NSLI 30th Anniversary fall conference: Professional Sports Panel

Legal Issues in Professional Sports:

Panel Discussion

 

Moderator:

  • Jon Israel, Partner and Co-Chair, Sports Industry Team, Foley & Lardner LLP, New York, NY

Panelists

  • Andrew Brandt, Executive Director, Moorad Center for Sports Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, and member, NSLI Board of Advisors, Villanova, PA
  • Gabriel Feldman, Paul and Abram B. Barron Associate Professor of Law and Sher Garner Faculty Scholar, Associate Provost, NCAA Compliance and Director, Sports Law Program, Tulane University Law School, Tulane, LA
  • Stephanie Galvin (L’14), Associate General Counsel, Miami Marlins, and member, Sports Law Alumni Association, Miami, FL
  • Greg Heller (L’96), Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Atlanta Braves, and member, Sports Law Alumni Association, and NSLI Board of Advisors, Atlanta, GA
  • Jim McKeown, Partner and Member, Management Committee and Antitrust Practice Group, Foley & Lardner LLP, Adjunct Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School, and member, NSLI Board of Advisors, Milwaukee, WI

 

 

Legal Issues for Panelists

  1. From Vontaze Burfict’s recent suspension, to suspension’s for off the field conduct, leagues have been faced with increasing scrutiny as a result of the disciplinary systems they put in place, and perceived inconsistency in punishments for increasingly serious conduct.  How can teams and leagues work to uniformly discipline players without allegations of arbitrary and unfair punishment and inconsistent results?

 

  1. Perhaps following NFL players like Le’Veon Bell, players in other leagues, like the NBA’s Anthony Davis, have demanded trades and held out or sat in order to get what they want. Beyond bringing them to court to try to enforce the contracts they have, what can teams and leagues do to protect their investments in players, in this era of player’s asserting their own ability to move freely to where they want to play.

 

 

  1. The NBA recently enacted new tampering and compliance rules in an attempt to keep teams from talking with and enticing other team’s players to break their contracts and consider offers from the other team.  In this era of player’s asserting their rights to play wherever they want to, whether they are under contract or not, what can leagues do to control this behavior, and will further tempering rules imposing penalties on teams achieve their goal?

 

  1. Colin Kapernick epitomizes a movement among players to use their voices and their high profile platforms to speak out on issues important to them.  At times the public perceives these player activists negatively, leading leagues and teams to attempt to regulate such conduct. Can and should leagues be able to regulate their player employees in this way, and does such regulation violate any free speech rights these players may have?

 

  1. Several states have moved to legalize sports gambling.  Leagues have attempted to protect their products by seeking integrity fees and partnering with some gambling organizations.  What impact will future legalization of sports gambling have on professional sports?

 

  1. Female tennis players, and members of the women’s Olympic hockey and soccer teams have begun to bring claims for equal pay in comparison to their mail counterparts.  Should courts sustain their claims and should female professional athletes be paid at rates equal to or comparable to male athletes?

 

  1. As leagues institute further levels of instant reply and challenges to the decisions of referees and umpires, fans are starting to sue, as they did in New Orleans, over blown calls that seemingly cost their teams.  Should fans be able to sue teams and leagues in this way? Moreover, what steps can leagues take to further protect the integrity of their product?

 

 

  1. The NHL and NFL have been embroiled in large class action lawsuits alleging that they are liable for the harm caused by concussions to their athletes. If concussions are an inherent risk of participating in most sports, should sports leagues face potential liability for this injury?  Should teams? And can if they do face continued liability, are sports like football and hockey likely to significantly change in the future?

 

  1. The Washington Nationals and a few other Major League Baseball teams had expanded their netting in an attempt to further protect fans from balls and batts that leave the field.  Given that the baseball rule still provides a level of immunity to teams when fans are injured in this way, should all teams in baseball, and then perhaps in hockey and motorsports, expand their protection of fans in the stadium or arena in this way, or should they take other measures to protect fans and enhance the fan experience?

 

©2019. National Sports Law Institute of Marquette University Law School