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The “Fire Letter”

Your agency, your agency, your agency is on fireOnce new agents start to accumulate clients and everything seems to be perfect, novice Sports Agents often begin to see the gloomy side of the business.  Right when it seems like your agency/independent practice is going to start seeing a profit, you may start to encounter the “fire letter.“  As a novice agent, you have not dealt with many of the situations that your emerging clients are about to go through (arbitration, negotiation of contract extension, free agency, etc.).  This is when some of your clients may jump ship and go to a more established agency (IMG, SFX, Octagon).  When you are notified of a client’s departure by mail, it is known in the Sports Agent world as a “fire letter.”

Hopefully no one reading this blog will ever have to deal with one of them.

[tags]fire letter, sports agent[/tags]

By Darren Heitner

Darren Heitner created Sports Agent Blog as a New Year's Resolution on December 31, 2005. Originally titled, "I Want To Be A Sports Agent," the website was founded with the intention of causing Heitner to learn more about the profession that he wanted to join, meet reputable individuals in the space and force himself to stay on top of the latest news and trends.

Heitner now runs Heitner Legal, P.L.L.C., which is a law firm with many practice areas, including sports law and contract law. Heitner has represented numerous athletes and sports agents as legal counsel. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 2011-2014, where he created and taught a course titled, Sport Agency Management, which included subjects ranging from NCAA regulations to athlete agent certification and the rules governing the profession. Heitner serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he teaches a Sports Law class that includes case law surrounding athlete agents and the NCAA rules.