Media & Entertainment Law

Why Does Gary Bettman Hate Canada?

Posted on May 16, 2009
Okay, maybe he doesn't really hate Canada, but he sure doesn't like it very much. In his sixteen years as commissioner of the NHL he has done everything he possibly can to grow the game in the US at the expense of Canada. Since he took over, all expansion franchises and relocated franchises have been placed in American cities, sometimes - Jets and Nordiques - at the expense of Canadian cities...

Pac-10 Starting Its Own Network?

Posted on May 14, 2009
Of the six BCS conferences, the Pac-10 has long been saddled with the worst television contracts. Not only is the money not particularly good, but the coverage, in terms of national audience reach, is terrible. Having most of your games on Fox Sports Net not only leaves you at the mercy of the local FSN or Comcast affiliate but the audience for FSN is significantly smaller than that of the ESPN family...

Cable Network Recasts Itself as Sports Network

Posted on May 14, 2009
An item caught my eye in MediaWeek the other day from the headline alone. The headline read: "America One Redrafts Prime Time with Sports Themes." This network plans to give over each night of the week to one sport up to the 10:00 hour and devote the 10:00 hour to action sports...

Team Sponsorship May Not Be as Effective as Thought

Posted on May 11, 2009
This morning's post on team branding got me thinking more about marketing. Over lunch something I was reading caught my eye and I went back and read the Turnkey Sports poll for March, 2009. This poll was difference than most Turnkey polls as it polled both industry members and the general public and was therefore able to compare the results of the two...

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Philly Soccer Union

Posted on May 10, 2009
I know that most of you soccer fans have probably seen this already but the logo and name of the new Philadelphia Major League Soccer franchise has been leaked and circulating around the net for a couple of weeks. In case you haven't seen it, here is the crest of the new Philadelphia Union:The team will begin play next season in a new soccer stadium being built in suburban Chester, Pennsylvania...

How Fast Did Your Team Brand Grow?

Posted on May 10, 2009
Forbes just released a study of the fastest growing team brands in the four major North American sports, excluding Major League Soccer, which sticks to its single entity concept and really doesn't have individual team brands in the truest sense. There are certain patterns common to the ranking of the top five within each sport but those patterns do not necessarily cross over from sport to sport...

Rachel Alexandra Sold to Curlin's Owner

Posted on May 08, 2009
Back from Chitown for what was a wonderful few days. The weather was great, food was good and the conference was interesting. What more could you ask for? One question for you Chicagoland residents out there - when did the Trib become a tabloid? Not a good move at all for a once great newspaper...

Saints Strike Deal to Stay in Superdome Until 2025

Posted on May 01, 2009
It only took a year of tough negotiating and a change in the resident of the Governor's mansion, but the New Orleans Saints and the State of Louisiana have struck a tentative deal to keep the Saints in New Orleans until 2025. The State will spend $85 million to renovate the Superdome, obviating the need for the construction of the new stadium Saints' owner Tom Benson had been demanding...

On the Road

Posted on May 01, 2009
Posting will be likely non-existent until the middle of next week as I'm off to a conference sans laptop. Should be back in front of the trusty Macbook by Wednesday. Hopefully, you can mudddle along without me.ARTICLEURL

Bengals to Appear on Hard Knocks

Posted on April 30, 2009
It could be the entertainment event of the summer. The Cincinnati Bengals, the closest actual team the NFL has to the one quarterbacked by first Burt Reynolds and then Adam Sandler in The Longest Yard (one and two), is under consideration to be the featured team on HBO's training camp series Hard Knocks...

Mazel Tov to the Hall of Fame Inductees

Posted on April 28, 2009
The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame held an induction ceremony over the weekend, inducting seven new honorees, whose exploits ranged from the broadcast desk at SportsCenter to Olympic gold and even to the courtroom. Yes, it was a mighty diverse lot...

Carnivals, We Have Carnivals

Posted on April 28, 2009
This week featured two blog carnivals that I wanted to bring to your attention. Yes folks, even in this new age of Twitter there are still blog carnivals out there worthy of your time and attention and not just because they include my posts. The first is the venerable Haveil Havalim, carnival of Jewish blogs, now featuring edition #214...

Boris Becker Cashes in at Poker Tournament

Posted on April 26, 2009
Three-time Wimbledon-champion Boris Becker has found a new career, as a poker player. ?Boom Boom? made it deep in one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world ? the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. He finished in 37th place out of 338 entrants, outlasting some of the best players in the world, while taking home a $40,855 prize check...

Sunday Reading

Posted on April 26, 2009
Here are a few links for your Sunday reading pleasure:75-year old owner-trainer's one horse stable Kentucky Derby contender (Courier-Journal)1970's fashion is back, at least on the golf course (wsj)Will the falling pound and Britain's new tax rate be the end of the dominance of the English Premier League (Times)The ten all-time best ballpark promotions (Love of Sports)Derby hopefuls, why they can and why they can't (Courier-Journal)It was a really bad week for Rick Pitino, profile of the high school kid who had committed to Louisville and now may skip his senior year to go pro in Eurpoe (NYT)ARTICLEURL

Keeneland Handle a Sign of the Times

Posted on April 25, 2009
Churchill Downs opens its Spring Meet today marking the official start of Derby Week. It also means that the Spring Meet at Keeneland, that historic and tradition bound track in the little city to the west of here has ended. It's an appropriate time then to take a look at the meet's handle and attendance to see what effect the economy has had...

Twitter

Posted on April 24, 2009
If you're looking to find the Twitter feeds of athletes and coaches, a speoial area has been set up to make that easier for you. You can just go here and find them all in one place.While we're on the subject, SportsBiz has joined Twitter. You can catch the SportsBiz Twitter feed by going here...

Baseball's Rich Get Richer

Posted on April 23, 2009
If you listen to Bud Selig, you would believe that this is the golden age of baseball. Attendance has never been higher. Parity, in his mind, has come to the game, as the participants in the World Series have been changing every year. Television deals have been signed at ever higher numbers, notwithstanding the ever shrinking ratings and new stadiums are coming on line almost every year...

Wimbledon Ups Prize Money; Unveils Centre Court Roof

Posted on April 22, 2009
The stodgiest of the four tennis majors, Wimbledon joined the 21st century this week as the All England Club unveiled a new folding roof for Centre Court. Gone will be those interminable rain delays that played havoc with the draw and caused more than a few people the opportunity to use the tickets that had cost them about a month's income to buy...

Lions Try New Branding

Posted on April 20, 2009
What do you do when you lose all your games? Well, besides firing everybody you can find (and that means you Matt Millen) you change your branding of course. Today, the Detroit Lions unveiled new uniforms and a new Lion logo and even a new font for the Lions typeface...

Jake and the Iditarod

Posted on April 19, 2009
or what's a nice Jewish boy doing all the way up in here in the cold with a team of dogs going nowhere? What am I supposed to say, my son the musher? Jake Berkowitz, a 22 year old dog sled racer, originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, just completed in his second Iditarod, placing 31st out of 67 and the only one who finished with all 18 of his dogs...

Your Name Here Stadium

Posted on April 17, 2009
Ever want to have a stadium named after you but didn't have a spare $40-$400 million dollars to throw around, especially now that your portfolio has taken such a hit. Well, I have such the solution for you. In Rochester, New York, the Rhinos, one of the country's most successful second division (USL -1) soccer teams, has been having difficulty finding a buyer for the naming rights to their relatively new downtown stadium so they have decided to put the naming rights up for sale for $1,000...

Impact of the Recession Cont'd - LPGA

Posted on April 15, 2009
If you want to see Natalie Gulbis or any of these other LPGA golfers play this year, I hope you have cable or satellite. There will only be a handful of LPGA tournaments broadcast on network television this year and one of them was last week - the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first of the LPGA's four majors...

Pepsi Drops Maria Sharapova

Posted on April 15, 2009
What's the price of a shoulder injury to a tennis star? In Maria Sharapova's case, it turns out to be at least a couple of million dollars. Pepsi announced today, or rather its spokesman gave the news in an interview, that its contract with the Russian tennis star and part-time model would not be renewed...

Perry Shows World How to Lose With Class

Posted on April 13, 2009
This one really had to hurt. After leading the Masters for 70 holes, two bogeys cost Kenny Perry the chance, at 48, to be the oldest golfer ever to win a green jacket. Those bogeys on 17 and 18 forced him into that now infamous three way playoff that he lost on the second playoff hole to Angel Cabrera, the Argentine now holder of perhaps the largest green jacket ever awarded...

Sunday Reading

Posted on April 12, 2009
Bluegrass win fuels Derby dream for one horse stable of retired principal (CJ)Can Usain Bolt ever earn 1/10 of what Tiger earns a year? Can any track star? (NYT)Celine Dion's hubby wants to buy the Canadiens; so do the cream of Quebec business community(Montreal Gazette)Global recession and the reality of redevelopment around Washington Nationals Stadium (WaPo)Mike Illitch and the Detroit Tigers contribute to the GM bailout (Bloomberg)Soon to be released; Jewish Major Leaguer baseball cards (JML)ARTICLEURL

MLS Plays the Relocation Card in DC

Posted on April 11, 2009
DC United has had a very frustrating search for a new stadium home. Jurisdiction after jurisdiction has voted down a stadium deal in what can only be described as a highly unusual spate of local legislative good sense. Following this week's surprise rejection by the Prince George's County Council, both DC United and league officials were naturally upset...

Mazel Tov Angel

Posted on April 10, 2009
It's deja vu all over again for Angel McCoughtry. Fresh off of a wildly successful season leading the University of Louisville Cardinals to their first ever Final Four and national championship game appearance, the All-American small forward set another first yesterday by being selected first in the WNBA draft by the Atlanta Dream...

Man U Still Most Valuable Soccer Club

Posted on April 09, 2009
Forbes has released its annual ranking of the world's most valuable soccer clubs and to my great surprise there were no Major League Soccer clubs listed in the top 25. Seriously, though, what is surprising is that even in the face of the worst global economy in nearly 80 years, the value of the 25 top global soccer clubs actually increased about eight percent over last year...

Auburn's Spring Game to Be Sponsored by US Navy

Posted on April 07, 2009
It's come to this. Auburn has sold the naming rights, well officially the presenting rights, to its spring game to the Navy. It will be "A Day, Presented by the US Navy". Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge Auburn's attempt to wring money out of its football program, especially in a way that doesn't hit the fans' wallet and really doesn't prostitute the university too much...

Congrats to the Lady Cards

Posted on April 06, 2009
Congratulations to the University of Louisville Lady Cards for knocking off Oklahoma last night and making it to their first ever national championship game. Waiting for them there will be the UConn Huskies, who are seeking their date with destiny. The Huskies are undefeated and have won a game this season by less than double digits...

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