New Site to Broker Appearances by Sports Stars
Sportsgenies.com, a recently launched third-party online agent, will contract popular athletes as event speakers, as well as act as a for-profit, online imitation of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a not-for-profit children's agency."If you want to have [basketball star] Shaquille O'Neal [of the Los Angeles Lakers] at your daughter's christening, and you can afford to pay for it, we can try to get him there," said Noah Levinson, president of Sportsgenies. "If you want [baseball player] Mike Piazza [of the New York Mets] at your company convention, we'll try to get him. If we can't, we guarantee you we can get you another guy playing for the Mets or your favorite team."
Sportsgenies, New York, also will sell memorabilia and will serve as an online broker for people who want items autographed by star athletes. The Web firm will sell hard-to-get tickets for athletic events and package vacation trips organized around games.
Prices, which include broker's fees, depend on the difficulty of meeting each request.
"I'm banking on contacts I have that other people don't have," Levinson said.
