Sports Law Blog

Sports Law Blog

All things legal relating
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Friday, February 10, 2012

Key Legal Lessons from the NBA and NFL Lockouts

I'm honored to be a panelist at this year's MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference (see previous post). I'll be on the Building the Modern Athlete: Performance Analytics panel.

I have a column for the conference titled Legal Lessons from the NBA and NFL Lockouts. Here are a couple of excerpts:

* * *

Part of the explanation for the “better” behavior of teams than their leagues and players’ associations may rest in operational objectives. While leagues and players’ associations are motivated primarily by business and legal considerations, teams are motivated most by competitive considerations. To be sure, leagues “compete” with other leagues, and more generally with other entertainment providers, for fans’ interest and dollars. And players’ associations compete with other players’ associations for most effectively representing their membership. But teams compete with each other every day and are better candidates to utilize analytics and other optimizing approaches. .....

* * *

One caveat: if the NHL locks out its players later this year and if the NHLPA decertifies — which means that each player becomes independent and can file litigation in a court nearby where he plays — expect the players to file antitrust litigation in a federal court in California or Arizona. Both states have NHL teams, meaning the league has sufficient nexus to each state to defend itself in court. More importantly, both states are governed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which is regarded as more pro-labor than other federal circuits and which may embrace a view of the Norris-LaGuardia Act favorable to players. It is also possible NHL players could file litigation in Canada, which features stronger labor laws.

The NHL, for its part, would probably seek to move any litigation to New York, where league headquarters are based and where case law from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is favorable to its interests. The league might instead seek to defend itself in Minnesota or Illinois, both of which are states governed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which ruled in favor of the NFL. ...

* * *

To read the rest, click here.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 2/10/2012 10:00:00 AM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Orioles Defeat Bergesen and Marlins Lose to Bonificio

In a story of teams with two dramatically different success/failure stories in baseball salary arbitration, the Orioles improved their all-time record to 12 wins and 3 losses, and the Marlins dropped to 3 wins and 7 losses. The Orioles defeated pitcher Brad Bergesen today, and the Marlins lost to Emilio Bonifacio yesterday. The Marlins 2 losses are the only two player victories of the 5 decisions to date. Mark Burstein, Robert Herzog, and Elizabeth Neumeier decided the Orioles-Bergesen case. The Marlins-Bonifacio panel was Burstein, Sylvia Skratek, and Steven Wolf. Burstein is now 1-1 in panel decision after his first two arbitration hearings. Herzog has participated in 6 panel decisions, and the teams have won 4 and lost 2. Elizabeth Neumeier’s log is now 18 team wins and 11 player wins.

-- Posted by Ed Edmonds @ 2/09/2012 02:00:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Should home schooled children be able to play public school sports?

I have an op-ed for the NY Times on whether home schooled students should be able to play public school sports. Virginia is considering such a law, and 13 states -- including Florida, where home schooled Tim Tebow grew up and played high school sports -- have enacted such laws, but most states say no. I say yes. Here's an excerpt:

Critics of home-schooled children playing public school sports also worry about public school students losing roster spots on teams to home-schooled children who are better athletes. I find this criticism to be unpersuasive. From at least the high school level on, coaches try to assemble the best teams, which normally means finding the best players, regardless of their backgrounds. Provided the available athletes meet the requisite academic criteria, coaches should be able to pick the best of the bunch.

To read the rest, click here.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 2/09/2012 12:17:00 AM -- Comments (1) -- Post a Comment

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Legal Implications of playing beer pong at a bar and then getting injured outside bar

I'm not sure if beer pong is a "sport", thought it is on TV and Rick Reilly clearly thinks it is. Plus, as we discussed before, spelling bees seem to be sporting events. If a spelling bee is a sport, how could a beer pong match not be?

In any event, for all the beer pong players out there -- if you get drunk playing beer pong at a bar and then get injured outside the bar because you're drunk, one judge in NYC says you can't sue the bar. You've assumed the risk:

* * *

In a decision made public yesterday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings threw out Alan Berger’s lawsuit against Wicked Willy’s on Bleecker Street, finding he’d signed up for the fast-paced beer-drinking game of his own free will.

“Despite the game tables, cups and alcohol [that the] defendant bar made available to plaintiff and other bar patrons without serving the alcohol or monitoring its consumption, plaintiff voluntarily engaged in the drinking game” and “consumed alcohol to the point of diminished capacity,” Billings wrote.

Berger was 22 in June 2009, when he got into a heated 3 1/2-hour match with friends playing the game, the object of which is to bounce a pingpong ball into another player’s cup and get them to drink, court papers say.

He took a bus back to New Jersey after the game and was still so drunk he tried to cross Highway 9 near Manalapan and got hit by a car going 50 miles an hour, said his lawyer, Michael Wiseberg.

Berger suffered numerous injuries, including a broken hip, leg and foot, tears in both his knees, and a lacerated liver, the lawyer said. When his blood was checked at the hospital about four hours after he left the bar, his blood alcohol content was .26 — almost four times higher than the legal driving limit.

His suit charges that the bar should have been monitoring the game to make sure players weren’t getting visibly drunk.

* * *

To read the rest from the NY Post, click here.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 2/07/2012 12:05:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Monday, February 06, 2012

If you let me play . . .

My late father-in-law (who lived his adult life surrounded by a wife, two daughters, two granddaughters (although one grandson), and string of female cats) used to say he did not really become an impassioned feminist (although he had always supported women's rights) until he had daughters and the demand that women and girls get fully equal opportunities came home.

Last Wednesday was National Girls and Women in Sports Day, whose celebratory purpose is obvious, particularly in this, the 40th anniversary of Title IX. Yesterday, the University of Miami sponsored a girls' sports clinic, featuring stations with members of various UM women's teams and a short speech by women's basketball coach Katie Meier. This was followed by tickets to a women's basketball game (UM is the defending ACC champion and ranked 7th in the nation). Halftime featured a scrimmage of 3d and 4th grad girls from my daughter's school (which runs a popular girls' basketball league). And every timeout during the game featured announcements of various statistics and information about the benefits girls enjoy from playing sports. And doing it all on the day of the Super Bowl--arguably the culture's most male-centered day of the year--was brilliant counterprogramming. Of course, many of the girls left the game talking about how they were going home to watch the Super Bowl, which I hope reflects the instantiation of a general love of sports in many different forms.

I was very impressed with Meier's remarks, where she talked about how relatively new opportunities are for girls in sports (Meier is about my age, so she was growing up when Title IX was in its relative infancy), how sports have allowed her to have a career she never could have dreamed of when she was a kid, and the benefits that sports have for people in all walks of life. She particularly emphasized something I never thought of--that sports teach you how to fail and how to come back from failure, an ability we can use in all aspects of our lives. I also was struck by one statistic that was announced during the game--today, 1-in-3 high-school girls play some sport, compared with 1-in-250 in 1971 (the year before Title IX). Finally, I was amazed by how fast the women players were--I had not seen a women's game live in a long time and the athleticism was surprising. I often have said that women are about 50 years behind men in most sports (i.e., women play a game that looks somewhat like the men's game of 50 years ago); I wonder if it may be less, at least in terms of speed and quickness.

I close with one of the great commercials of all time and the source of most of the statistics about girls' sports participation.^*

^* And a key piece of evidence in my arguments for why it really is difficult to separate commercial from political speech.

-- Posted by Howard Wasserman @ 2/06/2012 12:36:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Friday, February 03, 2012

Anibal Sanchez Hearing

Today the Miami Marlins and Anibal Sanchez conducted their hearing, the third of this year. The arbitration panel included Elizabeth Neumeier (a veteran of salary arbitration with a 17-10 record in favor of the teams), James Oldham (3-1 record in favor of the teams after the Niemann decision today), and Gil Vernon. According to my research, Vernon was involved in a total of seven decisions from 1990-1992 when he served as the sole arbitrator. He decided four of the seven in favor of players. His panel decisions are 3-2 in favor of the teams. So, the panel decision in the Sanchez case will break a 6-6 tie for Vernon.

The difference between the parties is $1,100,000. The team offer is $6,900,000 while Sanchez requested $8,000,000.

This is the ninth hearing for the Marlins, and they have lost five of the eight previous decisions. They lost to Charles Johnson in 1998, Mark Redman in 2003, Miguel Cabrera in 2007, Dan Uggla in 2009, and Cody Ross in 2010. The Marlins defeated Vladimir Nunez in 2003, A.J. Burnett in 2003, and Kevin Gregg in 2007.

One historical note might be of interest to Sanchez and his representatives. If you check the list above against how long they stayed with the Marlins after their hearing, the trend is pretty clear. They did not wear a Marlins uniform for very long after the hearing. This is perhaps not that unusual because the decision to not settle and go to a hearing is often an indication that they team is thinking of going in a different direction with respect to that player in the near future.

-- Posted by Ed Edmonds @ 2/03/2012 04:50:00 PM -- Comments (5) -- Post a Comment

5th Annual National Baseball Arbitration Competition

Next week, the Tulane Sports Law Society is hosting the 5th annual National Baseball Arbitration Competition. Forty teams from law schools across the country will compete in the unique and specialized context of MLB's salary arbitration proceedings. The two-day competition begins Thursday, February 9th and culminates on Friday afternoon with the championship round and baseball symposium, both of which are open to the public.

The championship round of the competition will be held on Friday, February 10th from 2:00 to 3:15 pm. Following the competition, from 3:30 to 6:00 pm, there will be a symposium featuring two panel discussions. The first panel discussion - The New CBA: Change and Continuing Peace - will be held from 3:30 to 4:30. The second panel discussion - Hot Topics in Baseball: International Issues, Arbitration Today, and More - will be held from 4:40 to 5:50. The symposium concludes with final remarks by Professor Gabe Feldman.

Both events will be held in the Kendall Cram Lecture Hall of the Lavin-Bernick Center, located on Tulane's uptown campus.

For more information on the event, click here.

The lineup of guest arbitrators and panel members for the competition includes:

Nona Lee, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Jon Fetterolf, Partner, Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington D.C.
Larry Silverman, former Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Pittsburgh Pirates.
Darren Heitner, Attorney, Wolfe Law Miami P.A.; Chief Editor, SportsAgentBlog.com.
Jorge Arangure Jr., Senior Writer, ESPN The Magazine.
Marc Kligman, Baseball Agent, Total Care Sports Management.
Bryan Minniti, Assistant GM of the Washington Nationals.
Steven Fehr, Special Counsel to the MLBPA.
Scott Shapiro, Agent at Praver Shapiro Sports Management.
Jay Reisinger, Partner at Farrell & Reisinger, LL
Clark Griffith, Attorney; AAA Arbitrator; former Owner and Executive Vice President of the Minnesota Twins and former Chairman of Major League Baseball Properties.

-- Posted by Gabe Feldman @ 2/03/2012 11:56:00 AM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Arbitration Hearings Have Started

The Washington Nationals beat John Lannan yesterday in the first arbitration hearing of 2012. The Nationals have now won 6 of their 8 hearings since 2006. The panel consisted of Robert Herzog (team wins - 3, player wins - 2), Elizabeth Neumeier (team wins - 17, player wins - 10), and first-time baseball arbitrator John Skonier.

Today the Tampa Bay Rays went to a hearing with Jeff Niemann. The Rays have won all five of their previous hearings. The arbitration panel included two first-time baseball arbitrators - Howard Edelman and Mark Irvings. The third panel member was James Oldham (previous panel record - team wins 2, player wins - 1).

The research that I used for the information above is now posted on a website that is still being built. You can find it by going to my Notre Dame webpage and clicking on the link under my picture.

Ed Edmonds

-- Posted by Ed Edmonds @ 2/02/2012 04:49:00 PM -- Comments (1) -- Post a Comment

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Villanova Law Symposium: Moneyball's Impact on Business and Sports

This looks fun and timely:

I wanted share news with you about an upcoming event at the Villanova University School of Law – a dialogue that will bring together some of the biggest names in baseball during arguably the most unique Hot Stove Major League Baseball has ever seen.

On Feb. 10, Billy Beane will be on-campus to speak as part of an all-star sports law symposium entitled “Moneyball’s Impact on Business and Sports.” Joining Beane for the discussion will be Jeffrey S. Moorad VSL ’81, vice chairman and CEO of the San Diego Padres; Omar Minaya, senior vice president of baseball operations for the Padres; and Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC. Former Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell VSL ’68, will serve as the moderator.

At a time when athletes like Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder command budget-busting contracts, low payroll teams like the Tampa Bay Rays and others continue to defy expectations by fielding highly competitive and successful teams using sabermetrics-based analysis. Panelists Moorad, Beane, Minaya and Griffin will analyze the impact of “Moneyball” and the variety of ways it has changed the face of sports from player contracts to media markets and competitive balance.

The press release about the symposium can be found here. The symposium will also be streamed on the VSL website.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 2/01/2012 03:00:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Examining pros and cons of NFL clean zones as lawsuit nears trial

I have a new SI column on the Super Bowl and the controversial concept of "clean zones", which grant the NFL legal rights to control commercial activity in streets around the Super Bowl. Here's an excerpt:

* * *

Clean zones raise a bevy of concerns.

For one, clean zones unabashedly limit competition when businesses are denied permission from the league or city. A decrease in competition implicates two core worries of antitrust law: fewer choices and higher prices for consumers. So perhaps instead of two dozen T-shirt street vendors around Lucas Oil Stadium, the NFL only grants permission to a handful. Although they would still compete with vendors of other items, the licensed vendors might charge more and offer less variety.

Second, clean zones restrict commercial speech, meaning speech that solicits a commercial transaction, such as when a company advertises or promotes a product. To be sure, commercial speech is accorded much less protection under the law than political speech. While the First Amendment aggressively protects one's right to express personal opinions from government suppression, a government, such as the City of Indianapolis, can readily limit commercial speech that is deceptive and misleading.

* * *

Eric Williams v. NFL: A Clean Zone Test Case

Last year anti-bullying advocate Eric Williams teamed up with Best Buy on what seemed like a promising idea: Williams would park his bus in Best Buy's parking lot near Cowboys Stadium between Feb. 4 and Feb. 6 and host a John Madden video game tournament. Williams would charge participants of the tournament, which would teach children about how to detect and stop bullying.

The tournament never happened.

Arlington police and code enforcement officers asked Williams if he had a permit to be there. He did not and saw no reason why he should. After all, his bus was on Best Buy's private property, with the store's express invitation. The security officers nonetheless insisted that Williams move the bus, since it was a commercial operation located within a clean zone ordinance.

To read the rest, click here.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 1/31/2012 04:18:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Monday, January 30, 2012

Social Media and Intercollegiate Athletics

The inaugural issue of the Mississippi ("Ole Miss") Sports Law Review is now available. You can view it online here. The presentation that we had in Oxford this past fall was a great event, and now we have the law review available to compliment the presentation on social media and intercollegiate athletics. The issue is ordered as follows:

Timothy Liam Epstein - Student-Athlete.O – Regulation of Student-Athletes’ Social Media Use: a Guide to Avoiding NCAA Sanctions and Related Litigation

Jerry Parkinson – Impact of Social Media on NCAA Infractions Cases
Mary Margaret “Meg” Penrose – Free Speech versus Free Education: First Amendment Considerations in Limiting Student Athletes’ Use of Social Media

John T. Wendt & Peter C. Young – Reputational Risk and Social Media

-- Posted by Tim Epstein @ 1/30/2012 12:00:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Gould on the 2011 NBA Lockout

Stanford Law Review Online has published an essay by William Gould on the 2011 NBA Lockout. Gould is a former chair of the NLRB and a leading scholar and advocate on sports-and-labor issues, (H/T: Concurring Opinions). Worth a read.

-- Posted by Howard Wasserman @ 1/25/2012 02:36:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Thursday, January 19, 2012

2012 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

I'm thrilled to be joining Daryl Morey, Jessica Gelman, Gary Bettman, Scott Boras, Mark Cuban, Brian Burke, Adam Silver, Bill James and many others as a speaker at this year's MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which will be held on March 2 and 3. In my view, it's hands-down the best sports business and sports law event of the year.

Here are this year's list of speakers.

The following topics will be discussed:

Art & Analytics of Negotiation

Baseball Analytics

Basketball Analytics

Cuban one-on-one with Simmons

Fanalytics

Football Analytics

Franchises in Transition

Media Rights: Comparing Strategies of Leagues and Media Entities

Motorsports Analytics

Soccer Analytics

The Commish: The Role of the Modern Commissioner in Sports

Ticketing Analytics

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 1/19/2012 10:26:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Association for Conflict Resolution to host sports law panel next Wedesday Jan. 25

For our Chicago-based readers, looks like a great panel coming up next Wednesday:

* * *

The Association for Conflict Resolution – Chicago Chapter

Presents

Dispute Resolution in the Sports World

Come join ACR-Chicago for an evening with three experts on Sports Alternative Dispute Resolution! You will learn more about ADR in the sports world and the various alternative dispute mechanisms utilized in the sports industry: arbitration, mediation, conciliation, mini-trials and ombudsmen. The panelists will discuss how these processes have been used in recent years (for example, mediation in the NFL and NBA 2011 lockouts). The panel will also focus on an introduction to Olympic arbitrations, and life as a sports arbitrator. It promises to be an interesting and engaging program!

When: Wednesday, January 25, 2012
6:00-6:30pm Reception and Sign-in
6:30-8:00pm Program
8:00-8:30pm Networking

Where: The John Marshall Law School
315 S. Plymouth Court, Chicago, IL

Cost: Free to ACR-Chicago Members and The John Marshall Law
School; $20.00 for non-members (new or renewal memberships
accepted at door)

Speakers on the Sports ADR Panel will Include:

Matt Mitten, Professor of Law; Director, National Sports Law Institute and LL.M. in Sports Law Program for Foreign Lawyers, Marquette University Law School.

Cari A. Stern, Chapman and Cutler LLP. Adjunct Professor of Sports Law at The John Marshall Law School

Daniel Gandert, Clinical Instructor, Program on Negotiation and Mediation, Northwestern University School of Law.

Many thanks to The John Marshall Law School for hosting this Program

Please RSVP by January 20, 2012 to Jennifer DeGregorio
by email at info@acrchicago.org or at 312-458-0984

The Association for Conflict Resolution – Chicago Chapter
is an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) umbrella organization dedicated to resolving disputes.
Visit our website at www.acrchicago.org

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 1/17/2012 09:40:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

University of Oregon School of Law Sports Law Symposium on Friday Jan. 27

Rick Karcher, Maureen Weston, Woodie Dixon and other panelists will participate in what looks to be an excellent sports and entertainment law symposium at the University of Oregon School of Law (Portland campus) next Friday. It is hosted by the law school's sports and entertainment law forum.

Topics include:

Women in Sports and Entertainment
The number of women enrolled in law school and working in the legal field has risen to rival men in the last decade with women even making up the majority in some schools and cities. However, sports and entertainment and their corresponding legal markets continue to be male-dominated industries. This panel will address both the legal and practical issues of women in sports and entertainment, including the function of Title IX and its continuing legacy, differences in media and networking between men and women athletes and entertainers, methods of contract negotiation in women’s sports, and how to break into the industry without making it all about gender. This panel will also feature a five-minute clip from Ellen Devlin’s film documenting the history of the University of Oregon’s women’s track program and the influences of Title IX on the different generations of female athletes.

The Rise of the Agent
As anyone familiar with sports knows, agents are now ubiquitous. An agent is a representative of the athlete, and in recent years, the number of agents has risen significantly. Now it seems as if there are as many agents in the business as there are athletes. As is often the case with those in the legal profession, an agent’s job is mostly unglamorous. Even down-and-out Jerry Maguire of pop-culture fame, manages some semblance of high class, as a jet-setting friend and confidante of the stars. Yet, for most agents, this is far from the truth. Whether it is the high stress, high stakes world of superstar contract negotiations between the Scott Borases of the agent world, or the increasingly popular agent-on-the-side approach, an agent is many things. This panel will focus primarily on the agent as an entrepreneurial figure, a power player in the decision making process in the industry, and the agent as a day-to-day representative of his client’s interests.

The Changing Face of the NCAA
With the college football bowl season just finishing, and the madness that is the college basketball’s final four on the horizon, it is an appropriate time to evaluate what has happened to college sports. Gone are the days where a school’s academic reputation is more interesting than its athletic. Gone are the days of a few clubs meeting on the muddy football field in front of a handful of local fans. Gone are the days of the amateur ideal. Whether we think the changes in interest, emphasis, and allocation of resources are good or bad are immaterial. Change has occurred: the NCAA basketball postseason championship is a billion-dollar event, bowl games are glittering multi-million dollar prizes that await teams and conferences at the end of the college football season, and college venues are becoming as elaborate and expensive as professional ones. This panel of experts will talk about the changing landscape of the NCAA conferences, the legal and practical issued posed by the growing revenue generated by college sports, and the eroding idea of the amateur athlete.

For more information, click here.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 1/17/2012 11:18:00 AM -- Comments (2) -- Post a Comment

Monday, January 16, 2012

Brian Porto's new book: The Supreme Court and the NCAA

Vermont Law School Professor and Sports Law Institute Deputy Director Brian Porto's new book, "The Supreme Court and the NCAA: The Case for Less Commercialism and More Due Process in College Sports," was recently published by the University of Michigan Press.

Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, NCAA v. Board of Regents (1984) and NCAA v. Tarkanian (1988), have shaped college sports by permitting the emergence of a supercharged commercial enterprise with high financial stakes for institutions and individuals, while failing to guarantee adequate procedural protections for persons charged with wrongdoing within that enterprise.

Porto examines the conditions that led to the cases, the reasoning behind the justices' rulings and the consequences of those rulings.

Arguing that commercialized college sports should be compatible with the goals of higher education and fair to all participants, Porto suggests that the remedy is a federal statute. His proposed College Sports Legal Reform Act would grant the NCAA a limited "educational exemption" from the antitrust laws, enabling it to enhance academic opportunities for athletes. The Act would also afford greater procedural protections to accused parties in NCAA disciplinary proceedings.

Porto's prescription for reform in college sports makes a significant contribution to the debate about how best to address perennial problems in college sports such as cost containment, access to a meaningful education for athletes and fairness in rule enforcement.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 1/16/2012 11:24:00 AM -- Comments (1) -- Post a Comment

Saturday, January 07, 2012

OSU Deja Vu: Legal Lessons from the OSU Basketball Tragedies

The National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”) has released its Preliminary Report regarding the November 18, 2011 airplane crash that killed Oklahoma State University (“OSU”) Women’s Basketball coach Kurt Budke and his assistant coach, Miranda Serna. The Piper Cherokee 180 was owned and flown by former Oklahoma State Senator Olin Branstetter who, along with his wife, was also killed in the crash. News reports indicate that the four were flying from OSU to Little Rock, Arkansas for a recruiting trip.

Unbelievably, this was the second tragic plane crash to afflict OSU within a decade. In 2001, an airplane chartered for the OSU Men’s Basketball team crashed in Colorado, killing ten, including two players. The NTSB determined that the 2001 crash was caused by a loss of a.c. electrical power that was not adequately managed by the pilot. Spurred by the loss to its athletic community, OSU revised its team travel policy, and the NTSB held up OSU’s revised post-accident team travel policy as a model for other sports organizations. This policy is largely articulated in a January 21, 2003 letter from the NTSB to Dr. Myles Brand, former NCAA President. It is not known whether OSU’s current travel policy was applicable to the flight that killed coaches Budke and Serna.

The NTSB’s Preliminary Report on the most recent crash, as is typical for preliminary reports, simply addresses “who, what, when, and where.” Over the next several months, the NTSB, along with any manufacturers or others it designates as a party, will conduct a comprehensive investigation into the “how.” Oftentimes this investigation involves, among other things, wreckage and component part inspections and testing, analysis of aircraft logbooks and maintenance records, analysis of the pilot’s experience and qualifications, and analysis of radar and other data pertaining to the accident flight. The investigation will culminate in the NTSB’s probable cause finding, which is the NTSB’s determination as to the probable cause or causes of and contributing factors to the accident.

The NTSB investigates accidents and issues probable cause findings to promote safe transportation, not to help litigants win lawsuits; thus, there are federal regulations that govern the admissibility of NTSB findings and the type and amount of discovery a litigant can conduct with respect to the NTSB. These rules often vex courts presiding over air crash litigation. It is evident, even at this early stage, that many other issues that commonly arise in air crash litigation could be implicated in any lawsuit regarding the recent OSU crash. For example, the question of forum often takes center stage early on in airplane crash lawsuits. In this case, the individuals killed were from Oklahoma, but the plane crashed during a recruiting trip to Arkansas, so a court may have to sort out the appropriate and most convenient forum, and determine which state’s law to apply. The possibly varied residences of any defendants could further complicate this issue. Another possible legal issue is the applicability of the General Aviation Revitalization Act’s 18-year statute of repose which protects manufacturers. Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") records reveal that the Piper was manufactured in 1964, so product liability lawsuits may be barred, though this is a highly fact-intensive issue that also implicates volumes of precedent. Also, few airplane crash claims are resolved without accompanying insurance coverage disputes, and the factual circumstances surrounding the recent OSU crash lend themselves to possible complex coverage issues.

Regardless of the cause of the recent OSU accident, it underscores the importance of air travel to collegiate sports teams. Colleges and universities are often located in areas not well-served by commercial aviation, so staff and athletes may rely on private aircraft transportation on recruiting trips or away games. Whether a college or university uses its own flight department, a private charter operator, or donated airplanes and crew can have far-reaching and difficult to foresee consequences in the wake of a crash. Shortly before this tragic crash, in light of the KHL hockey team crash, I published an article in Sports Litigation Alert with fellow partners from the Aerospace Group at my firm discussing airplane crashes and sports teams; we discussed prior accidents, common issues in aviation lawsuits, and the importance of safe airplane travel policies. This unfortunate accident should serve as a stark reminder to sports organizations to ensure that their travel policies are current with respect to aviation safety developments, and that their policies are rigorously adhered to. Sports organizations should also watch closely for the NTSB’s findings and any safety recommendations it may make, and review their policies accordingly.

Hat tip to my partner, Michael McGrory, for his work on this piece.

-- Posted by Tim Epstein @ 1/07/2012 01:00:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Friday, January 06, 2012

The NHL says it will postpone its plans for realignment because the players association wouldn't approve it in time for next year's schedules. (The union has taken to Twitter to deny it balked at the plan.)

This is tied to travel, which is subject to collective bargaining, but only indirectly. So it's not clear to me that this is something the union should have any say over. The league says it will pursue all avenues to preserve its rights, but it says it's too late for next season.

-- Posted by Jimmy Golen @ 1/06/2012 09:16:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Edward Zelinsky on "Albert Pujols, Occupy Wall Street, and the Buffett Rule"

Professor Edward Zelinsky, a distinguished tax law expert at Cardozo Law School and author of The Origins of the Ownership Society, has a thoughtful and provocative Oxford University Press piece on Albert Pujols and his 10-year, $254 million contract. Zelinsky argues that Pujols indeed deserves what he is being paid and that he is not under-taxed. Here is an excerpt:

* * *

Pujols is not a poorly-performing CEO whose salary has been inflated by a compliant compensation consultant and ratified by a passive board of directors the CEO himself has selected. Pujols’ salary was established in a transparent and open marketplace by purchasers seeking his services on an arms-length basis against other bidders, baseball teams trying to win more games. Pujols has earned the rewards of the marketplace in a truly competitive fashion.

Pujols joined the proverbial 1% honorably, through hard work and professional success. I suspect that many of the folks who identify with Occupy Wall Street will disagree, but Pujols should not be lumped together with overpaid, underperforming CEOs – of which there are many.

* * *

To read the rest, click here. It's a good read.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 1/04/2012 02:07:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Reflections on the NFL and NBA Lockouts

I recently posted the working draft of an essay reflecting on the recent NFL and NBA lockouts to SSRN, and thought that it might be of interest to some readers. The abstract for the essay is below:

This essay analyzes the National Football League (“NFL”) and National Basketball Association (“NBA”) lockouts of 2011, focusing in particular on the role union dissolution played in both work stoppages. Although the existing academic literature had generally concluded that players’ unions in the four major U.S. professional sports leagues were unlikely to disband during a labor dispute, the unions in both the NFL and NBA elected to dissolve in the face of lockouts by ownership. This essay provides an explanation for why the pre-existing academic literature underestimated the likelihood that players would disband their unions during a work stoppage, and considers what role union dissolution is likely to play in future professional sports labor disputes.

The paper can be downloaded here. Any comments - critical or otherwise - would be much appreciated.

-- Posted by Nathaniel Grow @ 1/03/2012 09:00:00 AM -- Comments (3) -- Post a Comment

Monday, January 02, 2012

The Cross-Town Classic: ChiSox versus Cubs on Taxes and Renovations

The Illinois Sports Facilities Authority (“IFSA”) was created in 1987 by the Illinois General Assembly to create and reconstruct sports stadiums for professional teams in Illinois. The IFSA owns and operates U.S. Cellular Field and receives annual debt payments for bonds related to renovations of the stadium. In 2001, the IFSA also contributed to the renovations made to Soldier Field. The IFSA has relied on hotel tax revenue from the state to pay back these payments, but this past year it was forced to turn to a different source of revenue to pay back this debt: Chicago taxpayer money.

Prior to 2011, the Illinois government would provide an advance to the IFSA so it could pay for any work conducted on the stadiums. The IFSA would later pay back those advances with hotel tax revenues. In 2010, though, hotel tax revenue was deficient by over $1.1 million, so the state turned to Chicago’s portion of state income tax to pay the bill. This is the first time that tax revenue fell short since 2001, which is when a new law was enacted that allowed the IFSA to issue bonds for renovations to Solider Field.

Besides receiving scrutiny over this incident, the IFSA has also been criticized for the new restaurant it built right outside U.S. Cellular Field. Taxpayers, again, ultimately paid for the expenses for this restaurant. Furthermore, the IFSA allowed the White Sox to retain all the restaurant profits.

Unfortunately, for the National League team across town, similar benefits from public funding do not exist. There have been recent discussions about renovating privately-owned Wrigley Field, one of the oldest stadiums in American professional sports. Rumors swirled about who would finance the possible restoration. In 2010, Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts developed a complex plan which ultimately asked for $200 million in public money, specifically additional ticket taxes, for the restorations. In September of this past year, sources stated that Mayor Rahm Emanuel was willing to contribute all $200 million using the City’s money. All of these rumors were put to rest, though, when on November 2, 2011, Emanuel announced that the proposed plan was not something he was going to incorporate into the 2012 budget, and the City would not be contributing extra tax money for construction on Wrigley Field.

One obstacle that the Cubs have to overcome in order to raise more money for renovations is getting its restrictive landmark status lifted. If the Cubs were to obtain permission from the City to lift Wrigley’s restrictive landmark status, as the City did for Solider Field so renovations could be done to it in 2001, then not only would construction on Wrigley be allowed, but the Cubs could possibly generate more revenue. Outside of additional seating and expansion of luxury boxes that would surely take place in renovations, removal of the landmark status could allow additional advertisement signage at Wrigley that would generate more revenue to contribute towards the proposed renovations.

With a government entity “overseeing and funding” the renovations to U.S. Cellular Field, which have occurred recently and often, and with Wrigley Field enduring so many restrictions, conspiracy theorists (i.e. Cubs fans) suspect that The Cell is being favored over the Friendly Confines. Keep in mind, though, that the Cubs are one of only five Major League Baseball teams that play in a privately-owned stadium, and do not directly see benefits like renovation monies returned from payment of amusement taxes (12% combined City and County taxes per ticket). Further, while Wrigley’s unique historical significance (only two years junior to Fenway Park) and neighborhood setting certainly brings fans and tourists through the turnstiles, this bears some consequences as well. From objections of the slope of bleachers to not impede rooftop club neighbors to night game restrictions (Wrigley is restricted to a maximum of thirty night games, twenty-four fewer than the MLB average), Wrigley is losing out on direct monies from expansion of seating as well as prime-time television appearances.

If Wrigley Field was sold to the City, it may be renovated, but there is a possibility it may not be done in the way that Cubs’ owners envision. However, as it stands now, Chicago taxpayers are left to pay off the renovations done to U.S. Cellular Field, and the Cubs’ organization is left to explore different financial avenues in order to support its restoration aspirations, such as privately purchasing adjacent property to bring more of the Wrigleyville dollars to the Cubs.

-- Posted by Tim Epstein @ 1/02/2012 05:00:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

The Sports Law Journal Seeks submissions

The Sports Law Journal is interested in submissions - for more information, e-mail its Editor-in-Chief, Alex Tilton, at atilton1[at]tulane.edu.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 1/02/2012 03:00:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Utah AG planning to sue BCS in coming weeks: What to Expect

I speak with Robert Gehrke of the Salt Lake Tribune about what to expect should Utah AG Mark Shurtleff sue the BCS, as he says he plans on doing within the next month or so. For additional commentary on the BCS, check out our past coverage.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 1/02/2012 01:37:00 AM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Panel on The Impact of Sports Collective Bargaining on Labor Relations in Society

While perusing the program for the upcoming American Economic Association annual meeting (Jan. 6-8) in Chicago, I noticed an interesting panel devoted to sports collective bargaining. Details are below:

The Impact of Sports Collective Bargaining on Labor Relations in Society (Workshop) (J1) (Panel Discussion)

Panel Moderator: Gabriel Gershenfeld, Cleveland Indians, and Michael Wasser (American Rights at Work)

DeMaurice Smith (NFL Players Association) Sports Collective Bargaining: Sports Labor Perspective

Rob Manfred (Major League Baseball) Sports Collective Bargaining: Sports Management Perspective

Arlene Holt-Baker (AFL-CIO) Impact of Sports Collective Bargaining on Labor in America

Martin Mulloy (Ford Motor Company) Impact of Sports Collective Bargaining on Management in America

-- Posted by Ryan M. Rodenberg @ 12/29/2011 09:00:00 AM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Saturday, December 24, 2011

New Sports Illustrated column: Floyd Mayweather, Jr. sentenced to 90 days in jail

Here's my new SI.com column on Floyd Mayweather pleading guilty to reduced charges for battering his ex-girlfriend. He'll get 90 days in jail; originally was facing 34 years in prison.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 12/24/2011 01:39:00 PM -- Comments (2) -- Post a Comment

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Statutes of limitations, child sexual assault, and asking the wrong question

Child sexual assault has become the hot topic in the sports-and-law overlap, with allegations against several college football and basketball coaches, AAU officials, and most recently, a Hall of Fame sports writer Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News. One unifying theme is that many of these cases cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has run on most of these cases (for example, Conlin's alleged assaults all occurred in the 1970s). So a frequently asked question--I was asked it in a radio interview last week and Slate's Jessica Grose raises it again--is why we have statutes of limitations for child sexual assault cases.

But I think that is the wrong question to ask.

On one hand, the answer is easy. We have statutes of limitations in sexual abuse cases for the same reasons we have statutes of limitations for every other crime (except murder, more on that below): Evidence and people disappear and memories fade or change or become distorted, thus we worry about the reliability of any result based on such stale evidence. Jessica interviews my former colleague Aya Gruber (now at Colorado), who argues that this is especially true in a case such as child sexual assault (and perhaps all sexual assault), where the key--and sometimes only--evidence is the victim's testimony. We also believe in a right to repose, or "rest easy," that at some point a person should be able to no longer fear prosecution and get on with his life and his affairs.

Murder long has not been subject to statutes of limitations because society has made a value judgment--murder is the most heinous crime, the ultimate criminal wrong, and that heinousness outweighs the procedural concerns for unreliable judgments and the substantive concerns for alleged perpetrator's right to repose. A good argument can be made that child sexual assault is as or more heinous than murder,^* thus we should strike the same balance. And that is what many states have done, eliminating limitations (as some states have done) or making them extraordinarily long and/or tolling them until the child reaches majority. For example, Pennsylvania now can prosecute a case until the child victim turns 50, meaning a limitations period of anywhere from 33 to 50 years, depending on the child's age at the time of the assault. An even better argument can be made that the old limitations periods in effect in the '70s, '80s, and '90s were woefully short (Pennsylvania was 5 years for anything involving penetration and 2 years for inappropriate touching) and based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the crime and the psychology of how child victims respond.^**

But thinking about whether there should be a statute of limitations for child sexual assault, or how long it should be, is the wrong question in considering the prosecution or non-prosecution of the current cases of interest. We are stuck with the reality that there is a statute of limitations for these crimes, that at the time of most of most of these crimes that limitations period was really short, and therefore the statutes have run on these cases and prosecution is barred. In 2003, SCOTUS held in Stogner v. California that the prohibition on ex post facto laws prohibited states from applying newly lenghtened limitations periods to crimes that occurred under an older limitations and that now are time-barred under that former limitations period. The 5-4 majority placed an extended limitations period in the second category, as a law that makes a crime greater than it was at the time of its commission. Most states statutorily avoid any possible ex post facto concerns by only applying these newly extended periods prospectively. Thus, what prevents prosecution of Sandusky, Conlin, et al., is not the statute of limiattions as much as the Constitution's prohibition on ex post facto laws.

^* I distinctly remember a class session in Stephen Presser's American Legal History at Northwestern, in which we debated whether adult rape was more heinous than murder, with a majority of the class believing it was, because the victim lives with the effects of the crime forever. We can multiply that for child victims.

^** Although what is interesting about Conlin's case is that many of the victims went to their parents and some of the parents confronted Conlin, who allegedly cried when confronted. But no one, not even the adults, ever went to the police.

-- Posted by Howard Wasserman @ 12/21/2011 10:56:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Friday, December 16, 2011

New Sports Illustrated column: What Sam Hurd's arrest means for the NFL

I have a new column for SI.com on Sam Hurd's arrest on drug charges and his alleged list of clients, who reportedly include NFL players. Hope you can check it out.

Update: on Saturday morning, I was interviewed on CBS The Early Show. CBS News anchor Russ Mitchell asked me about Sam Hurd's drug arrest, the alleged list of list of NFL players he sold to, and what it all means for the NFL.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 12/16/2011 02:10:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Introducing the Great Lakes Sports and Entertainment Law Academy

Congrats to Peter Carfagna and Craig Nard, among others, for establishing the Great lakes Sports and Entertainment Law Academy, a summer program in Cleveland for law students interested in sports and entertainment law. It looks to be a terrific program. Here are the details:

Great Lakes Sports and Entertainment Law Academy
May 14 – June 3, 2012

A joint program of: Center for Law, Technology, and the Arts, Case Western Reserve University School of Law and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University

The law schools of Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland State University are pleased to introduce the Great Lakes Sports & Entertainment Law Academy, an exciting new summer program for law school students that will begin in May of 2012. The Academy will be located in Cleveland, Ohio, home to three professional sports franchises and thriving arts and musical institutions. The product of a unique collaboration between the law schools of Cleveland State University and Case Western University, the Academy has partnered with several local and national sports and entertainment franchises, as well as local educational and cultural institutions, to offer students an intense, three-week, interdisciplinary classroom and experiential learning opportunity.

A special feature of the program is the chance for students to secure a limited number of externships at various high-profile sports and entertainment organizations.

Following the three weeks of coursework, up to fifteen students will have the opportunity to participate in highly selective externships. The externships are for three credits and last for nine weeks (approximately 20 hours per week). The anticipated externships, which begin on June 4, 2012, are sponsored by various high-profile sports and entertainment institutions, including:

Cleveland Browns;
SPIRE Institute;
Lake County Captains;
Vuguru Studios;
Horizon League;
Mid-American Conference;
Cleveland State University/Nelligan Sports Marketing Agency;
Greater Cleveland Film Commission

Application deadline: February 15, 2012
Externship application/writing deadline: February 15, 2012

Courses at the 2012 Academy
Courses take place at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, 2121 Euclid Avenue, LB 138, Cleveland, Ohio 44115-2214

Representing the Professional Athlete

Negotiation Strategies in Sports Management

Representing the Musical Artist

Entertainment Law: Film and Television

Faculty

Peter A. Carfagna, Co-Director of the Academy, is Chairman/CEO of Magis, LLC, a privately owned sports marketing, management and investment company, including family ownership of the Lake County Captains, Cleveland Indians Class A Affiliate. He is a professor at Harvard Law, Cleveland Marshall College of Law, and Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Mark Avsec is partner and Vice-Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice Group at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, LLP. Before becoming a lawyer, Professor Avsec earned a living as a studio musician, producer and award-winning songwriter.

David Shall is Head of Business Operations & General Counsel at Vuguru LLC, a pioneer in multi-platform programming and content.

All students who satisfactorily complete six credit hours of coursework will receive a certificate of completion. Up to 15 students will be selected for an externship through a separate application process, a competitive writing submission in response to a Sports Law Problem, available at this web address beginning December 15, 2011.

For further information:
Professor Craig A. Nard, Co-Director, Great Lakes Sports and Entertainment Law Academy
Phone: (216) 368-6348
E-mail: craig.nard@case.edu

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 12/15/2011 11:50:00 AM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

New Sports Illustrated column: What is Jerry Sandusky's Lawyer Doing?

In a new column for SI.com, I raise some questions of Joe Amendola's legal strategy in representing Jerry Sandusky.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 12/13/2011 11:27:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Show-Me Sports Law

Guest post from Dr. Anastasios Kaburakis, a professor at the John Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University:

After St. Louis’ beloved Cardinals lost Albert Pujols to the L.A. Angels last week, there was quite a discussion on how a small market like St. Louis can compete in intense, financially challenging times, and indeed in a cut-throat industry like sports. St. Louis ranks 18^th in metropolitan area size
in the U.S.

What is most interesting for sports law aficionados, however, is that St. Louis is developing into a hub for sports law. It was during the same fateful week of Dec. 5 that one of the two biggest law firms in town, Thompson Coburn, announced a major addition, the immediate past President of the Sports Lawyers Association, Bob Wallace, veteran NFL executive and former St. Louis Rams’ general counsel, who will lead a new sports law practice group. This follows the other major St. Louis firm, Bryan Cave, announcing earlier this summer the commencement of its sports law practice group, led by Ryan Davis. Both firms followed suit along the path of Stinson LLP and Bob Lattinville, who together with Gary Uberstine formed a national partnership, Premier Stinson Sports, specializing in elite coaches’ representation. Of course, when representation is discussed, St. Louis is home to CAA Football, Jim Steiner, Ben Dogra, and Tom Condon, who compete for the top-level football talent with cross-town rival Harold Lewis and the National Sports Agency.

Further, for sports law gurus, one needs to keep in mind that St. Louis-based Harness, Dickey, and Pierce, a top-5 global Intellectual Property firm, has been attending to sports IP issues for years, receiving international attention and fantasy sports fans’ adoration due to the successful CBC v MLBAM case before the Eighth Circuit, led by Super IP litigator Rudy Telscher.

Add to those national players the several pockets of key sport finance consultation in town, as well as a focused sport law research group including international academics and practitioners collaborating with the Saint Louis University John Cook School of Business sports business program, and one observes that the Gateway City may well be the best-kept secret in international sports law.

Here’s hoping that St. Louis’ Law Schools also recognize the tremendous opportunities for young practitioners, as well as the further involvement our fine academic institutions may have through their meaningful contributions to the industry (not to mention the patent prospects for landing external funding through such service and collaborative initiatives with the various key industry players in town). Conceivably, St. Louis may become an international destination for sport law studies, and the promising challenge is there for a law school to be a first entrant in town, joining the 12 or so other law school-housed sport law centers, institutes, clinics, and certificate programs around the U.S. already providing valuable service to law students, faculty, practitioners, and the entire sports industry.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 12/13/2011 05:45:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Sports Wagering Update

I recently had a chance to listen in on an iGaming Business-sponsored webinar about developments in New Jersey and more general topics related to the legality of sports wagering in the USA. Joe Brennan of iMEGA was the featured speaker. The recent state-wide vote in New Jersey has garnered a lot of attention. However, a quick perusal of my research file devoted to this issue revealed three other recent developments that deserve mention.

1. Earlier this month, prosecutors in Massachusetts were able to secure the first conviction under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The person convicted was previously affiliated with an offshore sports book. The official press release can be found here.

2. The Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting that authorities have indicted an individual in a probe related to the false reporting of information. The individual is alleged to have bet on behalf of ACME Group Trading, an entity connected to prominent sports bettor Billy Walters. Nevada law prohibits the use of "runners" who place bets on the behalf of others. The 60 Minutes profile of Billy Walters can be found here.

3. Developments in Europe dwarf those in the United States. Given the vast number of cross-border issues inherent in sports gambling, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has been busy adjudicating a large number of claims. Tassos Kaburakis and I recently collaborated to write a short primer on a handful of important ECJ cases. Our article was recently published in the Journal of Gambling Business and Economics. The abstract is below:

Given its high level of regulation, the gambling industry must be able to react quickly to litigation and resulting change in policy (and enforcement thereof). Using a case study approach, this short paper highlights how the twin issues of policy and litigation have recently impacted the gambling industry in the European Union. Examples focus on recent developments in the EU that outline the relevant contours of the European Court of Justice's jurisprudence, with a special emphasis on the dynamic situation in Greece. These examples shape the ensuing discussion of the future of both the regulation and litigation of the EU's gambling industry.

-- Posted by Ryan M. Rodenberg @ 12/11/2011 02:00:00 PM -- Comments (2) -- Post a Comment

Monday, December 05, 2011

Dan Markel argues for a sport of hockey without "brutal disabling fights"

Provocative piece by Howard's PrawfsBlawg colleague and Florida State law professor Dan Markel (who is originally from one of the best hockey cities around, Toronto): The End of Hockey (Fighting).

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 12/05/2011 05:37:00 PM -- Comments (1) -- Post a Comment

SEC as solution to ridiculous public stadium financing?

I am so proud to be a Miami-Dade resident (although not a Marlins fan).

-- Posted by Howard Wasserman @ 12/05/2011 12:44:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Yale Law School Panel on The Year of the Lockout: "Lockouts and Leverage: Lessons from the NBA and NFL Lockouts and New Collective Bargaining Agreements"

As the NBA lockout and the 2012 calendar year fade into the night, Yale Law School will be hosting the first panel discussion that takes stock of what has been the Year of The Lockout.

On Monday December 12, the Yale Law and Business Society will host a panel discussion titled "Lockouts and Leverage: Lessons from the NFL and NBA Lockouts and New Collective Bargaining Agreements". The panel will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. and will be open to the public. The NBA and NFL lockouts, the corresponding litigation and the resulting collective bargaining agreements will all be discussed.

I am honored to be joining Professor George Priest -- one of the nation's leading experts on antitrust law -- on the panel. Here is the official announcement:

The Yale Law and Business Society

Presents

Lockouts and Leverage:

Lessons from the NBA and NFL Lockouts and New Collective Bargaining Agreements

* Taking stock of the NBA and NFL lockouts

* Analysis of the legal and business strategies and lessons learned

* Who Won? Who Lost?

* Impact of new collective bargaining agreements - who gains, who loses - and changes in relationship between NFL and NBA players and their respective leagues

* Lingering Issues

Moderator

JIMMY GOLEN
Yale Law School graduate (1999). Reporter for The Associated Press for over 20 years, covering sports in Boston for the world’s largest newsgathering organization since 1995. He has covered five Super Bowls, three Olympics and three World Series, including the Red Sox victories in 2004 and ’07. Previously, he worked for the AP in New York, Minneapolis, Baton Rouge, La., and Buffalo, N.Y.

Panelists

MICHAEL McCANN
Professor of Law and Director of Sports Law Institute, Vermont Law School
On-Air Legal Analyst, NBA TV
Legal Analyst and SI.com Writer, Sports Illustrated

GEORGE PRIEST
Professor of Law and Economics and Kauffman Distinguished Research Scholar in Law, Economics, and Entrepreneurship, Yale Law School

For additional information, please contact Jonathan Soleimani (Co-Director of Programming, Yale Law & Business Society) at jonathan.soleimani[at]yale.edu

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 12/05/2011 10:00:00 AM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Sunday, December 04, 2011

In Memoriam: Robert "Bob" Berry

Very sad news last week in the sports law world, as former Boston College Law School sports law Professor Bob Berry passed away at 75. Marquette University Law School sports law Professor Matt Mitten shares the following with our readers:

Sports Law Academic World Loses One of Its Heavy Hitters

Bob Berry, a retired Boston College emeritus professor of law who was an internationally recognized expert in sports law, died recently in Florida. During his distinguished academic career, he taught sports law courses at several law schools, including Boston College, Ohio State, and Capital. Bob authored or co-authored many sports law review articles and books, including Sports Law and Regulation: Cases, Materials, and Problems (with Matthew Mitten, Timothy Davis, and Rodney Smith). He was well known for his extensive knowledge of sports law along with his kindness and his sense of humor. Bob was a wonderful friend, mentor, and co-author, whom I was privileged to know. All of us, especially his wife Carole and other members of his family, have suffered a great loss.

Bob is fondly remembered by his friends and fellow sports law professors:

His close friend Bill Gould, Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law at Stanford and former Chair of the National Labor Relations Board: “I always thought of Bob as the dean of all academic sports lawyers. He developed the first Sports Law course at BC Law in 1972. The world has lost a good, genuine-so genuine-smart guy who was very wise and compassionate. I never had a better or more loyal friend.”

Gary Roberts, Dean & Gerald L. Bepko Professor of Law, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis: “Bob was a really good guy who came to be a very good friend. He truly was one of the founders, if not the founder, of our ‘sports law academic’ club.”

Roger Abrams, Richardson Professor of Law, Northeastern University: “Bob certainly was in the Sports Law Hall of Fame and a really nice colleague to all of us.”

Barbara Osborne, Associate Professor, Exercise and Sport Science, University of North Carolina: “My heart aches. As one of Bob's former students I know first-hand what an impact he had.”

Bob’s family has requested that any donations in his memory be made to the Jackie Robinson Foundation, 75 Varick Street, 2nd floor, New York, New York 10013.

Matt Mitten

Professor of Law and Director, National Sports Law Institute and
LL.M. in Sports Law Program for Foreign Lawyers
Marquette University Law School

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 12/04/2011 09:49:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Transitioning to the NBA: Advocating on Behalf of Student-Athletes for NBA & NCAA Rule Changes

Back in April I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post that argued against the shorting, by the NCAA, of the evaluation period for men's basketball players. My friends at Harvard Law School's Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law asked me to turn that short piece into a law review article, which I have now done.

While still being fine-tuned for January publication, I have been given permission to share this document now given the debate on the draft eligibility rules between the NBA and NBPA. [I know, they are technically a trade association today.] You can access the document on the SSRN website here.

The abstract reads as follows:

The manner in which college athletes enter the professional market of basketball has significantly deteriorated during the past several decades. The transition from college to the NBA has become more fraught with challenges and misinformation than ever before, a fact likely to lead to a wide range of mistakes by countless student-athletes trying to evaluate whether and when to enter professional basketball.

Highlighting a particular area where student-athletes’ interests are marginalized, this Article calls attention to the challenges that student-athletes in the sport of men’s college basketball face when trying to make a fully informed decision as they evaluate whether or not to enter the NBA draft and forgo remaining college eligibility. Unfortunately this difficult decision period is not unique to men’s basketball, but highlights a broader trend showing that colleges, conferences and the NCAA have done shockingly little to provide guidance and counsel to student-athletes across the country who are navigating the transition from college to the professional leagues.

This Article will address both how we developed the current legal rules governing this environment by reviewing the history of the NBA draft and the NCAA’s role in overseeing college athletes and its definition of amateurism. With this recent trend in mind, this Article will then turn its attention to a recent NCAA rule change that unambiguously illustrates the fact that the best interests of the student-athlete are marginalized, if not ignored, in the process of making the leap from college to the NBA. Finally, to foster dialogue, solutions will be proposed on how to address the hardships college student-athletes face during this transition period.

Among the most meaningful recommendations are:

1. The NBA should adopt draft eligibility rules that declare high school graduates are automatically draft eligible and need not petition or declare their intention for the draft. If a player decides to attend college, NBA rules should require that the player not be draft eligible for two years—after a player’s sophomore year of college.
2. NCAA and NBA rules should permit and encourage potential players to hire an “advisor” to assist during this challenging period.
3. The NCAA and NBA should expand and shift the number of days during which student-athletes may explore their potential as an NBA player while maintaining their college eligibility.
4. The creation of a true “NBA Combine” – similar to the NFL Combine – within the time frame the NCAA permits tryouts that enable all underclassmen to compete and perform in front of NBA personnel.
5. Colleges and universities across the country should invest in Professional Sports Counseling Panels (“PSCPs”) so that student-athletes can get unbiased guidance during this critical period of their lives.
6. The NBA and the NCAA could jointly revise the rules relative to the NBA draft, whereby any student-athlete who declares himself eligible has the ability, if not selected in the first round of the NBA draft and thus guaranteeing himself a contract under the latest CBA, to return to college.
7. Encourage student-athletes to graduate by offering financial incentives at the NBA level for those with additional years in college.

-- Posted by Warren K. Zola @ 12/01/2011 09:30:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A place for this blog and its EIC

Slate's weekly sports podcast "Hang Up and Listen" leads off this week with a discussion of the end of the NBA lockout. One of the points of discussion is the failure of the sports media to fully grasp and accurately cover the bargaining process. Not being experienced in how labor and litigation negotiations work, reporters fall for dramatic, tragic, and pessimistic narratives because, to their eyes, the process appears to be failing. They specifically note Bill Simmons' calls for both David Stern and Billy Hunter to be fired for their mismanagement of this process, a sentiment widely shared by fans but not by experienced labor experts (who recognize legal posturing as all part of the negotiation process).

If this assessment is accurate, it presents a good argument for this blog and, in particular, for Mike's work on ESPN and NBA-TV. They provide voice that can report and opine on the legal issues from a real position of experience, avoiding the narrative traps.

-- Posted by Howard Wasserman @ 11/30/2011 02:13:00 AM -- Comments (1) -- Post a Comment

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Time for Transformative Change in Intercollegiate Athletics

Well, I've spent the better part of the fall semester thinking and talking about change in intercollegiate athletics. I figured it was time to put my ideas and arguments down on paper and, as such, wrote a brief article, summing up my thoughts and, more importantly, making some recommendations.

The essay was just posted on Huffington Post here.

In sum, I argue that we need to address three key areas: 1) Academics & Integrity, 2) The Interests and Experiences of Student-athletes; and 3) Accountability.

Let me know what you think...and help me improve my proposals.

-- Posted by Warren K. Zola @ 11/29/2011 07:30:00 PM -- Comments (1) -- Post a Comment

Monday, November 28, 2011

NBA TV Interview: Remaining Steps

I joined David Aldridge, Reggie Miller, Dennis Scott and Matt Winer tonight on NBA TV to talk about remaining steps for there to be NBA basketball on December 25.

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 11/28/2011 11:44:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

New Sports Illustrated Inside Report Interview: Legal Fallout of Bernie Fine Scandal

-- Posted by Michael McCann @ 11/28/2011 02:47:00 PM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment

International Sports Law Review Pandektis

The most recent issue of the International Sports Law Review Pandektis, an IASL-sponsored journal, has been published. A number of articles caught my eye that Sports Law Blog readers may be interested in. Of particular note is the article published by Stephen Argeris pertaining to the MLB draft, which was presented earlier this year at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and last year at the International Sport Law & Business Conference.

The complete table of contents for the most recent issue can be found here.

-- Posted by Ryan M. Rodenberg @ 11/28/2011 08:00:00 AM -- Comments (0) -- Post a Comment