Athlete's advocate

Athlete's advocate

Tampa business attorney Ken Turkel helps young athletes win endorsement contracts.

NCAA rules prevent a college athletes from signing endorsement contracts and making money from their images.

But when they graduate, they can. And Tampa business attorney Ken Turkel is ready to help them.

Turkel, 43, serves as part attorney, part advisor, part parent, part friend.

He and his law firm partners, including a former attorney for the New York Yankees, have formed Team One Sports Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Williams Schifino Mangione & Steady P.A. in Tampa.

Team One works with young athletes to help them win quality endorsements. It is carving a niche with some clients that few sports agents have: Olympic athletes.

That puts Turkel, the firm's director of agency relations, away from his office in Tampa quite a bit. After visiting clients in Beijing during the summer Olympics in August, Turkel is already preparing to represent a roster of clients for the 2012 Games in London.

"The London cycle has begun," he says.

Turkel does the marketing and endorsement work for athletes, which means he negotiates and reviews a lot of contracts. It is a natural extension of his work as an attorney doing business and civil litigation. Representing an athlete is like being on the employee side of labor law, he says.

One of his clients is Cat Osterman, one of the world's best softball pitchers. After graduating from college in 2006, a number of companies called her parents, seeking possible endorsements. Turkel was able to sign Osterman to endorsements with apparel maker Under Armor and sports equipment maker Wilson.

Besides reviewing contracts, Turkel's primary job with Team One is finding the athletes and creating relationships.

Although he spends about 70% of his practice on business litigation, he has 11 Team One clients, seven of whom are Olympians. Three are pro baseball players.

Most new clients come from referrals. The work varies between athletes. Baseball players are more hands-off relationship as a business advisor. Olympic athletes may need more attention. Turkel sometimes sits down with their parents to talk about marketing contracts.

Parents want to know the best way to maximize their child's time as an athlete, Turkel says. They want his thoughts on how to market their child.

"They ask for a laundry list," he says. "I ask them what they want to do. What's your dream?"

Part of that question involves what the athlete wants to do when she is done playing. She may want to use her celebrity status to get her next job.

For example, some clients have broadcasting aspirations with ESPN. While it is a natural for athletes to think about sports broadcasting, ESPN is very particular about who it picks for on-air talent.

Turkel got into sports agent work after friends referred athletes to him. He started doing marketing contracts as favors. The more he did it, the more he liked it.

He gains satisfaction from creating the best match between an athlete and a company, then seeing the athlete perform well, enhancing their commercial potential even more.

"I have a passion for this because I enjoy it," Turkel says. "It has got me diversified."

With young athletes, it is relationship-oriented work. The athletes want someone to trust.

Some of the work is condensed into shorter endorsement timeframes. For example, some female athletes have more limited professional careers or don't have big professional league opportunities.

So timing is important. When Osterman visited Plant City, about a thousand girls came out to get her autograph.

"I love my business litigation work, but this is a fun and different way to apply my skills," Turkel says.

- Dave Szymanski