In recent years, the media outlets that bring sports coverage into our homes — and the sports teams themselves — have been swallowed up by corporate conglomerates. Now, the business of bringing corporate groups to experience iconic sporting events live is following suit.
Earlier this year, CAA Sports, a division of Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency, purchased Inside Sports & Entertainment Group, a New York-based company that was launched 10 years ago by Ety Rybak and Alan Baum, who at the time were a couple of tireless ticket brokers learning on the fly. In the first days, the job was less about finding tickets than finding people who would pay for them, Rybak told Bloomberg Businessweek earlier this year.
In explaining the synergy of the two companies, CAA Sports head Michael Levine said plans are already underway to develop a comedy event timed for next year’s Super Bowl week that taps into the talent agency’s star power and is offered to Inside Sports’ corporate clients.
“The opportunity to work with CAA is unbelievable,” Baum told the Sports Business Journal after the sale was announced. “I always think of my customers first, so what can do to increase the breadth of the product? How can I enhance the experience? With the access CAA has, it was a no-brainer.”
