing that deal. This is where the traditional agency model really begins to break down for emerging sports: the margins are better for Jack if he focuses on a few elites, inflates their prices, and takes a sizable cut. He has no financial incentive to represent smaller athletes, even though they may be more deserving or need the support more.
The Real Cost for Athletes and Sponsors
For athletes in emerging sports – whether it’s disc golf, parkour, or even women’s weightlifting – the reality is stark. They struggle to find representation because agents like Jack aren’t willing to spend time on them. Without an agent, they have to navigate the world of sponsorships alone, often lacking the experience, network, or business savvy to secure deals. Even when they do manage to land a sponsorship, they’re frequently underpaid compared to their value, simply because they don’t have the backing of a well-connected agency.
Sponsors also lose out in this equation. Jack, and agents like him, are driving up the prices of elite athletes while overlooking niche talents that could provide better value. Imagine a sponsor who could pay $50,000 to work with a highly engaging athlete from a growing sport with a dedicated fanbase. Instead, they’re paying $1 million for a more established athlete, whose audience may not even be a great fit for their brand. Not only are brands missing out on discovering emerging talent, but they’re also being pressured into paying inflated prices, driven by artificial scarcity created by agents like Jack.
The Way Forward: Disrupting the Status Quo
This is where the traditional, exclusive sports agency model is ripe for disruption. Inclusive platforms like NxtStride are stepping in to democratize sports sponsorships, offering a fairer and more transparent marketplace for athletes in emerging sports. By connecting brands directly with athletes, without the gatekeeping middlemen, platforms like this level the playing field. Athletes no longer need to rely on agents like Jack, who prioritize their own profits over the athlete’s potential.
In this new model, diverse athletes can showcase their talent, build their personal brand, and secure sponsorships based on their merit, not on an agent’s convenience. Brands, in turn, gain access to a broader and more authentic range of athletes, helping them make more informed decisions while getting better ROI. This kind of disruption will force traditional agents like Jack to either adapt or become irrelevant as more athletes and sponsors bypass the gatekeepers in favor of a direct, more equitable approach.
The Future of Sponsorship is Inclusive
The scarcity-driven, elite-focused model of sports sponsorship that Jack depends on is slowly unraveling. As athletes in emerging sports become more visible, and as platforms like NxtStride offer alternatives, the artificial barriers imposed by agents and agencies will begin to crumble. Athletes in niche and emerging sports deserve better – representation that doesn’t eat into their earnings and a sponsorship process that rewards talent, not exclusivity. For brands, the opportunity to engage with fresh, authentic talent without being manipulated by inflated prices will ultimately lead to better partnerships and more impactful sponsorships.
Jack may need to rethink his strategy soon. In a future where sponsorships are democratized, it’s the athlete’s skill, dedication, and influence that will drive deals – not the agent’s ability to create scarcity. And in this inclusive future, everyone wins.
