Scott Boras has been called the most powerful agent in sports, landing landmark deals for his baseball player clients. Now the agent king has a palace to show for it.
Boras, who runs the largest independent sports agency in the U.S., spent the past three years and an estimated $15 million renovating his Newport Beach office.
He designed much of it himself, and then hired an architect to carry out the details.
Renovation may be an understatement. Boras’ former nondescript brick building near Fashion Island is a far cry from the sleek, modern building it is today.
“We took it down to the beams and started over,” said Boras, owner and president of Boras Corp.
The new digs are part offices, part museum, part restaurant, part clubhouse and part technology hub for Boras’ staff, which includes 40 data analysts.
It’s also a home away from home for the roughly 85 Major League Baseball players on his roster of clients.
The office is an indulgence of Boras’ love of baseball and his penchant for facts and figures about the game. But he insists the 25,000-square-foot building is designed more for the comfort of players and employees.
The idea, Boras said, was to create a clubhouse vibe where clients can relax in a private, comfortable setting.
“It’s easy access to Angel Stadium and Dodger Stadium,” Boras said.
It’s also near Boras’ home, where he and his wife frequently entertain players.
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Patio fire pit: clients, workers have access to full-service kitchen |
Recent visitors include Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez and new Atlanta Brave Mark Teixeira.
Angels owner Arte Moreno has visited with other team executives. Boras represents six major and minor league Angels players.
Players can enjoy a meal in front of the fireplace on the patio or watch baseball on numerous TV screens. The conference room is akin to a mini-ESPN Zone,only quieter. It has a giant TV screen surrounded by four others and a news ticker to keep up with games and baseball news.
There’s a glass-topped table and stainless steel refrigerator. More TV screens are in the kitchen across the hall. Nearby is the Boras Sports Fitness Institute with five trainers. Batting cages are available.
Boras, a onetime minor league player, is known as a tough negotiator who comes armed with reams of data and player statistics to defend his contractual arguments.
His staff tracks pitch counts and hitting for every client in every game they play, sometimes resulting in long days and nights,like the 12-inning marathon the Angels lost against Seattle earlier this month.
Employees in Mind
The office also is designed with employees in mind. They can count on a full-service kitchen that serves three meals a day, locker rooms and showers for those who pause to exercise. There’s also a laundry room.
The public areas include displays that might compete with the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., albeit on a smaller scale.
A giant baseball sculpture wends its way to the top of an atrium like a spiral staircase. A wall adorned with dozens of baseballs greets you when you enter. The two-story atrium also is adorned with giant autographed photos of some of the best-known names in the sport: Rodriguez, Andruw Jones, Magglio Ordonez, Derek Lowe, Hank Blalock, Greg Maddux.
There’s a display paying tribute to clients on World Series teams from the late 1980s through last year’s win by the St. Louis Cardinals (with client Jeff Weaver pitching).
The White Sox’s Joe Crede is there from 2005; Jason Varitek and Johnny Damon from Boston’s win in 2004; Scott Schoeneweis and Alex Ochoa from the Angels’ win in 2002.
Another display features Gold Glove winners, including A-Rod, Teixeira and former client Barry Bonds. One word of caution: The Boras museum isn’t one you can just pop in to. The giant front door is reminiscent of a warehouse,staff members need to know you’re coming and buzz you in. That’s part of the security measures in the revamped quarters.
Behind all the decor is the heart of the business: the computer center.
While Boras came up with most of the building’s design features himself, the one he’s most proud of may be that multimillion-dollar computer system. It occupies an entire room of the lower floor complete with its own cooling system. Access is key-coded. It’s the room that’s most likely a source of many Advil moments for team owners negotiating with Boras.
The computer system contains baseball statistics from the current season back to 1870. That’s not a typo. Early stats were entered by hand. It took a long time, Boras said.
Any statistic a client may need is there for the asking.
When Boras is at the ballpark, he gets updates on clients every 30 minutes. He can be in touch with any of them almost instantly.
It’s all a testament to his philosophy of negotiation: preparation, preparation, preparation.
Last spring, before all the museum features were complete, a likely candidate for the future wall of fame at Boras Corp. created a commotion in the otherwise quiet parking lot outside the building.
That happened when Japanese phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka signed with Boston for $103 million.
Media Frenzy
There was intense interest from the Japanese media in particular,and a bidding war for the young pitcher’s services intensified the interest as the wheeling and dealing dragged on.
“We had reporters in the parking lot for days,” Boras said.
Satellite trucks were everywhere. The Newport Beach Police Department cordoned off an area for them.
“We took food out to them every day,” Boras said. “It was like a press mini-camp out there.”
The deal with Boston was struck in the dead of night California time,prime time in Japan. That created a frenzy of interviews and press conferences,all conducted from the parking lot outside the office and adding an accidental description to this versatile headquarters: press office.
