Media & Entertainment Law

The political predictors of sports

Posted on November 05, 2008
I was thinking this morning about writing something on the boon Barack Obama's victory would be to Oregon State recruiting, but Mike beat me to it. So let me mention some fun links between sports and this election.1) The election to which this one is most-often compared (in terms of potentially marking an ideological and generational sea change behind an eloquent leader) is Ronald Reagan's win in 1980...

Will Likely Increase in Marginal Tax Rates Prompt Rush to Signing Bonuses?

Posted on November 05, 2008
Interesting point raised in an Associated Press article:Some baseball agents already are thinking about trying to beat a possible tax increase for their well-paid clients under an Obama administration. President-elect Barack Obama has proposed increasing the top federal income tax rate from 35 percent to 39...

President Obama and Oregon State Recuriting

Posted on November 05, 2008
Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg has an interesting column on how Oregon State men's basketball head coach Craig Robinson might benefit by the fact that his brother-in-law is President-Elect Barack Obama. The column is excerpted below.* * *You will end up at Oregon State, even though the Beavers finished 0-18 in the conference last season and even though only one OSU player -- Brent Barry -- is in the NBA...

Lawyers as Athletic Directors

Posted on November 04, 2008
Last week, Indiana University hired Fred Glass, an IU alum and Indianapolis attorney, as its Athletic Director. According to the Associated Press, Glass has "no experience in athletic department administration, but does have a long track record of bringing major sporting events to Indianapolis, developing budgets and fundraising...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Decision 2008: Should the BCS Stay or Go?

Posted on November 04, 2008
Although there are obviously more important issues at stake in the 2008 Presidential Election, the elimination of the computer-oriented "Bowl Championship Series" system (better known as the BCS) would be preferred by one of the two persons who will become our next President...

The Redskins and the ADA

Posted on November 03, 2008
Does the Americans with Disabilities Act require stadium owners to provide hearing-impaired fans equal access to aural content provided in stadiums?That was the question presented to Judge Alexander Williams of the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland in Shane Feldman (no relation), et al...

Chase Utley's F Word

Posted on November 03, 2008
Chase Utley, the second baseman for the world champion Philadelphia Phillies could have given some local Philadelphia television stations major administrative and financial headaches when he used the "F word" to describe his elation at his team's accomplishment...

Police Protection from Invasion of Privacy by the Press

Posted on November 02, 2008
In its relentless pursuit to verify whether it was former Knicks coach Isiah Thomas who overdosed on sleeping pills on Oct. 23 in the privacy of his home located in the Town of Harrison, New York, the press finally obtained the police report last Thursday evening...

NY Times Examines NBA's Age Limit and Youth Basketball

Posted on November 02, 2008
I'm honored to have my study "NBA Players That Get in Trouble with the Law: Do Age and Education Level Matter?" discussed in today's New York Times in a fascinating story by Tommy Craggs on basketball phenomenon Renardo Sidney and the developing business relationship between the NBA and NCAA...

More Discussion on Sports Journalism Ethics

Posted on October 27, 2008
NCAA Champion Magazine's Gary Brown wrote an interesting feature article titled, Truth Be Told?, which highlights the sports journalism ethics problem that I have been writing about extensively over the past several months. Here are some excerpts:At no time in history have information, analysis and interpretation been so plentiful in sports journalism...

Recent Sports Law Scholarship

Posted on October 27, 2008
Recent scholarship includes:Walter T. Champion, Jr., The O. J. trial as a metaphor for racism in sports, 33 THURGOOD MARSHALL LAW REVIEW 157 (2007) andré douglas pond cummings, Pushing weight, 33 THURGOOD MARSHALL LAW REVIEW 95 (2007)Timothy Davis, Tort liability of coaches for injuries to professional athletes: overcoming policy and doctrinal barriers, 76 UMKC LAW REVIEW 571 (2008)A...

Sports Law Symposium at Villanova University School of Law This Saturday

Posted on October 21, 2008
I look forward to joining Howard, Marc, Jeffrey Standen, and others at Villanova University School of Law this Saturday (Oct. 25) for the 2008 Villanova Sports and Entertainment Law Journal's sympsoium on "The House that Taxpayers Built: Stadiums, Speech, and Public Funding...

MLBPA Claims to Have Evidence Baseball Teams Colluded Against Barry Bonds

Posted on October 21, 2008
ESPN recently reported that the Major League Baseball Players Association ("MLBPA") claims to have uncovered evidence that certain Major League Baseball teams colluded against Barry Bonds in violation of Article XX(E) of the Major League Baseball Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)...

2008 MLB Salary Report Card

Posted on October 20, 2008
Since 2005, I have been posting my Annual MLB Salary Report Card, which tends to prove each year a relatively weak correlation between a team's success and its total payroll. [Here are my past reports for 2005, 2006 and 2007.] This year's report leads to the same conclusion (based upon the USA Today salary database and rounded to the nearest million)...

Seton Hall Sports Law Symposium

Posted on October 19, 2008
On November 7, the Seton Hall University School of Law Journal of Sports & Entertainment Law is hosting The 2008 Seton Hall Sports & Entertainment Law Symposium: From the Arena to the Streets - The Pressures Placed on Athletes, Entertainers, and Management...

Does anti-discrimination law require ESPN to suspend Lou Holtz over "Hitler" comments?

Posted on October 18, 2008
As I was trying to set up my TiVo to record last night's Hawai`i-Boise State game, I was, as most ESPN viewers at the time likely were, shocked to hear Lou Holtz observe, "Hitler was a great leader too." Holtz was commenting on Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez; his comments clearly upset co-hosts Rece Davis and Mark May...

FCC as Race Car Sponsor?

Posted on October 17, 2008
Today's issue of Multichannel News reported that the Federal Communications Commission has decided to follow the lead of the U.S. Postal Service and become a sponsor of a team, in this case NASCAR driver David Gilliland, who agreed to use his No. 38 to display an advertisement trumpeting the conversion of the television signal from the sixty plus year old analog standard to digital...

Kansas State Raises the Compensation Bar of Assistant Coaches

Posted on October 16, 2008
While much is talked about the exorbitant salaries of college head coaches, Rivals.coms's Bob McClellan has done some interesting research on the salaries of assistant basketball coaches (Kansas State's Hill Earns Surprising Salary). McClellan found one contract that sticks out like a sore thumb -- that of Kansas State's Dalonte Hill who will now be earning $420,000 in total compensation annually for the next four years! For the next four years, Hill will receive a base salary of $150,000 and "additional compensation" of $270,000...

MLS and ?New? Media (and the ice cream of the future)

Posted on October 15, 2008
The Sports Business Journal has an interesting article discussing DC United?s decision to develop and maintain its own website rather than use the centralized site created by the MLS (h/t to J Hutcherson over at ussoccerplayers.com). Why the move? Well, according to the article, one reason is the ?growing impatience among MLS teams as the league continues to develop a digital strategy for the future...

MSG New Media Antitrust Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss

Posted on October 13, 2008
While another NHL regular season has kicked off (faced off?) with relatively little fanfare, the MSG-NHL antitrust battle continues (see earlier posts by Marc here and here, and by Rick here). MSG can finally claim a victory, as Judge Preska denied the NHL's motion to dismiss with respect to the antitrust claims brought against its "New Media Strategy...

More on Baylor and Age Discrimination

Posted on October 11, 2008
Mike's post on the possibility (however remote) that Elgin Baylor was a victim of age discrimination reminds me of some things I wrote after the $10-million verdict against the Knicks and Isiah Thomas for sexual harassment. I criticized the NBA's refusal to take any action action Thomas or the Knicks, and particularly its rationale that this simply was a "civil matter...

Was Former LA Clippers Executive Elgin Baylor Discriminated Against Because of Age?

Posted on October 11, 2008
I attempt to answer the legal implications of that question on ClipperBlog, which is run by ESPN.com's Kevin Arnovitz. Hope you have a chance to check it out.

Job Opportunities in Sports Law

Posted on October 07, 2008
Clay Chandler of the Mississippi Business Journal recently interviewed me to discuss job opportunities in sports law and how while a career in sports law is commonly viewed as a career as a sports agent, there are a variety of sports law fields that go less noticed -- sports litigation, NCAA compliance work, IP work work at a firm that involves sports law, working as counsel to a team, including a minor league team etc...

Luke Walton Stalked by Woman

Posted on October 07, 2008
When the subject of "stalking" comes up, normally it's in the context of a male stalking a female. But with celebrities, it often seems to be the other way around, with the male being stalked by a female--David Letterman being stalked by Margaret Mary Ray and Richard Gere being stalked by Ursula Reichert-Habbishaw being two prime examples...

Monday Morning Sports Law

Posted on October 06, 2008
Some Monday morning links:* Pete Thamel of the New York Times has a really interesting piece on how Brandon Jennings--the 19-year-old American basketball star who opted to play professionally Italy while waiting to become eligible for the NBA Draft--is doing in Rome...

Chicago Cubs and the Curse of Legal Formalism

Posted on October 05, 2008
On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cubs 3-1, completely a dominating three-game sweep in the National League Division Series in which they outscored the Cubs 20-6. Thus will it be more than 100 years between world championships for the Cubs, who famously last won in 1908...

Court Orders Rehearing in CDT Case

Posted on October 01, 2008
The New York Times reports that yesterday a federal appeals court ordered a rehearing of a 2006 ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc. (CDT). In 2004, search warrants were issued authorizing the seizure of drug test records and specimens for ten named Balco-connected players...

Catching Up With "Failed" Prep-to-Pro Jonathan Bender

Posted on October 01, 2008
A couple of years ago, I blogged on the retirement of Jonathan Bender from the NBA ("Not Being Randy Livingston: The Jonathan Bender Story"). Bender, routinely cited as a failed high schooler-turned-NBA player, retired at age 25, due to chronic knee problems...

New Sports Law Scholarship

Posted on October 01, 2008
Recently published scholarship includes:Ashley J. Becnel Student article, Friday night lights reach the Supreme Court: how a case about high school football [Brentwood] changed the First Amendment, 15 SPORTS LAWYER'S JOURNAL 327 (2008)Brett Celedonia, Student article, Flying objects: arena liability for fan injuries in hockey and other sports, 15 SPORTS LAWYER'S JOURNAL 115 (2008)Kristin Jo Custer, Note, From mice to men: genetic doping in international sports, 30 HASTINGS INTERNATIONAL & COMPARATIVE LAW REVIEW 181 (2007)Jonathan B...

Just Win (or get fired for cause), Baby.

Posted on September 30, 2008
Espn.com is reporting that Al Davis has fired Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin. The news isn?t surprising, but what has caused a stir is that Raiders announced that they do not plan to pay Kiffin the remainder of the salary due under his three-year, $6 million contract...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.