![]() In recent days Stephen has been negotiating a big new contract involving sponsorship from News Corp, put forward on News Corp's behalf by George Mimis of the US-based sports management consultant Pro-Serv ISM. And that I've got his interests at heart and there is not a potential conflict of interest." "It means Pat has a family member he knows he can work with, whom he can trust, and also know he is not going to get burnt. He involves other management companies in negotiations, for which he requires additional contacts or expertise, such as the filming of television commercials. Stephen, as the oldest of nine Rafter children and the family's only practising accountant, has taken charge of operations and is the point of contact for those seeking any sort of business with Pat Rafter. The Bermuda company provides the legal infrastructure within which the system of management works. What the Rafters have set up is an unusual system of management at an elite level in sport and one that relies heavily on trust and co-operation within the family. " The fees paid by SCSM to Stephen are brought into the practice. "The way Pat works, it is not really a full-time position for me to be managing. We're only a fledgling operation." He believes he'll have plenty of time to continue building up the practice. The accountancy firm Rafter McGuirk & Associates was set up only 18 months ago. The concentration of business associated with one of the hottest properties on the world tennis circuit is in a small office in Ocean Street, Maroochydore, about an hour's drive north of Brisbane. But whereas sports management companies usually provide overall management services to their clients, SCSM's contract with Pat Rafter is a simple commercial arrangement on commission. Stephen is engaged as a part-time consultant for the company with a brief to manage his brother's career, and is paid on a fee-for-service basis. Southern Cross Sports Management is, by precise legal description, the manager of Pat Rafter's business affairs. "And we sort of protect ourselves having associates in other capacities to make sure that he is not under-serviced with regards to bringing financial opportunities to the table." Stephen acknowledges there are risks stepping outside the powerfully connected infrastructure of the sports management industry, but says the Rafter family is "all fairly close" and believes it can manage Pat at least as well as IMG did. "I think from Pat's point of view he just felt that there was probably an opportunity for a family member to take over," he says. Until then Pat, 24, was a client of International Management Group, although Stephen, 34, had been involved in a number of his brother's commercial negotiations over four years. He began managing the growing enterprise attached to his younger brother's tennis career 12 months ago. ![]() "I report back to them and give them all the data from which they make the final decisions." ![]() "I am a leg man," says Stephen Rafter, explaining that he actually does the work involved in managing his brother's business for Southern Cross Sports Management in Bermuda. The language is also a rich variation on the buzz words of the moment. The laid-back Rafter approach is a style not described in the top-selling texts of hard-nosed management gurus. "I'll probably spend as much time with him as I did this year. But will he be required to spend more time next year on tour with brother Pat? "No, not necessarily," he says. Stephen Rafter has been deluged with enquiries from media, agents, companies and charities since his brother won the grand slam title at Flushing Meadow, New York, in September. And although some of the most influential sports-management companies in the world call on Rafter offering deals, his brother Stephen, an accountant in Maroochydore, Queensland, is his manager. Two of the biggest companies involved in tennis, Reebok and Prince, pay Rafter millions and fit him out with clothes and rackets, but his only car "contract" is a handshake deal with the helpful sales manager of a Brisbane suburban car firm. He has set up home in Bermuda, an island enclave of the rich and famous, but his mother Jocelyn, in suburban Brisbane, still books his hotel accommodation and international travel. Also different is the style of management that is guiding Rafter's career. And when have you heard a world-ranked number two in tennis so modest, saying his five brothers will knock him "down to size" if he is not. Consider how he won the 1997 US Open tennis championship after only one previous tournament win in five years. In the US Open champion's laid-back world, anyone wanting to cut a deal with him in Bermuda needs to contact home-town Maroochydore
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