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Articles 1 - 18 of 18
Full-Text Articles in Law
Player Restraints And Competition Law Throughout The World, Stephen Ross
Player Restraints And Competition Law Throughout The World, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
This article reviews agreements among clubs participating in league sports in many countries throughout the world that limit competition for the services of players. Under the English common law (which governs in most of the British commonwealth), the competition law provisions of the European Union's governing treaty, the American Sherman Act, and the Canadian Competition Act, the governing standard is quite similar. Player restraints cab only be justified if they are related to a legitimate purpose, which is usually defined as one that demonstrably improves the consumer appeal for the sporting competition. Moreover, and significantly, player restraints must be reasonably …
Light, Less-Filling, It's Blue-Ribbon!, Stephen Ross
Light, Less-Filling, It's Blue-Ribbon!, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
This Commentary reviews the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Panel and, accepting the Report's perspective of advocating the long-term interests of baseball fans, identifies some important and positive contributions made by the Report. Next, some significant flaws and shortcomings are discussed. Finally, the Commentary suggests several practical reforms likely to improve competitive balance which plausibly could secure the support of t he various constituencies of the National Pastime.
Monopoly Sports Leagues, Stephen Ross
Monopoly Sports Leagues, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
This Article argues that the government should break up both Major League Baseball and the NFL to provide for competing economic entities in each sport. Part I details the harm monopoly sports leagues cause in several different markets and explains why a competitive league structure can correct such harms. Part II discusses why regulatory solutions are poor substitutes for competition as a means of redressing these harms. Part III explains why neither baseball nor football is a "natural monopoly" and argues that no persuasive evidence suggests that rival leagues cannot exist in those sports. Part IV examines how the antitrust …
Judicial Review Of Ncaa Eligibility Decisions: Evaluation Of The Restitution Rule And A Call For Arbitration, Stephen Ross, Richard Karcher, S. Kensinger
Judicial Review Of Ncaa Eligibility Decisions: Evaluation Of The Restitution Rule And A Call For Arbitration, Stephen Ross, Richard Karcher, S. Kensinger
Stephen F Ross
Courts have held that the general principles of judicial non-interference with the decisions of private associations do not apply where a dominant organization’s decisions effectively prevent individuals from participating in an important activity, including a profession or sports. Although the bylaws of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) give it unfettered power, it remains subject to judicial review when its decisions violate constitutional or statutory limits, or principles of contract law, or when they are inconsistent with the organization’s own rules. As such, general principles of equity should freely permit an athlete to obtain injunctive relief where the applicable standards …
Radical Reform Of Intercollegiate Athletics: Antitrust And Public Policy Implications, Stephen Ross
Radical Reform Of Intercollegiate Athletics: Antitrust And Public Policy Implications, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
Universities operating major intercollegiate athletic programs are heading for, if not already in, a crisis. Corruption continues to affect major football and basketball programs, exacerbated by a failure of imagination and will in identifying and deterring corruption, and by a lack of consensus on what constitutes "corruption" when football and men's basketball stars generate millions of dollars but cannot enjoy a lifestyle commensurate with many peer students. Current levels of spending are nonsustainable at many schools. Even where intercollegiate athletic programs are sustained primarily by football and basketball revenues, otherwise visionary and questioning college presidents have yet to publicly question …
The Nhl Labour Dispute And The Common Law, The Competition Law, And Public Policy, Stephen Ross
The Nhl Labour Dispute And The Common Law, The Competition Law, And Public Policy, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
This article develops the claim that, absent an agreement with the union, the imposition of a salary cap or punitive luxury tax would constitute an unreasonable restraint of trade, as well as a violation of section 48 of the Competition Act that the Canadian courts should enjoin. The article analyzes decisions of Canadian and other British Commonwealth courts concerning general principles of the common law as well as their specific application in the context of the sports industry. Second, the paper discusses why the same standard applies to restraints challenged under section 48 of the Competition Act. Next. the relevance …
The Misunderstood Alliance Between Sports Fans, Players, And The Antitrust Laws, Stephen Ross
The Misunderstood Alliance Between Sports Fans, Players, And The Antitrust Laws, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
The baseball strike and the ongoing hostilities between the players' association and owners have evoked criticism and frustration among fans and others. Although the players successfully defeated the owners' most recent attempts to reduce major league competition, the threat of future imposition of competitive restraints by the owners remains. In this article Professor Stephen F. Ross argues that blanket restraints on the market for players affirmatively inhibit on-the-field competition and consequently offend the Sherman Act. The article begins with the proposition that monopsony - price-fixing behavior by buyers', rather than sellers' cartels - implicates the Sherman Act. Restraints on competition …
Using Contract Law To Tackle The Coaching Carousel, Stephen Ross, Lindsay Berkstresser
Using Contract Law To Tackle The Coaching Carousel, Stephen Ross, Lindsay Berkstresser
Stephen F Ross
This Article suggests that student-athletes can protect themselves (and, indirectly, fans and students at the university at which they are about to enroll) by securing a binding promise from the coach that he will not voluntarily leave the university throughout the student-athlete's career. This promise could be in a legally binding contract directly between the coach and student-athlete, or by adding to the coach's employment contract with the university a proviso expressly designating student-athletes as third party beneficiaries. Part I briefly describes the problems resulting from the coaching carousel and describes the potential for contracts that limit a coach's mobility …
Sports And The Law: Text, Cases, And Problems, 5th, Stephen Ross, Paul Weiler, Gary Roberts, Roger Abrams
Sports And The Law: Text, Cases, And Problems, 5th, Stephen Ross, Paul Weiler, Gary Roberts, Roger Abrams
Stephen F Ross
This casebook introduces students to the fundamentals of labor, antitrust, and intellectual property law as applied in the professional and amateur sporting industries. It covers the unique office of the league commissioner and special concerns with the “best interests of sports”; the contract, antitrust, and labor law dimensions of the player-labor market; the peculiar institution of the player agent in a unionized industry; the economic and legal implications of agreements among league owners and responses to rival leagues; the system of commercialized college athletics governed by the NCAA and how law impacts individual sports like golf, tennis and boxing; as …
Reconsidering Flood V. Kuhn, Stephen Ross
Reconsidering Flood V. Kuhn, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
Within the academia, two very different groups of legal scholars have devoted a great deal of attention to Flood v. Kuhn. Those specializing in sports law have either attached Flood as a ridiculous decision that improperly distinguished between baseball and other professional sports, or have praised it for waging guerrilla warfare on the idea that Section 1 of the Sherman Act should apply to intra-league arrangements by owners of the professional sports teams. Those viewing Flood through the lens of statutory interpretation perceive the decision as adhering rigidly to the principle of stare decisis; this rigidity has been both praised …
Fans Of The World, Unite!: A (Capitalist) Manifesto For Sports Consumers, Stephen Ross, Stefan Szymanski
Fans Of The World, Unite!: A (Capitalist) Manifesto For Sports Consumers, Stephen Ross, Stefan Szymanski
Stephen F Ross
This book is a clarion call to sports fans. It proposes a significant restructuring of sports leagues. The book sets out a rational program for a revolution that will serve the best interests of the fans and of the sport itself. But the book is not Marxist: it shows how a revolution in the organization of sports might even benefit the owners. By harnassing the power of markets, sports leagues can be made both responsive to the needs of the fans and more efficient. Many years were spent before this book was written evaluating the ways in which leagues work …
An Antitrust Analysis Of Sports League Contracts With Cable Networks, Stephen Ross
An Antitrust Analysis Of Sports League Contracts With Cable Networks, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
This Article discusses the proper antitrust treatment of package sales to cable. Part I considers whether the antitrust laws apply at all to such sales; it concludes that section one of the Sherman Act does apply and that neither the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 not baseball's historic exemption from the antitrust laws prevents antitrust scrutiny of these contracts. Part II explains why cable package sales should be analyzed under a rule of reason test focused on the effect of a sale on fan viewership. Finally, Part III responds to several possible objections to the rule of reason standard proposed …
Antitrust Options To Redress Anticompetitive Restraints And Monopolistic Practices By Professional Sports Leagues, Stephen Ross
Antitrust Options To Redress Anticompetitive Restraints And Monopolistic Practices By Professional Sports Leagues, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
The hallmark of an antitrust violation is an agreement which has the effect of raising price, lowering output, or rendering output unresponsive to consumer demand. Owners of clubs comprising Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League engage in a variety of exploitative activities that consumers cannot avoid by substituting rival products. The purpose of this Article is to analyze specific areas where these monopoly sports leagues harm a variety of groups, through the maintenance of a monopolistic structure that precludes competitive entry, or through specific restraints that have demonstrable anticompetitive effects. …
A Strategic Legal Challenge To The Unforeseen Anticompetitive And Racially Discriminatory Effects Of Baseball’S North American Draft, Stephen Ross, Michael James
A Strategic Legal Challenge To The Unforeseen Anticompetitive And Racially Discriminatory Effects Of Baseball’S North American Draft, Stephen Ross, Michael James
Stephen F Ross
Major League Baseball (MLB) has honored a single player by retiring his number for every club. Absent special commemorations, no player will wear the number “42” in honor of the man who broke the color barrier to become the first African American to play major league baseball in the modern era: Jackie Robinson. MLB has also honored a single player—chosen from nominees from each individual club—by presenting an annual award for humanitarian service in his name; that honoree is Roberto Clemente. However, the sad reality is that if a fifteen-year-old Jackie Robinson were growing up today in South Pasadena, California, …
Accommodating Labor And Antitrust, Stephen Ross
Accommodating Labor And Antitrust, Stephen Ross
Stephen F Ross
In this article, the author comments on Professor Michael LeRoy's article "Federal Jurisdiction in Sports Labor Disputes" (2012 Utah L. Rev. 815) and explains why he disagrees with the claim that federal courts improperly invoke the Sherman Act in sports labor disputes.
A Regulatory Solution To Better Promote The Educational Values And Economic Sustainability Of Intercollegiate Athletics, Stephen Ross, Matt Mitten
A Regulatory Solution To Better Promote The Educational Values And Economic Sustainability Of Intercollegiate Athletics, Stephen Ross, Matt Mitten
Stephen F Ross
Currently there are several pending antitrust suits challenging NCAA rules restricting the economic benefits intercollegiate athletes may receive for their sports participation. Although remedying the inherent problems of commercialized college sports (primarily Division I football and men’s basketball) is a laudable objective, a free market solution mandated by antitrust law may have unintended adverse consequences. Judicial invalidation of these rules may inhibit universities from providing many athletes with a college education they would not otherwise receive, by eliminating or reducing the value of scholarships for many players whose economic value is less than the cost of an education. A wholly …
A Rapid Reaction To O'Bannon: The Need For Analytics In Applying The Sherman Act To Overly Restrictive Joint Venture Schemes, Stephen Ross, Wayne Desarbo
A Rapid Reaction To O'Bannon: The Need For Analytics In Applying The Sherman Act To Overly Restrictive Joint Venture Schemes, Stephen Ross, Wayne Desarbo
Stephen F Ross
This Article reviews the recent and highly publicized district court decision holding that NCAA rules, which bar student-athletes from any compensation for image rights, violated the Sherman Act, and that big-time athletic programs could lawfully agree among themselves to limit compensation to $5,000 annually in trust for each athlete upon leaving school. This Article briefly discusses why the decision correctly found the current rule to be illegal, but also details why, under settled antitrust law, the critical question of how much compensation would significantly harm consumer appeal for college football and basketball is a question better left to marketing science …
Using Contract Law To Tackle The Coaching Carousel, Stephen F. Ross
Using Contract Law To Tackle The Coaching Carousel, Stephen F. Ross
Stephen F Ross
The end of every football season signals another round of the “coaching carousel” for college football. Like athletes and coaches in professional leagues, college coaches are handsomely paid pursuant to multi-year contracts. Unlike their counterparts, a combination of lax enforcement and weak terms permit them to willfully breach their contract obligations to their schools as well as student-athletes who often select their school based on the coach. Recent economic evidence suggests that coaching changes not only harm the school but also the professional careers of star players. This Article analyzes the bargaining dynamics that would allow a star recruit to …