ESP, Author William Rhoden and FraserNet at Cleveland City Club

(Monday, November 27, 2006; Cleveland, OH )

From left to right: NY Times Columnist and author of 40 Million Dollar Slaves, William Rhoden, Everett L. Glenn of Entertainment & Sports Plus, 11th District (Ohio) Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, FraserNet President Gregory Williams, Marvin Bishop, CEO of Dynamic Thought Institute, and George Fraser, Chairman and CEO, FraserNet.

Networking guru George Fraser, founder and CEO of FraserNet, his partner Gregory L. Williams and veteran sports and entertainment lawyer Everett Glenn, President of ESP (Entertainment & Sports Plus), recently joined forces to establish the FAIR (FraserNet Athlete Initiative for Reform) initiative.

FraserNet is the #1 networking organization for African Americans in the USA and ESP is the only firm in the player representation business with a vision and mission to make the Black athlete aware that their talent is a bona fide economic empowerment resource,while helping them develop, manage and control this resource to realize greater economic benefits for themselves and for the Black community as a whole.

This past Monday a group from FraserNet and ESP attended a Speaker Series luncheon sponsored by the NASBP (National Association of Black Sports Professionals) at the City Club in downtown Cleveland. NASBP is a newly founded organization, whose mission is to increase the hiring, retention and promotion of black professionals in sports and other related fields through development, mentoring, and networking. Previous speakers in the series include Lee Reed, Cleveland State University’s Athletic Director and Gene Smith, Ohio State University’s Athletic Director.

On Monday, November 27th, New York Times Columnist and author William Rhoden discussed his most recent book, Forty Million Dollar Slaves with a capacity crowd. Forty Million Dollar Slaves is a political and cultural analysis of the participation of the African-American in sports from slavery through today. During his presentation, Rhoden made the argument that the evolution of the Black athlete has been a journey from literal plantations to figurative ones in the form of college and professional sports programs, and that the true power of the Black athlete is as limited today as it was when masters forced their slaves to race and fight. He pointed out that while we (Black people) have more 1st round draft picks, rookie of the year and MVPs, we are losing the game because our people and communities are dying. A $250 billion per year industry has been built on the back of the Black athlete, who collectively earn less than 2% of the sports industry revenue pie, and Black athletes have little meaningful representation beyond the playing field. Rhoden called for a team meeting amongst Blacks involved in the sports industry, without the “owners,” to establish a game plan to develop a strategy to correct the inequities in sport.

William Rhoden’s speech and his book tie directly into the vision and mission of FAIR, ESP, and NASBP. The vision of FAIR is to increase the voice of the African American professional athlete in the $250 billion per year sports industry and their participation in the economic development of the African American community.

The mission of FAIR is to increase the participation of African American professionals in the provision of goods and services to African American athletes in particular and the sports industry in general. By connecting the African American athlete (funds) with the African American professional (intellectual capital and community development and business know-how), FAIR will lead a revolution of thought and action to uplift the entire African American community in the areas of community and economic development, educational opportunity, job creation and personal empowerment.

Fraser is the founder and executive producer of an annual PowerNetworking Conference, one of Black America’s largest gatherings (17,000) of professionals, business owners and community leaders. He is the author of Success Runs in Our Race; the Complete Guide to Effective Networking in the African American Community and Success Guide Worldwide: the Networking Guide to Black Resources. Well known in the community, Fraser is paving the way for black professionals to take advantage of networking tools and building effective relationships.

Working with George Fraser and the FraserNet team, Glenn’s efforts are directed at establishing a connection between Black professionals, organizations, and businesses and the Black professional athlete to help players maximize their personal development while becoming useful contributors to the Black community through community and economic development, job creation and political involvement.

If you would like more information about FraserNet please email your questions to FAIR@frasernet.com. If you would like more information about Entertainment & Sports Plus please email your questions to eglenn@espsportslawpro.com

For more shots of the event, please click here