Kyle Thousand, JD’07, knows he’s very fortunate to love what he does.
“Honestly, I get paid to watch baseball for a living,” says Thousand, the managing director of baseball for the Jay-Z-owned Roc Nation Sports agency. “Baseball has always been a part of my life, and I feel very fortunate and blessed to have the job I have.”
Thousand, a former All-Big Ten centerfielder at the University of Iowa, was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2003 and spent a season with the organization’s Single-A affiliate before a shoulder injury forced him into retirement.
The Sioux City, Iowa, native decided to pursue a law degree and came to Creighton in the fall of 2004, without an inkling that his athletic career and his legal career might one day intersect.
After graduating from Creighton law in 2007, Thousand was hired at the Chicago firm of Katten Muchin Rosenman, working mostly on the corporate side of sports and entertainment law. As the economic downturn in the nation deepened, Thousand was caught in one of several rounds of layoffs at the firm.
He quickly landed at another Chicago firm. Then, as fate would have it, not more than a few months later, he received a call from law school classmate and former standout Creighton basketball player Mike Lindeman, BSBA’03, MBA’04, JD’07, then an agent in training at New York-based Excel Sports Management. Lindeman explained that his firm was starting a baseball division and bringing on one of the game’s most respected agents, Casey Close. Would Thousand be interested in getting in on the ground floor?
By the way, Lindeman added, Close was also bringing with him a few clients, most notably Yankees shortstop, captain and arguably the greatest all-around player of his generation, Derek Jeter.
“I wasn’t necessarily looking to get into the agent business, but to have the opportunity to learn from Casey and help him with Derek — I knew I would regret not giving it a shot,” Thousand says. “I worked alongside Casey as Derek was coming toward the end of his career, doing a lot of his legal work. It was a phenomenal experience for a young lawyer. My first year as an agent, I was living on $55,000 a year, having to dip into my 401(K), savings, you name it just to survive the expenses of living in Manhattan. But I was getting the kind of invaluable experience that has led me to the rest of my career path so far.”
In four years with Excel, Thousand was part of building the infrastructure of the baseball division and growing the company’s client list from eight ballplayers to more than 100.
Then, in April 2015, Thousand got a call from the CEO of a unique enterprise in sports management, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports. The agency had recently started a baseball division and wanted Thousand to run it. At 34, Thousand became perhaps the youngest head of baseball at a major agency.
Inheriting five players as he began Roc Nation’s baseball enterprise, Thousand and the four agents he oversees now manage a stable of 19 players, with a strategic look toward expanding in the Major League ranks while also acquiring clients approaching the big-league draft.
Thousand makes a concerted effort to visit each of the players at least twice a year and stays in frequent telephone contact with those who want a more hands-on approach. He’s visited nearly all 30 MLB parks, and he’s on the road for a good chunk of his working hours.
“I’ve worn a lot of hats, and I’ve worked very hard along the way to get here,” he says. “To be at Roc Nation Sports, to build the infrastructure the way we have and to have the keys to the baseball division the way I do, it’s been an opportunity that’s hard to really put into words. I’ve loved every minute.”
