George Pyne, the embattled head of college sports at the powerhouse WME-IMG, is about to leave the newly minted agency, The Post has learned.
Pyne, 48, the president of IMG Worldwide Sports and Entertainment, is expected to team up with Kaveh Khosrowshahi, a managing director of Allen & Co., to create a rival sports management agency, sources said.
The two have a plan to raise $250 million for the new venture, several sources told The Post.
Pyne, who serves on IMG’s board, has overseen a rocky few months at the agency, losing top contracts such as the University of Kentucky’s multimedia and licensing rights — one of the most lucrative deals in college sports — while operating in a universe that is becoming more competitive as colleges reevaluate their worth and press for bigger pay checks.
As a result of the lost top contracts, the college sports business — run directly by Ben Sutton — could miss its projected earnings targets.
“The selling season is over,” one source familiar with the situation said. “They have to book about 90 percent of their profits before the first kick-off on Sept. 1.”
WME-IMG was not immediately available for comment.
In addition to Kentucky’s business, IMG’s long term contract with Syracuse is under review. Texas, another lucrative piece of business, may be in play, too, according to sports industry speculation.
IMG also signed a new contract with Harvard University for corporate sponsorship and scooped up a deal to represent Nascar.
Pyne, who started his sports business career with Nascar in the mid-90s, is believed to have already worked out an exit package based on his multimillion dollar contract — but is expected to stay to see some projects through.
Pyne will exit in the next few months, according to executives familiar with the situation.
Six Flags boss Mark Shapiro is said to be on the short list of executives in line to replace Pyne, sources said.
The sports and entertainment unit headed by Pyne is one of two operating units at WME-IMG. Michel Masquelier runs the other, which covers media and events.
Pyne, who rose to chief operating officer at Nascar, was hired by the late Teddy Forstmann, who was IMG’s CEO.
Word of Pyne’s upcoming exit comes weeks after David Abrutyn, IMG-WME’s head of consulting, left. Abrutyn had been with the company 15 years.
Meanwhile, WME-IMG bosses Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell continue to restock the executive suite.
The two brought on board new Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell, a former IMG board member, who was recently the top numbers guy for General Motors and Microsoft.
Liddell replaced Peter Klein, the former CFO who spent two months at the firm before returning to his home base of Seattle for personal reasons.
The company also parted ways with Constance Williams, the top human resources executive.
WME-IMG has fought off rumors that it will struggle to meet its obligations to cut $150 million from the recently merged company’s coffers. Silver Lake and WME acquired the much larger entity IMG Worldwide for $2.4 billion.
Rival talent agencies say the biggest indicator of success will be the size of the end-of-year bonus pool that agents get to share.