CAA is the old IMG, shot up with a dose of corporate steroids. Its football division is leaps and bounds above its competition, in a sport where new entrants come into the fold every day trying to take some of CAA’s share (with not much success). Its baseball division is right up there with names like Sosnick-Cobbe, Hendricks, Reynolds, and Octagon. Basketball and hockey are extremely well established divisions, too. Condon, Close, and Brisson were formally with IMG before turning to CAA. Is CAA now interested in prying away IMG’s long standing golf empire?
Even though IMG let many of its team-sports employees move on, it retained a strong presence in tennis and golf. Mark Steinberg, a former interview subject on this blog, is the director of Global Golf Business, and represents names like Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam, among many others. Is IMG nervous that it may lose its spot as #1 in golf?
CAA has wanted to get into representing golfers for a while now, and recently hired Andy Pierce, who was formerly the head of corporate consulting at IMG. His role will be in “identifying and developing new business opportunities for CAA Sports.” Establishing a golf division would definitely fall into those duties.
