Labor and Agents

The NFL Players Association could elect a new executive director within days, a necessary but preliminary step toward possible talks with the NFL on a longer regular season.

VaynerSports’ basketball division has added Charlie Bell, Roc Nation’s former VP of sports, as VP and head of basketball strategy. Bell will help build the basketball division by shaping its structure and strategy, while assisting with recruiting and outreach to prospective clients.

Athletes First’s broadcasting and new media division is gaining a client with former NFL receiver and NFL Network analyst Steve Smith Sr. joining the Laguna Hills-based agency.

After a pair of tedious 12-hour collective bargaining sessions and eight total back-and-forth proposals to save the WNBA season, the players’ union will return to negotiations Thursday and potentially ask the league to raise the 2026 salary cap above $6.2M, sources told SBJ.

Tuesday’s 11th hour negotiation between the WNBA and its players association literally lasted over 11 hours into Wednesday morning, a marathon bargaining session that WNBPA Exec Dir Terri Jackson described “as a lot of conversation going in the right direction.”

Interested parties in bidding for all or part of embattled founder Casey Wasserman’s agency empire, now rebranded as The Team, have been notified that the formal process to acquire the agency is “about to start,” according to Patten & Hayes of DEADLINE. NDAs are “set to go out” and a “data room ...

L.A.-based sports marketing and talent representation giant Wasserman is changing its name to The Team starting Monday. The branding shift comes as the agency’s founder & CEO Casey Wasserman is selling off an estimated 40% stake valued at approximately $2B. It was revealed in late January that h...

The WNBPA and WNBA exchanged counterproposals within 24 hours of each other over the weekend, sudden urgency that may mean Tuesday’s artificial deadline to make a deal isn’t artificial after all.

Range Sports’ women’s division is adding 18-year-old flag football standout Kiona “Ki’Lolo” Westerlund to its talent representation roster as a client. The agency will be handling her NIL deals. She will be managed by her point agent, Range Sports Coordinator of Player Relations, Nyah Jones.