American Needle v. NFL: The Aftermath Beyond Just Licensing

With more than a week having passed since the Supreme Court's ruling in American Needle v. Nat'l Football League, discussion about the case has begun to shift from what the ruling means for American Needle Inc. to what it means for other sports-related businesses.

Here are four sources that begin to address that issue:

• First, in an editorial published in this week's Sports Business Journal, I discuss the impact of the American Needle ruling on labor relations, ticket pricing, and the way that investors will likely structure new professional sports leagues (here).

• Second, in an interview with Ripten Magazine, I discuss the impact of the American Needle ruling on the football video game market and the NFL's exclusive licensing deal with EA Sports (here).

• Third, in traditional law review format, University of Iowa's esteemed Ben V. and Dorothy Willie Professor of Law Herbert J. Hovenkamp discusses the impact of American Needle on the credit card, hospital, and real estate industries (here).

• Finally, over on the Legal Talk Network, attorneys and co-hosts J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi interview both Michael McCann and me about the effects of the American Needle case, via podcast (here).

(Cross-posted on Sports Law Blog)

Sports And The Law: Does The New Women's Professional Soccer League Have A Business Model For Success?

In the late 1990s, sports consulting firms such as Game Plan LLC advised their clients to adopt centrally-planned league structures. Just ten years later, however, these structures have become relatively obsolete. Not only has the WNBA converted to a more traditional structure, but also the centrally-planned XFL, MISL and WUSA have gone entirely out of business.

On March 29, 2009, the WUSA's founders launched a new women's soccer league--Women's Professional Soccer. Not surprisingly, this new league has adopted a more traditional approach.

In a recent law review article, former professional soccer player Elizabeth Masterson and I argue that the new women's professional soccer league is more likely to succeed than its predecessor, the WUSA, because of the virtues intrinsic in the traditional league structure.

In addition to touting the business advantage of traditional sports leagues, Elizabeth and I explain three reasons why we believed the once perceived antitrust advantages of the centrally-planned league are no longer relevant today:

• First, the 2002 First Circuit case Fraser v. Major League Soccer held that the single-entity defense to antitrust law is unlikely to apply to any centrally-planned sports league that allocates a share of specific team revenues to individual investor-operators.

• Second, Fraser v. Major League Soccer also held that the labor practices of a professional sports league, irrespective of its structure, cannot violate antitrust law so long as the league competes in a worldwide market for player labor and thus lacks market power.
  

• Finally, the more recent Seventh Circuit case American Needle v. National Football League extends the potential insulation from antitrust liability to certain business activities of even traditionally structured sports leagues (I believe this opinion is misguided).

For those interested in learning more about why the recent movement back to traditionally structured sports leagues makes sense, check out Elizabeth Masterson and my full article: Could the New Women's Professional Soccer League Survive in America? How Adopting a Traditional Legal Structure May Save More than Just a Game.

(Cross-posted on Sports Law Blog)