Media & Entertainment Law

Hoist a Molson for the Canadiens

Posted on June 20, 2009
George Gillett, the owner of the Montreal Canadiens and a 50% partner in Liverpool FC has been having a few financial problems thanks to the Great Recession. The fact that he and his Liverpool partner, Tom Hicks, he of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars, aren't getting along hasn't helped...

Timex and New York Giants Naming Rights Pact Extends Beyond Practice Field

Posted on June 19, 2009
So far, the Jets and the Giants have been unable to secure a naming rights sponsor for the $1.3 billion New Meadowlands Stadium scheduled to open for the 2010 season. That has not stopped the Giants from finding other ways to bring sponsors aboard. The Giants training facility located adjacent to the new stadium, will sport the name Timex Performance Center, as the centerpiece of a 15 year $35-40 million deal...

Formula One Racing Facing Split

Posted on June 19, 2009
It was only last year that the men who run open wheel racing in the United States finally wised up and ended the fued between the Indy Racing League and Champ Car and merged, giving open whell racing fans something they had not experienced for years: a single unified calendar of races...

Team Iran Wears Green in Support of Protest Movement

Posted on June 18, 2009
It is rare that international politics fails to find its way onto the stage of international sporting events and yesterday's World Cup qualifying matches were no exception. In a match beamed live to Iran, some members of the Iranian national soccer team wore green armbands in support of the Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi and the hundreds of thousands back home protesting the results of last week's disputed presidential election...

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Phelps Gets First Endorsement Post Photo; Not for a Hookah

Posted on June 17, 2009
Since Michael Phelps was spotted in the now infamous "bong photo", he has served a three month suspension from organized swimming, lost sponsorships (most prominently being Kellogg) and become the butt of late-night comedians (at least before they decided to take on Sarah Palin and family again)...

Judge Keeps Coyotes in Glendale For Now

Posted on June 16, 2009
US Bankruptcy Court Judge Redfield T. Baum (great name, sounds like something out of the Wizard of Oz) yesterday ruled against a proposal that would have seen the team sold to Jim Balsillie who wants to move it to Hamilton, Ont. The judge ruled against an auction date of June 22, and Balsillie placed a June 29 "drop dead" date on his offer...

Rise of the Nuevo Galacticos

Posted on June 12, 2009
I'm gone for a couple of days having contracted some sort of virus, no it was not swine flu, and an orgy of spending breaks out in the world of soccer and strange doings going on in hockey. Just goes to show, you never know what is going to happen next in the sports world...

Cost Cutting at Division I Colleges Looking in the Wrong Places

Posted on June 08, 2009
There was a very interesting article on the website of the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday detailing some of the cost-cutting measures being implemented at colleges and universities across the west. If you follow college athletics, the litany of measures will not be new to you...

EPL Can Teach NBA All About the Joys of Bankruptcy

Posted on June 08, 2009
You'll recall that yesterday in discussing the proposed marketing tie-up between the NBA and the English Premier League, one of the supposed benefits the NBA would get from the deal was help in learning how to diversify its ownership, particularly with international owners...

NBA and English Premier League Exploring Tie-up

Posted on June 07, 2009
Get out the wedding bells and stock up on rice. David Stern has finally decided that maybe, just maybe, he doesn't have this international thing completely worked out the way he wants it and that expert help, particularly in Asia just might be a good thing...

NFLPA and Retired Players Settle for $26.25 Million

Posted on June 05, 2009
In the surest sign yet that there is a new regime at the NFL Players Association, the union and the retired players reached a surprise settlement of the retired players' lawsuit against the NFLPA. The NFLPA agreed to pay the retired players $26.25 million to settle claims that the union failed to actively market the retired players in its marketing deals with EA Sports and others...

Panthers to Be Sold to Public Company

Posted on June 03, 2009
The old boys club of the NHL has not had a good couple of weeks when it comes to keeping league business under the wraps the Board of Governors prefers. The NHL owners prefer to keep all information about team operations and financial data strictly private...

Aon and Man U in Record Jersey Deal

Posted on June 03, 2009
And the winner is... Aon. Manchester United has confirmed reports that US insurance giant is set to replace disgraced and broke AIG as the jersey sponsor for the world's most popular soccer club, in a deal said to be worth 80 million pounds over four years...

Are the Rams Heading Back to LA?

Posted on June 02, 2009
The St. Louis Rams (it still doesn't sound quite right to me) have been a success in St. Louis but have a lease problem. The Edward D. Jones Dome is now an old building, having been built in 1995. I know it's only 15 years old but by NFL standards that's old...

Delaware Really Wants to Be Las Vegas

Posted on May 31, 2009
I'm a little late discussing the move by Delaware to legalize sports betting but it's still worth a mention. The state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the recently enacted statute permitting sports betting to be run by the state lottery...

Kentucky President: We Knew About Calipari and We Support Him

Posted on May 29, 2009
The University of Kentucky has not had a good couple of days this week. It started off with the weekend disclosure that one of the stars of the football team had been suspended for his senior season for failing a drug test, due to performance enhancing drug he used from an over the counter supplement he was taking while rehabbing from an injury...

Cowboys Open Billion Dollar Stadium

Posted on May 28, 2009
The Dallas Cowboys unveiled their new $1.15 Billion stadium yesterday in an invitation only ribbon cutting ceremony attended by 1,5oo guests.  The basic figures surrounding this stadium are daunting enough at any time, but particularly so given the economic climate in which it is opening...

Roof Planned for French Open

Posted on May 27, 2009
An arms race has broken out in tennis, particularly among the hosts and organizers of the four majors, and it's going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to play. Wimbledon unveiled its new Centre Court, complete with retractable roof, earlier this month...

China Calling and the Cavs Answer

Posted on May 26, 2009
When you have the largest consumer market and the largest television market on the planet, every entertainment company dreams of getting its share and the NBA is no exception. In fact, it was one of the first professional sports leagues to reach into China in a significant way, with games being broadcast there to an audience measured in the hundreds of millions...

Bottom of the Ninth

Posted on May 25, 2009
Recently received in the mail a new book by Michael Shapiro entitled, Bottom of the Ninth, Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball From Itself.ARTICLEURL It's the fascinating story of the late 1950's, early 60s and the Dodgers have left Brooklyn, the Giants have left the Polo Grounds and cities all across flyover country are besieging baseball for teams...

What's the Best Sports City in North America?

Posted on May 25, 2009
Think you know? Is your first thought Boston, now enjoying a nirvana of professional sports success probably unequaled in the city's sporting history? Well, according to this study by the folks at the Toronto Star, limited to the cities in North America north of the Rio Grande (I guess success in the Mexican Football League was too hard to track, you know with all those Latin American tournaments they play in), Boston is only second best; the winner is probably the least likeliest city you would imagine...

Arena Naming Curse Continues

Posted on May 24, 2009
The Arena/Stadium naming curse continues picking up its latest victim with the FDIC seizure of BankUnited in Coral Gables, Florida last week. If the name is familiar to you and you don't live in Florida, then you must be an ACC basketball fan, as it is the name of the University of Miami's basketball arena...

Wild Ignore Playoff Hiring Ban; Hire Pens Asst. GM

Posted on May 22, 2009
When you're in desperate need of help, I guess rules, written or unwritten just don't apply. That must be what the Minnesota Wild must be thinking as owner Craig Leipold announced today the hiring of Pittsburgh's assistant general manager Chuck Fletcher to be the Wild's new general manager...

Yankee Fans Find Away Games Cheaper and Easier Than New Yankee Stadium

Posted on May 21, 2009
It takes Yankee fans about an hour to get to the Bronx from some suburban New York locations and once there it can cost up to $1,500 from ground level seats. It takes about 5 hours to drive to Baltimore for a Yankees-Orioles game and ground level seats in Camden Yards go for about $70 a ticket...

Kentucky Horse Industry Pleads for Help

Posted on May 21, 2009
To many people outside the great Commonwealth, Kentucky is known either for Fried Chicken or the three sins of bourbon, thoroughbreds and tobacco (or hemp, depending on your age and smoking preference). You can throw Muhammad Ali and basketball in there too but those two aren't really business related although the University of Kentucky treats basketball as both a business and a religion, with a extraordinarily well paid head minister in Coach Cal...

Lingerie Football League Looking for Interns

Posted on May 21, 2009
If you are looking for a way to break into the sports industry and you're a fan of lingerie, this may be just the thing, The Lingerie Football League is looking for interns for all ten teams. Interns will gain exposure to all aspects of sports business involved in running a franchise...

If Man U Loses Saturday, They Could Get Sued

Posted on May 20, 2009
Manchester United has won the Premier League championship so its game on Saturday against Hull City is like one of those late September contests in the late 1950s in the American League and the Yankees had won the pennant back in August. You know the kind, the ones that just don't mean anything...

NFL Settles with Comcast; Extends Deals With Fox, CBS

Posted on May 20, 2009
The spring owners meeting of the NFL has certainly been busy this year. So far, in two days, the owners have approved and announced an carriage agreement with Comcast for the NFL Network, finally ending a contentious and interminable negotiation and legal battle, and extensions of television deals with Fox and CBS for an additional two years...

It's Open Season on Bowl Affiliations

Posted on May 19, 2009
The BCS Conferences are all conducting their spring meetings in the next couple of weeks at various luxury golf resorts around the country.  Topic number one on the agenda of each conference meeting will be the league's bowl affiliations as most bowl contracts, other than the BCS bowls and a couple of others, will all be up at the end of the upcoming season...

Rachel's Day At the Preakness Before Smaller, Subdued Crowd

Posted on May 18, 2009
Calvin Borel is not just the best big race jockey working in America right now, he is also likely the best handicapper. Continuing the best May of his life, Calvin booted home the wondrous filly Rachel Alexandra in Saturday's Preakness, finishing a length ahead of the fast closing Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird...

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