Media & Entertainment Law

TBS to Operate NBA Digital Assets

Posted on January 17, 2008
The NBA has an extensive multimedia operation under the umbrella of NBA Entertainment. It includes the popular website nba.com, the digital cable and satellite network NBA TV (which is having carriage issues similar to the Big Ten Network although the NBA is not demanding that any cable operator carry it on basic cable), League Pass as well as other broadband and wireless operations...

FIFA and European Clubs Sign Peace Deal

Posted on January 16, 2008
After years of tension, nasty press conferences, threats and lawsuits, peace has come to European soccer. The big European clubs that comprised G14, the mathematically challenged group that consisted of 18 of Europe's largest and most successful soccer clubs signed a peace agreement with FIFA and UEFA yesterday, reaching agreement to players called up for national team duty and on the two most contentious issues separating them...

ESPN Buys Stake in NBA China

Posted on January 15, 2008
Forget all the hype about ESPN being independent journalist covering stories. If there ever was any semblance of journalistic integrity in the operations of ESPN, the recent actions of the corporate parent have blown that idea out of the water. First, the WWWL goes and buys a stake in the Arena Football League in lieu of, or in addition to, broadcast rights, in order to give itself an upside kicker in value produced by televising the no longer upstart minor league football league...

NASCAR Scores Big Win Over Ky Speedway

Posted on January 08, 2008
A US District Court judge in Kentucky handed a big win to the Frances family in an antitrust battle with the Kentucky Speedway over the awarding of lucrative Sprint (formerly Nextel) Cup dates. Judge William Bertlesman dismissed the lawsuit brought Kentucky Speedway against NASCAR and International Speedway Corp, saying that Ky Speedway had failed to make a case...

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2008: The Webcast Olympics

Posted on January 08, 2008
If you are like me, you have grown a bit tired of the tape-delayed Olympics broadcast by NBC over the last several Olympiads. I know all about the time zone factor, but the suits at NBC give the American people no credit for any desire to see live events and persist in packaging everything in a neat and tidy tape delayed four hour event each night...

College Basketball's Most Valuable School - Its' a Tobacco Thing

Posted on January 03, 2008
The North Carolina Tar Heels are undefeated and sitting atop both the AP and USA Today polls as the new year dawns and conference play opens in college basketball. The Heels are also atop another ranking of college basketball programs: Forbes list of the most valuable programs...

WVU Sues Rodriguez for $4 Million Buyout

Posted on December 27, 2007
Rich Rodriguez began work as Michigan's new football coach today watching the Big Blue practice for their upcoming Capital One Bowl appearance against Florida. Back home in West Virginia, his former employer was busy too. Busy filing suit to collect $4 million which WVU alleges that Rod owes pursuant to the terms of his contract as a buyout to leave West Virginia to take the job at Michigan...

Pats-Giants to Be on NBC, CBS, NFL Network

Posted on December 26, 2007
After spending weeks proclaiming that there were no circumstances under which they would cave into pressure, the NFL did just that today and allowed Saturday's potentially historic game between undefeated New England and the New Jersey Giants to be simulcast on both NBC and CBS...

NBC: More Reason for Crewcut to Worry About His Job

Posted on December 25, 2007
You know how bad Notre Dame was this past season so there little reason for me to rehash the details. I mean 3-9 just doesn't cut it under the Golden Dome. Now, Domers will tell you that it was to be expected because after all ND was playing all those freshman and sophomores...

Christmas Links

Posted on December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate it today and for those of you who might be looking for something to read to pass the time today here are few links to stories of interest:The New York Times has an article on St. John's basketball player Rob Thomas, whose dyslexia remained undiagnosed until he was 17, when he passed a note to his English teacher that said "I cannot read or write" and "please don't turn your back on me"...

Trouble Brewing

Posted on December 23, 2007
I'm going to depart slightly from sports for a minute to touch on a problem close to most every sports fan's heart: beer. If you are like an ever increasing number of discerning drinkers who have chose to drink small craft beers, lately you may have had trouble finding your favorite beer...

Let's Hear It for the Owls

Posted on December 23, 2007
As the college bowl season kicks off, we will be subjected to endless discussion about how the BCS has failed to live it up to its purpose and how college football powers that be are depriving the fans of their God given right to see a national championship won on the field in a championship playoff run by the NCAA just like all those other sports nobody watches...

Site Upgrades; Light Posting

Posted on December 18, 2007
Posting has been light this past week and will be light over the next week or so as I have been focused on some family matters. This week will be spent on much needed site upgrades looking towards the unveiling of a new and vastly improved site sometime around the first of year...

From TD to Doughnuts

Posted on December 12, 2007
When the average NFL player retires. the fans believe that he retires to a life of luxury with no worries about his next meal or what to do with the rest of his life. After all, in the minds of the fans, he has made millions of dollars playing football, has been represented by high priced agents and lawyers, so why would he need to worry?The reality of life after retirement is far different for most players...

Technical Problems

Posted on December 11, 2007
The blog seems to be having more than its normal share of technical problems as I'm getting frequent reports of links that don't work and error messages popping up with ever increasing frequency. Blogger seems to be having difficulty keeping the blog active and I'm now being forced to face the very real prospect of moving to a different software and host...

Despite Dolan's and Isiah's Best Efforts, Knicks Still Most Valuable

Posted on December 11, 2007
The Forbes report on the value of NBA franchises is out for this year and despite what you have been reading and hearing about the state of the league, the value of the typical franchise actually rose 6%. This in a year in which ratings for the NBA Finals were at an all time low; the league was rocked by a betting scandal involving a referee; Seattle filed suit against the Sonics to prevent the owners from moving the team to Oklahoma City; the Knicks were involved in a sexual harassment suit that exposed the ineptitude of team management for the world to see; and the Kobe Bryant circus continued in Hollywood...

Bowl Schools Show Significant Academic Achievement Gap

Posted on December 07, 2007
Every year about this time UCF issues its annual report on the academic performance of the football teams that qualified for bowls that year. This year's teams' performances look remarkably like last year's and that is nothing to brag about. The significant academic achievement gap between white athletes and African-American athletes shows no signs of progress even as the performance of football players as a group continues to outpace the male student body as a whole...

50 Top Academic/Athletic Programs

Posted on December 04, 2007
Came across an interesting ranking of the fifty top combined academic-athletic college programs in the country as compiled by Stack magazine. Stack is a publication dedicated to high school athletes and features articles on how to improve their performance...

My Own Hockey Team?

Posted on December 03, 2007
It was inevitable following the success of myfootballclub.com, which I have discussed in this space on several occasions, that someone in North America would try and copy the idea. It was logical to think that football was not going to be the sport as outside the Arena League and its own minor league Arena2, there is not a very viable minor league system...

Predators Sale Approved

Posted on December 01, 2007
The long, winding road to the end of ownership of the Nashville Predators by Craig Leipold finally appears to be at hand and the winner, for now, is Middle Tennessee. The NHL Board of Governors yesterday approved the sale of the Preds to a group of mostly local businessmen headed by venture capitalist David Freeman for $193 million...

Will USC Join UCLA at the Rose Bowl?

Posted on November 28, 2007
USC has played its home football games at the Los Angeles Coliseum, an historic venue hard by the USC campus, for 80 years. However, the Trojans' lease of the Coliseum expires at the end of the season, Saturday, and negotiations for a new lease have not gone well...

Read This Before You Bet on Tennis

Posted on November 24, 2007
Now you wouldn't have thought that tennis, the game of the country club elite, strawberries and cream, and mandatory whites on the grass lawns of staid Wimbledon would grow to be the third most popular betting sport in Europe, but at Betfair, one of the world's largest online sports betting exchanges, tennis is now third behind horse racing and soccer...

Carnival of the Capitalists

Posted on November 21, 2007
It's Carnivals day here at SportsBiz as we're trying to load you up on reading material to carry you through the holiday. This time, it's the Carnival of the Capitalists and this edition is at SEO ROI. Get over there and check it out - it will be well worth your time...

Carnival of the NBA

Posted on November 21, 2007
The much delayed but not to be missed Thanksgiving edition of the Carnival of the NBA is now up at Loy's Place. Get over there and check it out. You'll thank me. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

MLBAM - Digital Divide on the Clock?

Posted on November 19, 2007
When the history of Bud Selig's run as Baseball Commissioner is written, there will be few true success stories. Steroids will be writ large and should properly loom over the entirety of his term in such magnitude as to perhaps block out all else that he has accomplished...

Slots Going on Maryland Ballot in '08

Posted on November 19, 2007
The future of horse racing in Maryland will be decided by the voters in 2008. The Maryland state Senate approved a bill on Sunday night placing a referendum on the legalization of slot machines on the ballot for approval by the voters next year. The House had approved the measure on Friday...

Technical Problems

Posted on November 18, 2007
Please excuse the continuing technical problems. We're working on them but still having difficulty isolating the source of the problem. It's an ongoing issue and I don't know when we'll be able to resolve it. Hopefully, we'll get to it over the holiday...

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