Golfer Mike Weir tees off on the 14th hole during the first round of the 2013 U.S. Open golf championship at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Penn.MATT SULLIVAN/Reuters
When Danny Fritz, the chief executive officer of SportBox Entertainment Group – a multifaceted sports marketing agency – was nine years old, he had a paper route.
But Mr. Fritz didn't just have one paper route. He managed to balance three others, by co-ordinating the deliveries with other children in his neighbourhood. He was already an entrepreneur.
His entrepreneurial spirit helped guide him to the summit of the Canadian sports-agency world nearly three ago when he started SportBox, after almost a decade with International Management Group (IMG) Canada, including two and a half years as its managing director.
Originally, Mr. Fritz, 39, thought SportBox would find its current success in five years' time, not three, but there is no time to rest on his laurels. His team of 10 continues to manage the biggest names in Canadian golf, including Mike Weir, Graham DeLaet and David Hearn. It also consults, plans events and tournaments, and develops marketing partnerships for some of Canada's biggest brands, such as Freedom 55 Financial.
He has also lined up sponsorship deals for Mr. Weir with Booster Juice, Mr. Hearn with Kia Canada Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc., and Mr. DeLaet with Shaw, Puma Golf and MGM Resorts International, among others.
(Courtesy of SportBox)
"When you're in this role, there's the excitement of the hunt. Then you identify an opportunity, and then there's the kill," explains Mr. Fritz, above. "But once the deal is done, and you've got the proper team in place to manage it, then it's like: 'What's next?'"
Mr. Fritz now calls West Palm Beach, Fla., home. He and his family – his wife of 10 years Efrat, son Benny, 6, and daughter Chloe, 8 – moved there just over a year and a half ago.
SportBox has a satellite office there, along with spots in New York, San Francisco, Saskatoon (where chairman and president and SportBox co-founder David Dubé lives) and of course, Toronto, where Mr. Fritz got his start.
Like many, Mr. Fritz's first official job – after the paper routes – was in retail. He worked at Ragtag Clothing on Queen Street West in downtown Toronto, and that is where he says he received a crash-course in sales.
"When you're working at a very unique boutique shop with various brands and different kinds of clientele, you have to learn to relate and have a conversation with that person," he explains. "I learned about business. I learned about retail. I learned about trends. I learned how to manage people. And, I learned how to deal with customers."
At the same time, Mr. Fritz's father, Earl, started the Canadian Junior Golf Association (CJGA).
Earl, a schoolteacher, wanted to start an organization for young golfers in Canada. His objective was to help grow the sport.
While the provincial association – then the Golf Association of Ontario – ran regional championships, and the then-Royal Canadian Golf Association ran national championships, Mr. Fritz says there was a gap in the marketplace for introducing young people to golf, and conducting events for them.
"I started realizing there is more than just tournaments. You needed corporate sponsorships because tournament entry fees weren't enough to run the program," he says.
Mr. Fritz ran the CJGA for three years before he was scouted by IMG to begin working for the global entertainment agency at its Toronto office.
While at the CJGA, Mr. Fritz worked on programs that involved former Canadian PGA Tour stars Richard Zokol and Stephen Ames, who were both clients of IMG.
(From left, SportBox staff McKenzie Clarke, Josh Jeronimus, David Corell and Danny Fritz at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia where The Masters are played. Courtesy of SportBox)
Brought on to run the golf business, Mr. Fritz credits his mentor, former IMG managing director Brad Pelletier, as the biggest reason why he made the move.
"If I knew I could work side-by-side with the most sophisticated guy in the entertainment space, I knew I could learn a lot," he explains. "I would have been able to fast-track my career."
Mr. Fritz says IMG was a very competitive place, but when he started he tried to learn about everyone else's job as well, so that he could potentially run the whole business one day.
That dream came to fruition after Mr. Pelletier moved on in 2010. There wasn't much time for Mr. Fritz to celebrate reaching his goal, as almost every single piece of IMG's business was up for renewal.
"There's excitement, but you're also nervous as hell," Mr. Fritz remembers. "There are 30-40 people that work for you and you're their leader. You need to go out there and essentially save the business, because if you don't, there's literally no office that exists."
"There were rumours on the street that IMG Canada was going to go away, but we [Mr. Fritz had a co-director at the time] said there is no way we were going to let that happen under our clock," he continues with a laugh.
After nearly three years at the helm of IMG Canada – including being the first person to hold that position without higher education such as an MBA (he has a Professional Golf Management certificate from Humber College) – Mr. Fritz says he realized IMG wasn't the same place as it was when he started.
Although he had learned much from IMG, he wasn't learning any more. And when that happened, he acknowledged it was time to move on.
SportBox started at the RBC Canadian Open in 2013 with the announcement that it had acquired the golf assets from Landmark Sport Group (including the contracts of Mr. DeLaet and Mr. Hearn), along with the contracts of Mr. Weir and fellow professional Matt Hill from IMG.
Now, the agency manages 13 players. It also has an event practice and a consulting business, and is a major player in the golf and entertainment space in Canada.
For Mr. Fritz, managing some of Canada's best golfers has given him the opportunity to travel throughout North America and get behind-the-scenes access to some of the world's finest golf courses. A highlight each year is the return visit to Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters – where Mr. Weir was the champion in 2003, and where both Mr. Weir and Mr. DeLaet played in 2014 – and to cheer along his clients and friends as they chase their dream on the PGA Tour.
But Mr. Fritz is not patting himself on the back just yet.
"There are moments when I look back, and there are certain things in my life and my career I remember, but I continue to go forward," he says. "You reflect, you remember, but you don't celebrate. You keep going."