Given all the deals conducted and the competitive positioning of sport activities, lawsuits are unavoidable (Sports Business Daily, 2013). However, the dockets located at courthouses across the nation comprise the number of circumstances that could reach way passed the jury’s chambers. Imagine the use of wrangles concerning the distribution of televised programs, concussion issues, jilted sponsors, and retired athletes, and challenges over exit fees for conferences; these are only some of the occasions now in play that can affect several others in the sports segment than individuals directly involved. This paper addresses some of the noteworthy sports arguments and cases that concerned parties should look at closely.
NCAA v. O’Bannon
At any given moment, the NCCA is entangled in a dozen of lawsuits, so the internal management of a courtroom is not usually an unfamiliar place. However, the O’Bannon case, tagged after the former UCLA basket-baller Ed O’Bannon, has the capacity to transform the economic feature of college athletics unlike any other cases experienced or reported before. At the forefront is the NCCA’s legal liberty to market the likeness and images of former and current NCAA athletes. EA Collegiate and Sports Licensing Company are the co-defendants of the NCCA (Sports Business Daily, 2013). Fundamentally, O’Bannon posits that the NCCA need to be able to apply the likeness of its athletes without necessary compensations, and the issue alleges claims that the defendants compromised antitrust policies by conspiring to not compensate its athletes.
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Litigation from NFL players
With billions of dollars on the forefront, NFL litigation brought millions of retirees against the National Football League for concussions. This was indeed one of the most-followed lawsuits in the sports history (Sports Business Daily, 2013). A greater proportion of concussion cases forwarded by over 4200 NFL retirees are conjoined into a joint court case in the United States District Court for Pennsylvania’s Eastern District, where a judge is contemplating over NFL motion to dismiss the court case ( Bush, 2012) .
Rory Mcllroy and Nike v. Oakley
The moment Oakley sponsorship CEO, Pat Mcllvain known about Roy Mcllroy, the star golfer’s landing of a new $25 million annual deal with Nike company, he distributed a bout of emails to the golfer’s agent (Mickle, 2013). Every stride he took made to extend his company’s deal with the star was rebuffed, a mood which led him to publish a frustrated, late-might mail message. The email read: “Understood. We are in short of the mix. There is no contract for the golfer for 2013. Pat.” It is noteworthy that this rely has become a core issue in a lawsuit that Oakley company has filed against Nike and Mcllroy by December of 2012 (Mickle, 2013). According to the lawsuit, Nike and Mcllroy breached the star’s agreement with the Oakley company by not complying to the “first liberty for refusal” language.
Maryland v. ACC
This sports litigation involved ACC suing Maryland over certain unpaid exit fees (Sports Business Daily, 2013). The details are that when Maryland decided to desert the ACC for presumptuously bigger dollar amounts in the Big Ten, Wallace Loh, the president, was obstinate that the exit expenses of around $50million would not be forcible. In its punishment, it was excessive that ACC filed such amounts of fees, and Maryland indeed characterized one of the two ACC institutions that failed to vote for it by the end of 2012.
Cablevision and carriage deals
Despite sports channels not being part of Cablevision’s joint complaint against Viacom, the litigation filed in February, 2013 could impact many smaller sports networks. The case boils down to the cable market practice of connecting smaller cable channels into carriage agreements with bigger firms. Cablevision insinuated that Viacom would fail to allow the cable operator to adopt its compulsory channels, like Comedy Central and MTV, unless it also concurred to incorporate Viacom’s littler-watched and smaller channels, like Nicktoons and Tr3s.
NFL v. Dryer et al.
Six retired NFL players, spearheaded by Fred Dryer, litigated against NFL films for failing to pay them when the sports organization used their footage and images in shows and videos. In March, 2013, the National Football League announced a %50million as settlement, and the court of law provided preliminary approval without the six main plaintiffs being on board (Sports Business Daily, 2013).
New Jersey Gambling
Until recently, the New Jersey lawmakers are still contemplating over a setback to the region’s drive to legalize gambling in sports, which, Governor Chris Christie championed as a potential taxable business for the cash-depended economy. By 2012 during the late February, the United States District Attorney , Michael Shipp, struck down the state’s sports wager policy, which enabled the Division of Gaming Enforcement to certify sports betting operations in racetracks and casinos (Sports Business Daily, 2013).
Lance Armstrong
A fortnight after Lance Armstrong confessed using performance-enhancers during the Tour de France winnings, an organization that paid considerable incentive bonuses to the athletes filed a court suit to get the $12million back.
Aereo
Aereo concerns a service hat charges a small fee to provide broadcast signals through the internet using a cloud-based DVR service (Sports Business Daily, 2013). Various broadcasters, however, contend that Aereo transmits signals which entitles other broadcasters to rebroadcast consent fees. The first challenges of the company as regards the legality of business plan have been grounded on issues of copyright law infringement.
Pro-Football Inc. v. Blackhorse
Information that a category of Native Americans, around March of 2013 filed a lawsuit against the Washington Redskins sparked the latest iteration of the long-running court case. In 2013, five Native Americans litigated against the Appeal Baord and Trademark Trial, federal agencies regulating trademarks including the Redskins (Sports Business Daily, 2013). This argument, however, is not new because the identity or name of Redskins is a general term for the Native Americans, and the United States law safeguards against the board from giving disparaging remarks.
References
Sports Business Daily. (2013). 10 sports law cases worth watching. Sports Business Journal. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/05/06/In-Depth/Lawsuits-intro.aspx
Bush, S. S. (2012). Mild traumatic brain injury: Symptom validity assessment and malingering . D. A. Carone (Ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
Mickle, T. (2013). Oakley challenges Nike, Roy Mcllroy. Sports Business Journal. Retrieved November 16, 2016, from http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/05/06/In-Depth/Oakley-Nike.aspx
