Event Recap: Michael Huyghue ('84)

 

On Friday, October 4th, the Cornell Sports Business Society was lucky enough to host Michael Huyghue for a workshop: "How to Negotiate in the Professional Sports Arena". This event was the first of its kind for our organization. Huyghue is currently the president of Michael Huyghue & Associates, where he works consulting professional sports teams, agents, and other sports properties.

Huyghue is the former, and inaugural, commissioner of United Football League. His resume includes: hearing arbitration cases for the NFL, being named the youngest GM in professional football history after joining the NFL World League, serving as the vice president for the Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars, and founding Axcess Sports & Entertainment, where he represented a number of professional athletes. Huyghue is a graduate of the CALS school at Cornell and received his degree in law from the University of Michigan.

Rather than a standard question and answer event, Huyghue's workshop was more akin to an interactive lecture. He outlined the methods of a successful negotiation and "how to get the most out of a deal", focusing on three key ideas: preparation, leverage, and urgency. Read more after the jump.
The first key to a successful negotiation, Huyghue stressed, was extensive preparation, and being "focused on all the dynamics". Firstly, and most importantly, you should "know what you're after and you you think they're after". Huyghue said that these things should be flexible. As an example, Huyghue said that you would never want to have a rigid number in mind and take a deal at that number, only to find out later that your negotiating partner was prepared to give you a better deal.

Another piece of advice he offered was to keep your side understaffed, since a smaller team creates mutual trust, and your goal is to make your partner comfortable, rather than intimidate them. He also emphasized the importance of adjusting your strategy based on different factors. One of the many variables he offered was setting, "if the negotiation is at Panera Bread, don't wear your suit", whereas you would if it was at the team's office.

Another factor are the character traits of the other person, which Huyghue figures out through pre-negotiation phone calls, "know who you're negotiating against", Huyghue said. An anecdote he gave was having to negotiate with, what he called, a "military-joe" type, who would get up extremely early. An easy way to relate to someone like this is to wake up extremely early, so they can see that you're relatable. This is a useful tactic even if "you're going to sleep for six hours afterwards", Huyghue joked.

Huyghue explained that creating leverage, defined simply as "getting somebody to move towards your side", is an incredibly important negotiating skill. The person who holds leverage is the person who stands to lose less from a negotiation. He stressed not giving in to your partner if you're afraid of the outcome, you should always make a deal that you're comfortable with making. He also stressed the importance of being the "one giving the facts", it makes your partners trust you and view you as a reliable source of information, which you can use to your advantage. Huyghue was critical of bluffing as a tactic, preferring posturing instead. Posturing, implies an ultimatum, like saying that you're probably going to walk away if a deal isn't made soon, but still leaves you in a flexible position.

The importance of urgency was another key point Huyghue made. For an example of a time he increased his own leverage using urgency in a negotiation, Huyghue told us a story from his days with the Jaguars, when he was negotiating a rookie contract for a future pro-bowler. He explained that the amount of money a team can spend on its first year players is fixed, comparing it to a pie. This player, a first round pick, had rejected Huyghue's initial offer. Instead of increasing his offer, he instead started signing later picks to slightly above market value deals, which persuaded them to sign quickly. Once the first rounder saw the other players signing, he saw the piece of "the pie" that he was entitled to shrinking, and he quickly signed, knowing that he had a lot to lose if he waited out any longer.

Huyghue closed his workshop with a quick breakdown of the NFL salary cap, stressing that the consistently good teams make sure that they're most expensive players are the ones making the biggest impact on the field, essentially building from the top-down. The less successful teams often have, on average, 7 non-starters in their top 25 players, where 80% of their payroll is committed. 

Finally, when asked to give advice for students interesting in getting involved in player operations, Huyghue advised that you do your research on a team's recent moves, and give smart analysis on those decisions. He stressed that you should not simply display yourself as fan, but show an understanding of the financial and on-field implications of certain decisions. For students interested in player representation, he advised that they find an established agent to work with, since there are so many nuances to the CBA, and it's best to be familiar with these complexities before representing any players on your own.

As always, the Sports Business Society extends its sincerest gratitude to alumni like Michael Huyghue, who take their time to share their experiences with our members. As an organization looking to prepare students for work in the sports business field, Michael's shared experiences and advice are invaluable to us. We learned the subtle differences and challenges that negotiating in the sports industry presents, and all of us are better off because of his teaching. With such an unprecedented event, Michael was able to provide truly unique and interesting insight into negotiations in sports, and we hope to have him back in the future.