Blue Equity adds NFL agent to stable

Pro Bowl News

National Football League player agent Joel Segal has added his practice to the growing sports holdings of Blue Equity -- a step that Managing Director Jonathan Blue says pushes the Louisville-based private investment company into the big leagues.

"It puts us as one of the elite agencies of the world," said Blue, who began building the sports business last year with the acquisition of three divisions of the SFX Sports Group.

Segal's firm represents 2005 Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, quarterbacks Jason Campbell and Tarvaris Jackson, and second-year receiver Marques Colston, as well as Pro Bowl players DeAngelo Hall, Muhsin Muhammad, Darren Sharper, Will Smith and Michael Vick. Also included are three 2007 first-round NFL draft picks, including two of the top 10.

Segal, who will join Blue Equity as president of its football division, said in a statement that he was "very impressed with the enthusiasm and dedication of the Blue Equity sports management team." He added that "we have a great opportunity ahead to continue to build our sports platform."

Terms of the acquisition were not released, but Blue said the deal benefits Segal and the investment company because it creates more opportunity for growth. "It's very difficult for the small companies to compete on a world stage in any business. Sports is no different," Blue said.

With the move into an expanding sports company, Segal's clients will find "more marketing opportunities, more channels for them to activate their personal brand, which is themselves," Blue said. "They can actually maximize their (athletic) opportunity, therefore maximizing Segal as an agent."

Segal has negotiated about $1 billion in player contracts. He was ranked the 14th-mostinfluential agent among all major sports last year by Sports Business Journal.

Besides building a player-representation business, Blue has been building his business in televising athletic events and was the local promoter for the AVP Beach Volleyball tour that was in Louisville on Memorial Day weekend.

More acquisitions at Blue Equity are likely. "This is just the beginning, not the end," Blue said. "We're also going to look very carefully at the participatory sports market, where people actually participate in events themselves … because that's where the biggest growth is."

Such events could include races such as triathlons and marathons, he said, as well as "tours that move from city to city, and athletes that register locally."

"It's wonderful to have these elite names," he said. "And it's wonderful for the light to shine on Louisville with the hometown company now playing on the world platform. But where this leads is where else can we diversify the platform."

In last year's acquisitions, Blue Equity acquired the player-representative practice of veteran agent Bill Strickland, whose clients include National Basketball Association All-Star Rasheed Wallace. Current clients also include future NBA draft picks Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer; Australian, French and U.S. Open champion tennis player Justine Henin; 2003 U.S. Open champ Andy Roddick; and the No. 1 doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan.

One of Blue Equity's advantages is that it's not just a sports agency, Blue said. "We have the media properties and the events." His company owns the international television rights to the U.S. Open Tennis Championship, the French Open Tennis Championship, the Boston Marathon and the World Cup of Softball.

Blue said he plans to use his media and marketing clout to bring more events to Louisville, such as the Association of Volleyball Professionals Open at Waterfront Park.

That event "was a first-rate promotion that was on international and national television because of us," he said. "The more attention Louisville can get and the more spotlight shines on Louisville, the better."

Last year, after consolidating Spanish-language business telephone directories across the country into a company called Enlace Spanish Yellow Pages, Blue Equity sold controlling interest to Telmex, Mexico's largest telephone company.

But the firm isn't growing its sports holdings with an eye toward necessarily selling them, Blue said. "The goal ultimately is to build as many prestigious properties and to have as many prestigious and worldwide agents as possible."