Media & Entertainment Law

Testimony of Expert Witness for Hamburg Almost Leads to a Mistrial

Posted on July 25, 2008
SportsBusiness Journal's Daniel Kaplan reports that during the ATP-Hamburg trial yesterday, one of Hamburg's expert witnesses, sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, took with him to the witness stand a 17-page document on which he apparently based his testimony, even though witnesses are not allowed to bring notes up to the stand (Zimbalist Testimony Almost Results in Mistrial in ATP-Hamburg Trial, 7/24/08, subscription only)...

Two Good Links

Posted on July 24, 2008
Eric McErlain of The Sporting News has an extensive article on Russia's nascent Kontinental Hockey League, which may soon rival the NHL in attracting top players, including those from Canada and the United States. Eric considers, among other points, the legal and economic significance of the lack of player transfer agreement between the NHL and the KHL...

Aaron Zelinsky's "Let Iraq Play"

Posted on July 24, 2008
We received an excellent submission from Aaron Zelinsky, a rising 2L at Yale Law School, concerning today's IOC decision to ban Iraq from Olympic participation.* * *Let Iraq Play After months of public outcry, with the Olympics mere weeks away, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took dramatic action...

IASL Congress on Sports Law

Posted on July 24, 2008
On November 28th and 29th, the International Association of Sports Law (IASL) will be hosting its 14th International Congress on Sports Law in Athens, Greece. Papers on various international sports law topics may be submitted, and selected papers will be announced at the Congress...

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Where's the Harm to the Consumer?

Posted on July 23, 2008
This week the ATP Tour is in court defending its recently-adopted scheduling format against Hamburg. A jury, who reportedly appears to possess very little knowledge of professional tennis, will soon determine whether the anticompetitive effects of the ATP's scheduling changes for 2009 outweigh its procompetitive effects...

Top Twenty

Posted on July 22, 2008
Paul Caron of TaxProf released his ranking of the Top 35 law-prof-edited blogs, by visitors and page views. Sports Law Blog was number 20, with more than 304,000 visitors and more than 512,000 page views from June 2007 until June 2008.Thanks to all of you for helping to make this site successful and fun.

NY Times Story on ATP Antitrust Lawsuit

Posted on July 22, 2008
Michael Brick of the New York Times interviews Geoff for a story today on the ATP lawsuit. The story is excerpted below.* * *The antitrust lawsuit in United States District Court promises to reveal financial arrangements of a plan known as Brave New World, an effort by the ATP Tour to reinvigorate the sport...

Third Circuit Vacates 'Wardrobe Malfunction' Fine

Posted on July 21, 2008
In a long-awaited and hardly surprising ruling, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit threw out the Federal Communication Commission's $550,000 fine against CBS for the now-infamous Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake breast-bearing (all 9/16 of a second) 2004 Super Bowl halftime show...

Catching Up with Some Links

Posted on July 21, 2008
I've been meaning to post on these stories, hope you have a chance to check them out:~ USA Today's Douglas Robinson interviews Rick and me for his story on the ATP antitrust lawsuit, the trial for which began today in the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware...

New Sports Law Scholarship

Posted on July 18, 2008
Recently published scholarship:Robert Ambrose, Note, The NFL makes it rain: through strict enforcement of its conduct policy, the NFL protects its integrity, wealth, and popularity, 34 WILLIAM MITCHELL LAW REVIEW 1069 (2008) Robert M. Bernhard, Comment, MLS? designated player rule: has David Beckham single-handedly destroyed Major League Soccer?s single-entity antitrust defense?, 18 MARQUETTE SPORTS LAW REVIEW 413 (2008)Michael E...

Max Mosley's S&M Escape Leads to Privacy Lawsuit

Posted on July 17, 2008
You have to give Max Mosley, the President of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), credit for fighting back. After secretly-recorded videos revealed him in a sado-masochistic role-play with five women (paid about $5,000 in cash for a five-hour session), he has decided to sue and hold on to his position at the helm of the organization...

Final thoughts on WVU v. Rodriguez

Posted on July 12, 2008
Cross-Posted at WVU v. Rodriguez: The Legal PerspectiveSo WVU v. Rodriguez ends (as most cases do) with the whimper of settlement. I want to mention three significant and potentially lasting lessons and questions from the case.The importance of forum selectionWVU filed suit in December 2007 and the case settled in July 2008, meaning it was alive for just over six months...

Boston Globe Feature Article on Marvin Miller

Posted on July 11, 2008
Stan Grossfeld of the Boston Globe has an excellent feature today on Marvin Miller, the first executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association (he ran it from 1966 to 1982). Miller, 91, explains why he doesn't want to be in baseball's Hall of Fame...

Baseball on the International Front

Posted on July 10, 2008
Kevin Baxter, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, has an interesting piece in Baseball America this week about an ongoing federal investigation into bonus skimming in the Dominican Republic involving MLB club personnel. Federal investigators are interviewing personnel from all 30 teams...

Rich Rodriguez settles with WVU

Posted on July 09, 2008
Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez and West Virginia University, his former employer, have settled the school's lawsuit over the $ 4 million buyout. WVU will receive the entire $ 4 million, $ 1.5 million from Rodriguez in three annual payments beginning in January 2010 and $ 2...

New SI.com Column on Rogers Clemens' Legal Woes

Posted on July 08, 2008
I have a new column on SI.com entitled "Answering Key Questions about Clemens' Growing Legal Problems." I examine the FBI and IRS' investigations into Clemens and evaluate recent developments in his civil litigation with Brian McNamee.Hope you have a chance to check it out.

Vick Files for Bankruptcy

Posted on July 08, 2008
Yesterday, Michael Vick filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in Newport News, VA. For those of you with PACER access, click here. The filing number is 08-50775-FJS (Michael D. Vick). He is represented by Paul Campsen and Dennis Lewandowski of Kaufman & Canoles, P...

Umpires, Judges, and Interpretation

Posted on July 08, 2008
Like many commentators, I thought John Roberts' suggestion at his 2005 Senate confirmation hearing that judges are simply baseball umpires--calling balls and strikes and not making any value or policy judgments and exercising no discretion-was, at best, fatuous...

What impact will the ATP antitrust lawsuit have on non-team sports governing bodies?

Posted on July 07, 2008
Two months ago, I argued that sound policy reasons exist to support the application of an antitrust exemption for professional tennis and golf relating to rules and decisions of the governing bodies with respect to playing conditions and other issues that primarily affect the players, such as format of play, the number and location of tournaments, how they are going to be ranked, etc...

More on Defining Sport

Posted on July 07, 2008
A while back, I wrote about defining sport as a concept, focusing on objectivity in scoring as the key limiting characteristic. At the Sports Economist, Rodney Fort (a sports economist at Michigan) offers a four-part definition in the Comments that I think can almost fully endorse (with some caveats and questions):1...

Situationist Torts

Posted on July 07, 2008
Jon Hanson and I recently posted on SSRN a draft of our forthcoming law review article, Situationist Torts, 41 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review _ (forthcoming, 2008). Our article?s abstract is excerpted below. * * * This Article calls for a situationist approach to teaching law, particularly tort law...

OSU Pitcher Sues NCAA and Former Advisor

Posted on July 05, 2008
On June 17th, I discussed the situation involving Oklahoma State pitcher Andy Oliver and the NCAA's decision in late May to declare him ineligible after he received a bill for $113,000 from his advisor, MLB certified agent Robert Baratta, whom Oliver recently terminated...

Re-examining the Place of Race in Sports

Posted on July 02, 2008
The West Virginia University College of Law Sports and Entertainment Law Society is proud to present its Fall 2008 Sports Law Forum, "Re-examining the Place of Race in Sports." This event will take place on September 11, 2008 in Morgantown, WV at the West Virginia University Law Center...

KSRO Interview on Floyd Landis

Posted on July 02, 2008
Yesterday I was interviewed on KSRO News Talk (California) to discuss the Floyd Landis decision. The interview can be heard at this link. Hope you have a chance to listen.

Sanity in Seattle

Posted on July 02, 2008
About 45 minutes before the scheduled release of a verdict in the case pitting the City of Seattle and the owners of the SuperSonics, the parties announced a settlement, whereby the team would pay the city a sum of at least $45 million, with a possibility of another $30 million payment if the city does not secure a new NBA franchise within the next five years...

CAS Disqualifies Landis and Strips Him of Tour De France Title

Posted on July 01, 2008
On June 30th, cyclist Floyd Landis lost his final climb -- an attempt to retake his Tour de France title. Not only was not he not exonerated, but the three member panel rendered a ruling that at times, bordered on the hostile. [The 58-page opinion is found here]After winning the most famous of all cycling events in 2006, he tested positive for performance-enhancing substances...

Justice Alito?s Comments on Holmes?s Opinion in Federal Baseball

Posted on June 25, 2008
"That to which it is incident, the exhibition, although made for money would not be called trade or commerce in the commonly accepted use of those words. As it is put by the defendants, personal effort, nor related to production, is not a subject of commerce...

Hank Steinbrenner, Chien-Ming Wang, Salary Arbitration and the DH

Posted on June 25, 2008
On Sunday, June 15, New York Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang tore a tendon in his right foot and suffered ligament damage while rounding third base during a 13-0 victory and the finale of a series sweep against the Houston Astros. Wang improved his record to 8-2 for the season while lowering his ERA to 4...

Green Bag Call for Papers: Baseball and the Law

Posted on June 25, 2008
We are seeking submissions for our 2010 Almanac & Reader, which will have a baseball-and-the-law theme.We want scholarly essays on topics related to baseball and the law. We hope to select 12 essays, each between 1500 and 5000 words long. Topics in which we are particularly (but not exclusively) interested are: (a) baseball and ? civil rights law; criminal law; defamation law; intellectual property law; international law; labor law; media law; property law; tax law; tort law; transportation law; (b) baseball players who were or became lawyers; and (c) roles played by lawyers in baseball...

Bad Duke Football Team Wins in Court

Posted on June 25, 2008
Being a bad football team paid off for Duke University, which won a breach of contract lawsuit because in large part because of its unsuccessful track record and a contract clause that required the plaintiff, the University of Louisville to find an adequate substitute school after Duke backed out of a obligation to pay the better school...

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