Professional Services., (ProServ) was an American
sports management
Sport management is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organiza ...
firms that was one of the first to do so. Initially focused on tennis, the company would grow to become among the world's largest
sports marketing
Sports marketing as a concept has established itself as a branch of marketing over the past few decades; however, a generally accepted definition does not exist. Academicians Kaser and Oelkers (2005, p. 9) define sports marketing as 'using spor ...
, athlete management, event production, and TV companies.
History
Donald Dell
Donald L. Dell (born June 17, 1938) is an American sports attorney, writer, commentator, and former tennis player. Dell was the first sports agent in professional tennis, and represented Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, and Ivan Lendl d ...
became the first sports agent in
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
when he founded the Law Offices of Donald Dell in 1970. His first clients were
Arthur Ashe
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was an American professional tennis player. He won three Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, Grand Slam titles in singles and two in doubles. Ashe was the first Black player selected ...
and
Stan Smith
Stanley Roger Smith (born December 14, 1946) is an American former professional tennis player. A world No. 1 player and two-time major singles champion (at the 1971 US Open and 1972 Wimbledon Championships), Smith also paired with Bob Lutz t ...
, his former teammates on the undefeated 1968 and 1969 U.S.
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...
teams. After adding partners, the name of the firm became Dell, Craighill, Fentress, and Benton.
In 1976, the firm started ProServ to handle athlete recruiting and marketing.
At its peak, ProServ had 16 offices around the world with 300 employees and represented more than 200 professional athletes and coaches,
including
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player, who is currently a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Ass ...
,
Patrick Ewing
Patrick Aloysius Ewing Sr. (born August 5, 1962) is a Jamaican-American basketball coach and former professional player who is a basketball ambassador for the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he played most o ...
,
James Worthy
James Ager Worthy (born February 27, 1961) is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Big Game James", he played his entire professional career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Wor ...
, Stan Smith, Arthur Ashe,
Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player. One of the most successful tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the A ...
,
Stefan Edberg
Jan Stefan Edberg (; born 19 January 1966) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in both men's singles and men's doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), one of two players in the ...
,
Nancy Kerrigan
Nancy Ann Kerrigan (born October 13, 1969) is an American former figure skating, figure skater. She won bronze medals at the 1991 World Figure Skating Championships, 1991 World Championships and the Figure skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics, 19 ...
,
Gabriela Sabatini
Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini (; born 16 May 1970) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. A former world No. 3 in both singles and doubles, Sabatini was one of the leading players from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, amassing 41 titles a ...
and
Jimmy Connors
James Scott Connors (born September 2, 1952) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 2 ...
. The company also managed and promoted professional sporting events and created ProServ Television to handle sports television production and rights representation.
ProServ Television created and produced thirty pre- and post- Olympic shows in 1984 as well as many sporting events. ProServ Television created the Emmy Award-winning documentary ''A Hard Road to Glory'', with Arthur Ashe, about the history of black athletes in America. ProServ represented the
USTA
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national Sport governing body, governing body for tennis in the United States. A not-for-profit organization with more than 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds to promote and devel ...
in the sale and distribution of the international television rights to the U.S. Open for many years, and represented the French Federation of Tennis for the American television rights for the
French Open
The French Open (), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a tennis tournament organized by the French Tennis Federation annually at Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France. It is chronologically the second of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam ...
.
Through the 1990s, ProServ expanded into football, golf, baseball, figure skating, gymnastics, and also became heavily involved with beach volleyball and the original AVP Tour.
ProServ was one of the first agencies to negotiate the naming rights for stadiums such as
FedEx Field
Northwest Stadium is an American football stadium in Landover, Maryland, U.S., located east of Washington, D.C.. It is the home stadium of the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). From 2004 until 2010, it had the NFL's l ...
,
M&T Bank
M&T Bank Corporation (Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company) is an American bank holding company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. It operates 950+ branches in 12 states and Washington D.C. across the Eastern United States, from Maine to Vi ...
, and
Philips Arena
State Farm Arena is a Multi-purpose stadium, multi-purpose arena located in Atlanta, Georgia. The arena serves as the home venue for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). It also served as home to the Atlanta Thrasher ...
.
Acquisition
ProServ was acquired in 1997 by The Marquee Group, which in turn was acquired in 1999 by SFX Sports Group (itself now a subsidiary of
Clear Channel Entertainment
Live Nation is an American events promoter and venue operator based in Beverly Hills, California. Founded in 1996 by Robert F. X. Sillerman as SFX Entertainment, the company's business was built around consolidating concert promoters into a n ...
).
Survey puts CAA tops in player salaries
''Sports Business Journal'' (2008)
See also
* Octagon (sports agency)
References
{{reflist
Sports event promotion companies