Angelo Solomita

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Angelo Solomita

Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs, Radegen Sports Management Fuse Science deal for David Ortiz. It was my first official negotiation as a lawyer. You go through years of law school and do as much studying as you want, but there comes that point where you have to turn that into action and that was the moment for me.

Age: 25 Location: New York, USA Education: BS in Sports Management from New York University, a law degree from Villanova University School of Law, and an MBA from Villanova University

What his nominators said about him: “Angelo is one of the hardest-working people I’ve come to meet and has been a vital part of the success of Radegen Sports Management at a relatively young age.”

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ngelo Solomita is one of the youngest of this year’s 10 NEXT class but he proved his worth to his employers a long time ago. Having impressed Alex Radetsky by the fact he had completed his bachelor’s degree, law degree, and MBA in just six years, Solomita was given the keys to Radetsky’s company, Radegen Sports Management, last year at the tender age of 24 when Radetsky went on honeymoon. The company was in the midst of a large settlement negotiation and closing a huge event, but Solomita was able to handle the workload flawlessly. Landmark moment of your career so far? The landmark moment in my career thus far was when we closed out the

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Sports industry idol? One is Tim Brosnan, at Major League Baseball. He’s the EVP of business there but he’s the one who’s behind the scenes getting a lot of the things done – the TV deals, the new MLB Fan Cave, things like that. And he’s a lawyer that’s sort of moved over to the business side which is something that I’m trying to do in my career. Another is the president of our company, Alex Radetsky. I’ve know Alex for five years, since he was at SFX Baseball. And the one other person: Rand Sacks who’s a sports lawyer in Washington DC. He’s been a mentor for me. He’s been the guy I can go to when I have questions and he’s been my legal mentor. Favourite franchise/team/ athlete/brand in sport? I’m going to have to go with David Ortiz, who’s one of our clients. He really has taken it beyond just baseball, whether it’s with his children’s fund, or David Ortiz Celebrity Golf Classic, Big Papi’s Kitchen – he has his own food line – he’s become bigger than just the baseball player. Where do you see yourself in ten years’ time? I hope to still be here with Radegen Sports Management. We’re in a growth phase now. We started off just as sports marketing agency and we’ve been branching off into a lot of different areas recently. We represent some broadcasters, we do their broadcast deals, we have a AAA manager, we now do his on-field contract, we’re starting to do some corporate consulting for different brands, and we’re also helping a lot of our clients manage their charitable efforts.

One piece of advice for someone looking to start out in the industry? Take every opportunity that you can while you can. In college I used to joke that I was the professional intern – any opportunity I would jump at and I think it’s important just to be able to get as many different experiences under your belt while you can in college, while you still have to decide where and what you want to do. And then make the most of those opportunities. Whether it’s getting there early, meeting as many people as you can and leaving an impression. I see a lot of times people will volunteer for something, they’ll go and go through the motions and it’ll just be something to put on their résumé, but I think it makes a big difference when you’re there if you try and make the most out of that experience. iPhone, Blackberry or Android? iPhone. I don’t know what I’d do without it. In this industry especially. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Foursquare? Twitter. For me and also for clients and athletes. It’s something that we encourage all of our athletes to use. I think it’s a great tool to be able to connect directly with the fans and really be able to own your own image. Moët or Bud? Bud. Bud and a baseball game, not too much better than that. One particular line you use to close a deal? From the legal aspect of it, it’s when the deal’s done: ‘OK, now we can go back to being friends.’ Going through the contracts, it’s never fun, and you kind of pitch yourself against who your partner’s going to be down the road so it’s one of those things where when it’s done, it’s done, and now we can go back to being friends.


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