Funk's group to represent riders

By Ed Godfrey

Published: August 22, 2007

After a New York investment firm bought controlling interest in the Professional Bull Riding tour this spring, Mark Nestlen started getting offers for his Yukon sports agency — Cowboy Sports Agents — and the 19 bull riders contracted with his creation.

Among the suitors was a major California sports agency that represents numerous NFL and NBA athletes, Nestlen said. All of a sudden, they were interested in representing bull riders.

In other words, the investment in the PBR by Spire Capital Partners — a private equity firm that manages $450 million in assets — has many thinking that bull riding is about to become the country's next major sport.

"It's going to get much bigger, and the publicity is going to get much greater,” said Bob Funk, president and chief executive officer of Express Personnel Services, in announcing Tuesday that Express Sports has bought Cowboy Sports Agents.

Express Sports Agency now represents those 19 bull riders, including former PBR world champions Chris Shivers and Ednei Caminhas and 1999 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion Mike White.

And Funk said he will try to sign more of the world's best cowboys. He already has a foot in the door with some, sponsoring cowboys such as five-time saddle bronc champion Billy Etbauer of Edmond.

"I have been in contact with two or three of the top (bull riders),” Funk said. "Once we get well-established on the PBR side, we are probably going to go over to the PRCA ”

No purchase price was disclosed on the sale, which is expected to be finalized Sept. 12. Funk said Cowboy Sports Agents earned an average of $1.6 million for the group of bull riders each of the last three years.

Because of the Spire Capital purchase and anticipated lucrative network television contracts for the PBR in the near future, Funk said the "opportunities for them to be at $4 and $5 million is humongous. These young men will be much better known in the next three years than they are today.”

When Nestlen formed Cowboy Sports Agents 10 years ago, he was one of the few sports agents representing rodeo cowboys and the only firm devoted to exclusively representing cowboys.

"It was something that was very new and something that took a lot of educating the bull riders as to what an agent was,” Nestlen said.

Express Sports has the staff, resources and business contacts to take bull riders and rodeo cowboys to a new level of marketability, Nestlen said.

"I think there are going to be additional bull riders that will want to join this group when they see the opportunities that Express Sports is bringing to the table,” Nestlen said.

PBR events are currently shown live on the Versus Channel and tape-delayed on the NBC and FOX networks, but Nestlen predicts live network coverage within five years.

"That is because of Spire Capital,” he said. "They put $95 million into buying majority controlling interest of the PBR, and they are a capital investment firm, and we all know capital investment firms want 20 to 25 percent per year return on their money, which means in three to five years, they want their $95 million to be worth about $300 million. And the only way you are going to do that is better television contracts.”

Most bull riders are not well-known outside their sport, but that will change with increased television exposure, Nestlen said. Some could become household names equivalent to stars in other sports, he said.

"The sky is the limit on where you can take these individuals, particularly in the climate we are in today, where Michael Vick is fighting dogs and Barry Bonds is shooting up,” Nestlen said.

"These are solid people who have high morals, who say, ‘yes ma'am' and ‘no sir.' The public is going to look at them with more respect. And that makes them valuable to corporations.”

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