A year and a half ago, Alex Rodriguez and childhood friend Justin Firestone were riding around Seattle in a limo talking about their future. "The person that bridges the gap between the athletes and the aviation world is going to do really well," said Rodriguez, who a year earlier had become a client of a private jet company that shuttles wealthy individuals from city to city on short notice.
|  | | When a train fire near Camden Yards shut down downtown Baltimore, Alex Rodriguez caught an eBizJets ride home to Texas. |
Five months later, Firestone went to work for that company, eBizJets, with the task of retaining athletes as clients. At the time, the premium-service charter company had only a dozen clients who were professional athletes, including Rodriguez and David Cone, but A-Rod predicted that Firestone could build the business quickly.
"I said he could get a couple hundred athletes," Rodriguez said. "With how it's going right now, they could have 500 athletes in five years."
Today, Firestone, the nephew of broadcaster Roy Firestone, manages a virtual monopoly of nearly 200 clients who play in Major League Baseball, the NBA, NFL and on professional tennis and golf circuits. Talk of the company is circulating quickly through the locker rooms. Clients include Shaquille O'Neal, tennis star Martina Hingis and All-Star baseball players Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra and Greg Maddux. Rodriguez has received extra flying time since becoming an eBizJet endorser in December.
Clients pay $100,000 to open an account with the company, which has access to 1,400 private aircraft when the planes are not being used by their owners. Each flight costs between $1,800 to $4,350 an hour, which is deducted from the client's account.
"Aviation is a pretty expensive proposition," said Rodriguez, who looked into fractional ownership of a jet before settling on eBizJets. "This company was a no-brainer in that it was safe, provided me with a lot of flexibility and is the most economical. A lot of middle salary players can afford this."
Yankees pitcher Sterling Hitchcock and Dodgers pitcher Andy Ashby use the service despite earning less than a third of A-Rod's $21 million annual salary.
Athletes, who make up less than 25 percent of eBizJets' total business, like that the charter company guarantees a jet to the nearest airport anywhere in the world within five hours of their call. On July 19, the Texas Rangers had to stay in Baltimore all day, even though their game with the Orioles was canceled due to a derailed train fire near Camden Yards. Because the charter plane wouldn't be in until midnight, Rodriguez used eBizJets to shuttle several teammates back to Texas.
"I brought 13 guys on a Gulfstream V and we all got a great night of sleep," Rodriguez said. "Unfortunately, the rest of the team got in at 6 in the morning. It's really about buying time, because a jet can show up very quickly and it allows me to prolong my day."
Rodriguez also called eBizJets shortly after terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon forced the shutdown of air travel across the country. Five days after the events of Sept. 11, Rodriquez said he was able to get his his girlfriend out of the Dominican Republic, when the airlines told her she couldn't get back to the United States for another two weeks.
Two months ago, the company opened an office at the Santa Monica Airport in California, in part to accommodate the growth of their athlete clients. Due to increased fear of flying following Sept. 11, more athletes are signing up for the service.
"Especially now, if they use us, they don't want to worry about who is flying the plane, who is on the plane and who will mob them for autographs," Firestone said.
Crunching the numbers
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Bottom line of Bonds deal |
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A look at how Barry Bonds' five-year, $90 million contract with the San Francisco Giants is structured and its estimated effect on the team's revenue:
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Details
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2002
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2005
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Bonds Salary
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$13M
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$20M
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Signing Bonus
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$2.5M
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N/A
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Deferred Salary
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$5M
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$5M
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Bottom Line Salary
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$10.5M
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$15M
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Avg Ticket
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$25.72
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$34.23
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Total Attendance
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3.3M
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3.28M
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Gate Revenue
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$84.98M
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$112.43M
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Bonds Pct. of Gate
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12
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13
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Barry Bonds signed a reported five-year, $90 million deal that, using average annual value, makes him the fourth-highest paid player in baseball.
In order to sign Bonds, the Giants -- who took out $170 million in loans to finance the construction of Pac Bell Park -- deferred $5 million for each of his last four seasons. By deferring the salary, Bonds will make the equivalent of approximately 12 percent of the team's total ticket revenue each season, which is roughly the same percentage Bonds made in the 2000 and 2001 seasons, predicted Hadrian Shaw, a sports analyst for Kagan World Media, a media research firm.
In his calculations, Kagan assumed that attendance will wane by .2 percent each of the next five seasons as the newness of two-year-old Pac Bell Park fades. He also assumed that the Giants would raise ticket prices by an average of 10 percent each season, which Shaw says is about the average in MLB over the past five years.
Two roads to the NBA are well traveled
Although the Continental Basketball Association is no longer the "official developmental league" of the NBA, the league continues to compete with the NBA's new minor league, the National Basketball Development League, in terms of player call-ups.
|  | | Atlanta Hawks forward Leon Smith shoots a jumper during the team's warmup against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday. |
The Atlanta Hawks' signed Leon Smith, the troubled former first-round draft pick of the Dallas Mavericks who has been playing for the CBA's Gary (Ind.) Steelheads, to a 10-day contract on Sunday. Both the CBA and the NBDL now have three players playing in the NBA. (The Miami Heat and the Toronto Raptors called up Mike James and Jermaine Jackson, respectively, from the CBA, and the Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs and New Jersey Nets called up Chris Andersen, Jason Hart and Anthony Johnson, respectively, from the NBDL.)
"The scouts tell me that most of our teams could be interchangeable," CBA commissioner Gary Hunter said.
"We didn't create the NBDL to rule the minor-league basketball world," NBDL spokesman Brian Flinn said. "All the other leagues help grow the game of basketball, which is obviously within the NBA's best interest."
Although the NBDL pays its players better -- each makes $27,500 -- many talented players have opted to play in the CBA because the NDBL requires its players to sign two-year contracts.
Ode to George O'Leary
George O'Leary, who lasted only five days as Notre Dame's coach before embellishments in his bio cost him his job in December, is the talk among collectors of rare memorabilia. T-shirts handed out by Notre Dame at the news conference to announce O'Leary's hiring are now fetching top dollar on online auction sites. On the front of the shirt it reads, "By George, it's O'Leary" and "Head Coach, University of Notre Dame, December 9, 2001." The back has an Adidas logo.
"There will not be many items with Notre Dame and O'Leary on them," said Jeff Hershberger of Elkhart, Ind., a memorabilia collector who spent the past month buying up the shirts by placing ads in local papers.
Herschberger is currently auctioning an O'Leary shirt on eBay. The leading bid was $66, as of Wednesday morning. On Tuesday afternoon, Nicholas Sweedo, a Notre Dame student who attended the news conference, sold another O'Leary shirt for $81.
America's team no more
The Dallas Cowboys have led the NFL in team merchandise sales for eight of the past nine seasons, only slipping from the top spot during the 1996 season when the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl. Lightning appears to have struck a second time. The Oakland Raiders, for the first time since the 1990 season, look like they will clinch the No. 1 spot.
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Black is back on top |
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Merchandising rank of NFL's 10 hottest-selling teams, as of Jan. 8:
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Rnk
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Team
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1.
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Oakland Raiders
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2.
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Dallas Cowboys
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3.
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Green Bay Packers
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4.
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St. Louis Rams
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5.
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Pittsburgh Steelers
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6.
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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7.
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San Francisco 49ers
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8.
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Chicago Bears
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9.
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New England Patriots
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10.
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Philadelphia Eagles
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Source: NFL
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The Raiders have been helped along by Jerry Rice and Charles Woodson, who are ranked fifth and 20th, respectively, in jersey sales. The Cowboys, who went 5-11 this season, are currently No. 2 on the list and are the only team in the top 10 in sales that didn't make the playoffs.
Next season, the Cowboys will be the only team not to share in NFL merchandise revenue. Dallas owner Jerry Jones has set up his own distribution channels in hopes of getting a bigger cut than a split with 31 other teams in the league. The Cowboys must pay an undisclosed fee to opt out of the league's merchandising agreement, NFL spokesman Steve Alic said.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers might have their best-selling year ever. The team is currently No. 6 on the list, its highest finish in team history. The Bucs' previous high on the list was at No. 7 in the 1979-80 season when they reached the NFC championship game.
The Bears, helped by an NFC Central Division title and the emergence of popular linebacker Brian Urlacher (ranked No. 6 in individual sales), are at No. 8. Chicago hasn't been among the league's top eight since the 1992 season when the team finished 11-5 and won the NFC Central.
Darren Rovell covers sports business for ESPN.com. He can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com
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