Overview of Legal Issues in Professional Sports
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Maureen Arellano Weston
Professor of Law and Director, Entertainment, Media & Sports Dispute Resolution Project, Pepperdine University, School of Law, Malibu, California,
and member, NSLI Board of Advisors
Professor Weston will provide an overview of legal issues arising in professional sports over the past year. The cases highlighted will cover topics ranging from the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on the legality sports betting, league decisions concerning player discipline, the impact of the #MeToo movement on league and team operations, as well as owners and players, international expansion of US pro sports, pending collective bargaining negotiations, and certainly, the treatment of athlete advocacy, speech and political rights in the pro sports arena. Following Professor Weston’s overview, a panel of experts will provide their insight on how these issues impact their respective work in professional sports operations.
1. Sports Gambling.
- Murphy v. NCAA, 138 S.Ct. 1461 (U.S. May 14, 2018), available at https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6336903476694992840&q=138+S.Ct.+1461+&hl=en&as_sdt=6,50.
2. Impact of #MeToo on Pro Sports – League, Teams, Owners, Players.
3. Collective Bargaining Negotiations. Prepare for NFL 2021.
- Collective Bargaining Agreement Between National Football League and the National Football League Players Association, https://nfllabor.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/collective-bargaining-agreement-2011-2020.pdf.
4. Athlete Political Speech & Advocacy.
- Claimant Colin Kaepernick’s Demand for Arbitration in the Matter of Arbitration of Colin Kaepernick v. NFL et. al., Oct. 15, 2017, http://a.espncdn.com/pdf/2017/1015/KaepernickGrievance_r.pdf.
5. On the rise and dominating: eSports and ProSports.[1]
6. Changing Industry & Fan Engagement in a Competitive & Distracted Marketplace.
- Sports Television Distribution[2]
- New Sports on the Rise: Live streams of karate and niche sports are terrifying major sports leagues[3]
- New Ways for Fan Engagement[4]
7. Interesting and important numbers: Sponsorships.[5]
8. Prediction: Oakland A's moving to Las Vegas?
- https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/51sbaseball/las-vegas-51s-announce-new-affiliation-with-oakland-as/amp/; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6dhuqAbYMI
9. LeBron, LeBron, Le Lakers.
- Copyrightability of Athlete Tattoos. Solid Oak Sketches, LLC v. Visual Concepts, LLC et. al., 2018 WL 1626145 (SDNY Mar. 30, 2018), available at https://1.next.westlaw.com/Document/I824fbe2038aa11e8a054a06708233710/View/FullText.html?transitionType=UniqueDocItem&contextData=(sc.Default)&userEnteredCitation=2018+WL+1626145.
- Crossover between Entertainment, Media, and Sports, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/lebron-james-prepping-female-driven-basketball-drama-at-nbc-1143075
10. Evolving Sports Governance Structures.
11. Internationalization & US Pro Sports: Opportunities & Challenges.
- See generally, Matthew Mitten & Gabe Feldman, U.S. Sports Law Year in Review 2017-18, https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/features/item/us-sports-law-year-in-review-2017-18-parts-1-2-agents-agent-regulation-and-leagues-labor-
[1] https://sportsradioamerica.com/2018/03/27/eports-if-you-cannot-play-you-hould-pay-attention/
[2] https://sportsradioamerica.com/2018/07/30/netflix-and-sports-the-next-disruption-in-media-and-entertainment/
[3] https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/25/live-streams-of-karate-and-niche-sports-are-terrifying-major-sports-leagues/
[4] SoftBank leads $35M investment in sports engagement startup Heed – TechCrunch, https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/02/heed-softbank/
[5] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/25/does-sponsorship-work-deals-value-to-reach-66-billion-in-2018.html;
https://www.si.com/nba/2018/09/21/nba-teams-revenue-spending-breakdown-small-large-market; https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2018/fields-and-fairways-college-football-fans-are-saturday-stars.html