Harvard Law School Sports Law Symposium on Thursday, March 28 2013

This event is open to the public and free.  To register, click here.

The Harvard Committee on Sports and Entertainment Law, in conjunction with Harvard's Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and Harvard's Association for Law and Business, presents:

2013 HLS Sports Law Symposium:

The Evolution of the Fan

Thursday, March 28, 2013 at Harvard Law School, Milstein West in Wasserstein Hall

The 2013 Sports Symposium will focus on evolving consumer experiences in the sports marketplace.  Panels composed of executives from teams, leagues, and sports media outlets as well as law partners with prominent sports practices will address the business and legal challenges faced by the industry in each of three media contexts: the Stadium Experience, the Television Experience, and the Internet Experience. Ken Hershman, President of HBO Sports, will present a keynote address on cutting edge efforts to meet the demands of the modern sports fan.

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Event Schedule

 11:45am - 12:00pm

Opening Remarks

&

Lunch

• CSEL Board
• Professor Peter Carfagna, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School

12:00

The Stadium Experience

• Marc Edelman:  Associate Professor of Law, Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law; Fordham Univeristy (Moderator)
• Len Komoroski: CEO, Cleveland Cavaliers
• Jim Holzman: Founder & CEO, Ace Ticket Worldwide, Inc.*
• Jeff Miller: VP & Chief Security Officer, NFL
• Jon Oram: Partner, Proskauer Rose LLP - Sports Law Group

1:15

The Television Experience

• Michael McCann: Director of Sports and Entertainment Law Institute & Professor of Law, University of New Hampshire School of Law; Legal Analyst & Writer, Sports Illustrated & SI.com (Moderator)
• Ed Durso: EVP of Administration, ESPN
• Brett Goodman: Senior Vice President, Business & Legal Affairs for NBC Sports Group
• Tom Ward: Partner, WilmerHale
• Ed Weiss: GC, Fenway Sports Group; NESN

2:30

Keynote Address: Ken Hershman

Ken Hershman, President of HBO Sports, will present a keynote address on cutting edge efforts to meet the demands of the modern sports fan.

3:30

The Internet Experience

• Patrick Rishe: Director, Sportsimpacts; Associate Professor of Economics, George Herbert Walker School of Business, Webster University; Contributor, Forbes Magazine (Moderator)*
• Mary K. Braza: Partner, Foley & Lardner - Sports Industry Team
• Anthony D'Imperio: EVP, IMG
• Lauren Fisher: GC, Vox Media/SBNation
• Lucia McKelvey: EVP, Top Rank, Inc.
• Scott Doyne: VP, Turner/NBA Digital

5:00

Networking Reception

Drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and dessert will be served

*Awaiting Confirmation

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CSEL would like to thank Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP (www.milbank.com) for providing generous funding for this symposium.
For more information, please email csel@law.harvard.edu

NINE Spring Training Conference

Later this week I'm off to Tempe for the 20th Annual NINE Spring Training Conference on the Historical and Sociological Impact of Baseball, sponsored by NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture. I will be presenting The Economics of the Infield Fly Rule on a panel moderated by our own Ed Edmonds. And are some interesting-sounding papers covering economics, history, sociology, culture, and art as it relates to baseball.

I participated in this conference about eight years ago, when I first was writing about fan expression. It is always fun to engage with some non-legal academics (although this year there are at least a few other law-school types). Better still, there is a reason the conference is in Arizona--two afternoons are dedicated to "field research" at spring training games.

Seton Hall Law Panel: The Fight for Fair Treatment in Mixed Martial Arts

The Fight for Fair Treatment in Mixed Martial Arts

SPEAKERS:

Timothy D. Cedrone, Esq.
Paul Haberman, Esq.
David N. Weinraub, Esq.
Justin E. Klein, Esq.
Andy Main, Professional Fighter and Trainer

LOCATION: Seton Hall University School of Law Newark, NJ

DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 2013, 6:00 PM

MEMBER FEE: $15(Includes CLE Credits and Dinner)

No Fee Includes Dinner, & Program, No Cle Credits

LAW STUDENTS: No Fee Includes Dinner and Program No CLE credits

CLE Credits: NJ G: 1.2;  NY P T&N/T: 1.0; PA S: 1.0 ($4.00 check made payable to NJICLE)

DESCRIPTION: There are currently two areas of heated discussion in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts: the fair treatment of fighters and First Amendment protection for the exhibition of sporting events. The topic of fair treatment focuses on the relationship between labor law and how fighters are treated in their working environment. Another area of concern is First Amendment issues in regards to hosting Mixed Martial Arts contests, particularly in New York.

Sports Law Blogger Mark Conrad Chosen to Direct New Sports Business Program at Fordham

Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business announced the creation of a new undergraduate program focusing on the sports business. Called the Sports Business Specialization, the program will provide students first-hand knowledge of the business of professional and amateur sports. As part of the business program, all students are required to take foundation courses in accounting, finance, marketing, management and communications before they are eligible to take the sports-specific business classes. Students will also be required to complete an independent studies component, which will include an internship.

I was honored to be chosen to direct that program by Donna Rapaccioli, the dean of the Gabelli School of Business. The program will also offer the opportunity for guest speakers to come to campus or to speak to students via Skype. Speakers from the NBA and Major League Baseball have addressed our students. The state-of-the-art facilities at the Gabelli School of Business will also allow out-of-town speakers to address students and faculty via Skype or other online video service. Symposia will also be planned.  If anyone is interested in coming to the Bronx campus to speak about legal issues involving social media in sports, please drop me a message at Conrad@fordham.edu.

For more information on the specialization, please visit:

http://www.gabelliconnect.com/sports-business

Will Florida Atlantic Football Partner With the Immoral Private Prison Industry?

The GEO Group, one of two nationally prominent private prison corporations in America has just signed an agreement with Florida Atlantic University to "name" the football stadium at FAU.  Understandably, this has caused an uproar from many on the faculty and in the student body at Florida Atlantic.  "The GEO Group Stadium" at Florida Atlantic University immediately conjures up images of the now retired "Enron Stadium" where the Houston Astros used to take the field, except that The GEO Group is undoubtedly more sinister and harmful to United States citizens than Enron ever was (a fact absolutely lost on FAU President Mary Jane Saunders until student and faculty protests erupted).

The GEO Group is a private prison company.  As I have written about extensively, private prison corporations essentially collect taxpayer funds from federal and state governments (a "per diem" or per bed fee) in order to house prisoners on behalf of these governments and do so with an immoral profit maximization motivation. Private prison companies profit on human misery.  Shareholders of  GEO Group stock expect the board of directors and executives to return handsome profits from imprisoning United States citizens (and increasingly illegal aliens).  The perversity in this arrangement, of course, is that in order to increase profits for shareholders, private prison companies, including the Corrections Corporation of America (the other prominent U.S. private prison company), seek to aggressively imprison more Americans by lobbying legislatures to increase sentencing laws, divine new laws/ways to imprison individuals, and even engage in drafting model legislation like SB 1070 (Arizona's "show me your papers" law) and three-strikes laws.  In "All Eyez on Me: America's War on Drugs and the Prison Industrial Complex," I describe the perverse incentives that motivate the private prison industry by examining the immorality attendant in leadership of private prison companies debating successful ways to increase profit by incarcerating more United States' citizens.

Private prison companies have flourished in recent years based upon the increasingly dubious claim that they provide prison services for less cost than do governmental agencies.  While numerous studies dispute this assertion, the bottom line economic transfer is that taxpayer funds are being funneled to private prison companies (and its executives and shareholders) without those companies providing any genuine public good or manufacture of product.  Indeed, recent reports indicate that private prison companies engage in gross human rights and constitutional violations, more egregious than government run prisons.

And now, FAU has signed an agreement to partner with The GEO Group allowing GEO to prominently appear on the facade of its' football stadium and increase its corporate branding.  FAU's President appears to have not engaged in any due diligence when signing the naming right, relying singularly upon the fact that the GEO Group Chair is a proud alumnus of FAU.  This is particularly egregious in Florida, where private prisons have attempted to seize on opportunities to stealthily motivate state legislators to sanction massive expansion of the private prison industry.  Students recently orchestrated a "sit-in" where President Saunders was forced to speak to the group, though she claims the naming agreement is a "done deal."  Whether students protests will lead to a repudiation of the agreement remains to be seen.  Sans repudiation, Florida Atlantic University may go down as one of the first American Universities to openly celebrate the incredibly perverse and immoral private prison industry and lobby.


(hat tip to Dave Zirin at The Nation)
cross posted on the Corporate Justice Blog

Idaho Rejects the "Baseball Rule"

In an under-the-radar opinion issued last month, the Idaho Supreme Court allowed a fan injured by a foul ball at a minor league baseball game to proceed with a negligence suit against the franchise.  Specifically, the court refused to adopt what it called the "Baseball Rule," in which most courts have held that baseball teams are generally not legally liable to fans for injuries caused by foul balls hit into the stands, so long as they have provided protective netting for the most dangerous seats in the stadium (i.e., those immediately behind and around home plate).  Click here for Sports Law Blog's prior coverage of this topic.

The court's opinion - available here - indicates that the plaintiff, Bud Rountree, was hit by a ball while standing in the Class-A Boise Hawks' "Executive Club," apparently the only area in the stadium that is not covered by protective netting (Rountree ended up losing an eye as a result of the injury).  In light of the area of the stadium in which the injury occurred, along with the fact that the team went to greater than normal lengths to protect most of the stadium from foul balls (pictured), Rountree's case may be stronger case than that of the typical fan hit by a foul ball in unprotected seating.  Indeed, his attorneys apparently argued to the Idaho Supreme Court that while the so-called "Baseball Rule" may be justified in normal bleacher settings, it was not appropriate for multi-purpose areas of the ballpark (such as in-stadium, sit-down restaurant seating). 

Whether the opinion will have a broader impact on baseball teams outside of Idaho remains to be seen, but given the number of jurisdictions that have adopted the majority rule it is unlikely that this latest decision will have a significant impact nationwide.

Lance Armstrong & Michael McCann (No, really)

Our own Michael McCann goes one-on-one with Lance Armstrong in Austin, Texas for CNNSI!  As Mike tells the story:

"A few weeks ago, I discovered I had a new Twitter follower: Lance Armstrong. I thought it was a little odd because I don't cover cycling and the times I've written about Armstrong's legal issues I've often sharply criticized him. Nonetheless, I was intrigued. Soon we began corresponding privately and last week Armstrong invited me to his house in Austin for an interview."

To read today's teaser from CNNSI you can go here.  For the entire, groundbreaking story, you'll need to go purchase this week's Sports Illustrated.  Have no fear, you can purchase a digital version here.

Congratulations Mike on a tremendous job--both in getting Lance's attention and becoming a relevant contributor to the development of this international strory.  While Mike won't display any braggadocio, allow me to do so.  Huzzah Mike!  [Now if he had interviewed Lance for The Sports Law Blog we might get a few more followers.....]