Professional Sports and Antitrust Law: The Groundrules of Immunity, Exemption and Liability

As professional sports leagues increased their wealth and national prominence, the federal judicial system became uncomfortable with its characterization of sports as something other than a business. The Supreme Court reflected this change in policy in the 1950s by refusing to extend baseball\u27s antitrust exemption to other sports. The application of the Sherman Act to all nonbaseball sports established the foundation for the forceful imposition of antitrust constraints on team owners in the sports litigation of the 1970s. These revolutionary decisions substantially eliminated the status of sports as a game or amusement insulated from the legal obligations of profit-making industries. Public policy now called for professional sports to be accorded the same legal treatment as other commercial endeavors. This alteration of the judicial system\u27s perception of the nature of professional sports was employed by players and their unions to destroy management\u27s unilateral control over professional sports and to substitute in its place a collectively bargained equilibrium in which owners and players shared control of a league\u27s structure. This new balance also allowed the players to participate more fully in the increased revenues being furnished by the broadcast industry. In this sense, the courts applied the antitrust laws to give players\u27 unions leverage at the bargaining table that they had never before possessed. The major remaining judicial vestige of the old public policy view of sports is the antitrust immunity still enjoyed by baseball pursuant to the Supreme Court\u27s ruling in Flood v. Kuhn. Team owners in the other sports have tried to mitigate the effects of this change in judicial attitude by obtaining some variant of judicial or legislative immunity from the full effects of the antitrust laws. This chapter analyzes the three major forms of immunity sought by team owners since the advent of the modern sports litigation era. These are (1) the nonstatutory labor law exemption to shelter restraints contained within collective bargaining agreements, the single-entity defense to render inapplicable to sports leagues Section 1 of the Sherman Act, and (3) the direct grant of a congressional immunity to foreclose antitrust litigation regarding designated league practices. The chapter then examines the principles of substantive antitrust liability by courts to professional sport practices that are not included within an appropriate exemption

The Incredible Shrinking Law School

The University of Toledo College of Law faculty and administration performed a task that may be unprecedented in modern American legal education. During a series of luncheon meetings we focused on the topic of enrollment--what size student body should we have given the realities of our market and the pedagogical goals we wish to achieve. We analyzed this issue without either an extensive reliance on our revenue stream or the risk of losing resources if we admitted fewer students. Since we administer both a full- and part-time (mainly evening) program, we also discussed our obligation to serve our metropolitan community in addition to the dictates of establishing a regionally recognized full-time program. We concluded that our ideal size should be reduced from 525 down to 430 students - approximately 110 part-time and 320 full-time matriculants. These insights provided the basis for a strategic plan that embraced the downsizing, contained specific quality goals, and detailed a resource commitment from the University. The plan was eventually adopted by the University. The major resource concession made by the College of Law was a reduction in the tenure track faculty from 32 to 28. This article is an attempt to indicate the considerations that led to our decisions and to begin the process of analyzing the effect the strategic plan will have on the future

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Fan Scorned: State Regulation of Sports Agents

This article first describes the existing system of state statutes regulating sports agents, including the proposed Model Uniform Athlete Agents Act. The article then examines the validity of these statutes in the context of jurisdictional limitations and dormant Commerce Clause principles. Lastly, federal regulation and the rules of professional sports unions are considered as alternatives to state legislative activity

Rejecting the Fruits of Action: The Regeneration of the Waste Land’s Legal System

In his greatest work, The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot presents a picture of twentieth century Western civilization as a culture which has lost its essential values and has come undone from its historical moorings. Material wealth has become the focal point of society and its inhabitants. In such a value distorted context, human relationships are devoid of meaning. Honest communication and a meaningful life for the soul and intellect are lost in a dehumanizing daily grind. Religious, communal, and even familial values are subverted to a culturally encouraged drive for personal gain. In this respect, modern Western civilization in general, and America in particular, embodies the world of The Waste Land even more than the Europe and America of 1922 with which Eliot was familiar. The systemic acceptance of result orientation and the consequent predominance of economic efficiencies and material wealth have not only corrupted society in general, but have also devalued modern concepts of the law in particular. Law in today\u27s America is dominated by excessive litigation and a general disbelief that justice is evenly dispensed. The contemporary legal system has also become alienated from the historically based values which both created it and gave it meaning. Judges, lawyers, and the law itself have been adversely affected by this evolving devaluation. The pernicious influence of result orientation manifests itself in the modern American legal system through its influence on the judiciary in at least two significant ways: (1) legal theories which influence the intellectual climate within which judges operate and (2) the manner by which society instructs judges to resolve cases -- precedent or stare decisis. Both areas can be significantly reformed by the rejection of result orientation and its goal of material wealth and by the acceptance of a motivational process dedicated to the values of charity, compassion, and self-denial

Professional Sports and Antitrust Law: The Groundrules of Immunity, Exemption and Liability

As professional sports leagues increased their wealth and national prominence, the federal judicial system became uncomfortable with its characterization of sports as something other than a business. The Supreme Court reflected this change in policy in the 1950s by refusing to extend baseball\u27s antitrust exemption to other sports. The application of the Sherman Act to all nonbaseball sports established the foundation for the forceful imposition of antitrust constraints on team owners in the sports litigation of the 1970s. These revolutionary decisions substantially eliminated the status of sports as a game or amusement insulated from the legal obligations of profit-making industries. Public policy now called for professional sports to be accorded the same legal treatment as other commercial endeavors. This alteration of the judicial system\u27s perception of the nature of professional sports was employed by players and their unions to destroy management\u27s unilateral control over professional sports and to substitute in its place a collectively bargained equilibrium in which owners and players shared control of a league\u27s structure. This new balance also allowed the players to participate more fully in the increased revenues being furnished by the broadcast industry. In this sense, the courts applied the antitrust laws to give players\u27 unions leverage at the bargaining table that they had never before possessed. The major remaining judicial vestige of the old public policy view of sports is the antitrust immunity still enjoyed by baseball pursuant to the Supreme Court\u27s ruling in Flood v. Kuhn. Team owners in the other sports have tried to mitigate the effects of this change in judicial attitude by obtaining some variant of judicial or legislative immunity from the full effects of the antitrust laws. This chapter analyzes the three major forms of immunity sought by team owners since the advent of the modern sports litigation era. These are (1) the nonstatutory labor law exemption to shelter restraints contained within collective bargaining agreements, the single-entity defense to render inapplicable to sports leagues Section 1 of the Sherman Act, and (3) the direct grant of a congressional immunity to foreclose antitrust litigation regarding designated league practices. The chapter then examines the principles of substantive antitrust liability by courts to professional sport practices that are not included within an appropriate exemption

Rejecting the Fruits of Action: The Regeneration of the Waste Land’s Legal System

In his greatest work, The Waste Land, T. S. Eliot presents a picture of twentieth century Western civilization as a culture which has lost its essential values and has come undone from its historical moorings. Material wealth has become the focal point of society and its inhabitants. In such a value distorted context, human relationships are devoid of meaning. Honest communication and a meaningful life for the soul and intellect are lost in a dehumanizing daily grind. Religious, communal, and even familial values are subverted to a culturally encouraged drive for personal gain. In this respect, modern Western civilization in general, and America in particular, embodies the world of The Waste Land even more than the Europe and America of 1922 with which Eliot was familiar. The systemic acceptance of result orientation and the consequent predominance of economic efficiencies and material wealth have not only corrupted society in general, but have also devalued modern concepts of the law in particular. Law in today\u27s America is dominated by excessive litigation and a general disbelief that justice is evenly dispensed. The contemporary legal system has also become alienated from the historically based values which both created it and gave it meaning. Judges, lawyers, and the law itself have been adversely affected by this evolving devaluation. The pernicious influence of result orientation manifests itself in the modern American legal system through its influence on the judiciary in at least two significant ways: (1) legal theories which influence the intellectual climate within which judges operate and (2) the manner by which society instructs judges to resolve cases -- precedent or stare decisis. Both areas can be significantly reformed by the rejection of result orientation and its goal of material wealth and by the acceptance of a motivational process dedicated to the values of charity, compassion, and self-denial

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Fan Scorned: State Regulation of Sports Agents

This article first describes the existing system of state statutes regulating sports agents, including the proposed Model Uniform Athlete Agents Act. The article then examines the validity of these statutes in the context of jurisdictional limitations and dormant Commerce Clause principles. Lastly, federal regulation and the rules of professional sports unions are considered as alternatives to state legislative activity

Involuntary Servitude: The Current Enforcement of Employee Covenants Not to Compete – A Proposal for Reform

A covenant not to compete is a contractual restriction upon an individual\u27s ability to compete with another person or entity following the termination of some transaction or relationship between the two. Because of the increasing emphasis in the American economy on technically skilled employees and service oriented businesses, the covenant not to compete has become a standard addition to employment contracts. Moreover, the number of litigated and reported cases may represent only a small percentage of the actual number of employment restrictions currently in force. Regardless of their validity and enforceability, covenants not to compete chill the free movement of employees and eliminate competition among actual and potential employers. Because of both these effects and the existence of many unchallenged covenants of questionable validity, the judicial system must clearly define the legal parameters of the enforceability of such covenants. Traditionally, scholars in this area have generally been content to organize the voluminous case law available and describe the patterns of legal analysis contained therein. This Article instead suggests a unifying theory for consistently resolving all litigation of covenants not to compete. This theory focuses on the employer\u27s protectable interest and limits postassociational restraints to the extent of this interest. This Article proposes that the appropriate sources of both the definition of protectable interest and the limitation on injunctive relief are those agency and unfair competition doctrines that justify postassociational restraints in the absence of contractual restrictions. Under this approach, the terms of any agreement will generally be viewed as superfluous. This Article concludes that the covenant not to compete and related contract law rules should, in most cases, be given no effect