3min chapter

The Town with Matthew Belloni cover image

From Sports to Hollywood With Casey Wasserman

The Town with Matthew Belloni

CHAPTER

Negotiating Commissions, Trust, and Community Impact

This chapter explores the pressure on commission percentages in the sports industry and highlights the importance of trust and communication in resolving labor disputes. The hosts emphasize the need for both sides to address the underlying issues and discuss the impact of the current strike on the community.

00:00
Speaker 3
What
Speaker 2
are you doing about the pressure on percentages on commissions? You hear a lot about athletes being able to negotiate down percentages. You guys holding the line or are you willing to make deals?
Speaker 1
Look, the short answer is everybody would be lying if they tell you that whether it's for one client or all their clients, they don't negotiate commission. Let's just be honest, everyone has had the conversation with a client at some point in their career. But I do believe if you get what you pay for. If you're the best player in the world in a really big sport, the marginal value of your agent and your contract for playing is small. That's the exception. That's not the rule. I always try and remind people, life is not just up and to the right. Life is full of up and downs. We earn our money supporting our clients through all of those cycles and after their career as well. We think there's a real value to what we do. That's reflected in the fees we get from
Speaker 2
our clients. Obviously, one of the things that your grandfather was known for was being this figure in the community that could step in when there were problems. He did so during previous strikes. Do you have thoughts on the current strike and perhaps would you be interested in getting involved to help mediate this?
Speaker 1
Look, he has a great, obviously history. It's a big part of his history. He was his ability to manage the industry through these labor and potential labor disputes. I think it came from a couple of places. One, obviously he represented talent and then he had a studio. He understood the nuances of both sides and he had credibility with both sides. He was clearly the leader of the industry on behalf of the studios and spoke absolutely on behalf of them. Yet the unions knew that what he said was what he meant, what he meant was the truth. When he shook their hand, they had a deal. Trust and credibility and transparency are the key to all labor disputes. It doesn't matter whether it's the entertainment industry or in the sports world where I do have some experience in the sports world. There's clearly been a broken down of trust and communication in this process. The other thing is I do not know how you solve a strike without sitting in a room. Yeah, in sports, don't they just get in a room and say, we're not coming out until there's a deal? They do. I have told everybody involved when they ask for my advice or not. I say, if my only suggestion is, lock yourselves in a room and don't come out until it's done because it's that important. It's going to get solved and you can't solve things by not talking. The last thing that's really being missed here is, look, you and I both live in Los Angeles. This is affecting a lot of people in our community who aren't on strike but whose livelihoods depend on this industry. That is real, that is meaningful, and that is not okay that that's being lost in this process. It's incumbent upon both sides who have legitimate issues. Obviously, our perspective is always going to be making sure the talent is protected. We can't pretend like the world isn't changing for the content companies because it is. We have to find a deal that is aware and representative and understands and solves
Speaker 2
the real issues on both sides because there are real issues.

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