Sports Agency & Marketing

Guy Bingham, former NFL player and UM Alum, and NFL/CFL agent Ken Staninger, shared their insights on being successful in the world of professional sports. The duo visited with students enrolled in MGMT195: Introduction to the Entertainment Business on the roles and responsibilities for agents representing professional athletes.

Bingham’s 14 years as an active player in the NFL gave him ample opportunity to observe the sport’s significant growth in both numbers and reputation, and gave him the opportunity to experience the sport before and after the arrival of free agency. Throughout these transitions, Guy often relied upon his management team for guidance. In this case, much of the guidance came from his agent, Missoula resident, Ken Staninger.

Staninger has enjoyed over 25 years in the agency business and has represented a wide range of clients including Super Bowl XXVI MVP, Mark Rippen, and UM and CFL standout, Dave Dickenson. Throughout the conversation with the students, Bingham and Staininger emphasized the importance for developing a strong and trusting relationship with the athlete’s management team.

Bingham stressed the importance for developing a strong work ethic, appreciating what your skills sets are and are not, and for planning for a future beyond your career as a professional athlete.
Staninger discussed how the agency side of professional football is over-saturated with approximately 50% of agents having no clients.

He went on to further discuss how this saturation has resulted in extremely tough competition between agents. Ken also shared his approach to screening potential clients, recruiting and signing clients, and negotiating client contracts with professional teams.