“The Legal side of
Sports and
Entertainment”
How do laws impact
sports entertainment
marketing?
“Terms to Know”
Words:
1. Franchise
2. Broadcast Flags
3. Copyright Laws
4. Intellectual property
5. Royalty
Definitions:
1. Authorization to sell the services in a
given area from local government
agencies
2. Imbedded in digital programming to
prevent programs from being
recorded and redistributed
3. Protect the unique work of the
originator within the geographic
boundaries to which the laws apply
4. Unique work of writers, artists,
musicians, etc. that can be protected
under the copyright laws
5. Payment for the use of copyrighted
work
“The Actual Impact”
Laws have a major impact on marketing
products. Laws are designed to encourage and
protect petition and increase the safety of
consumers, viewers, and fans.
The purpose of these laws is to protect the
players, celebrities, and producers, etc.
“History”
• Sherman Anti trust Act- put a restraint on trade and
price fixing illegal and set monopoly's illegal.
• Clayton Act- made it legal to sue and receive threefold
damages plus other costs and interest for monopoly
and other commercial violations and made it right to
organize labor to confront restrictions of Sherman Act.
• National Labor Relations Act- made it right to
collectively bargain and strike and prevented
employees from discriminating against employees
involved in unions and interfering in union matters.
What is copyright law?
• Copyrighted work must be fixed and original,
fixed as in the work must be recorded in a
permanent template.
• US copyright laws applies all over the country
• The use of an athlete’s all around image can be
a great marketing source to increase income
• Athlete’s may deny the use of their name for
commercial purposes.
• Piracy can take away from profit of many
businesses and threaten to shut them down.
What is the
importance of labor
unions?
“Key words”
1. Collective bargaining
1. When a group of employees join together as a
single unit to negotiate with employers
2. Collective bargaining agreement
2. The contract that the players association
negotiates
3. Salary cap
3. The maximum amount that a team can spend
on players salaries
To help preserve competition and keep the richer teams from getting all of
the good players.
Every professional sport has a salary cap besides major league baseball.
Without a salary cap top players would potentially all join the same team
which would dominate the sport.
This could lead to loss of interest in the sport because of the complete
dominance year after year.
How do financial and public relations
impact sports?
• Negotiations take place between attorneys who
need to be skilled communicators.
• If contracts are too expensive can lead to higher
prices to fund business, team, etc.
• Players of all sports want to keep the bargaining
agreement fair to keep away from blaming each
other, having financial problems, loss of revenue
from workers, and disheartened fans.
The impact of financial and public
relations cont.
• After a lockout from disagreements in the collective
bargaining the image of the sport is more than likely
damaged and the sport has to do extra promotional
schemes to help restore a positive look on the league.
• With enough support, third parties can have some say
in the protecting themselves in losing out on money
when players and owners are arguing with the help of
Congress.
• Player associations are when professional athletes
organize a labor union.
• Labor and management must cooperate if a business is to
succeed.
• Fans love when the players and owners are united and
work together as one cohesive unit.
• A unified team is easier to market and will probably
succeed financially.
What is the
relationship
between agents and
contracts?
“Important words to know”
1. Agent
1. The legal representative of an athlete
or celebrity
2. Handlers
2. People that work closely with athletes
who are unable or unwilling to police
themselves
3. Advisers
4. Contracts
3. Financial and business conselors rather
than behavioral monitors
5. Agent Contract
4. Agreements enforceable by law that
detail the transaction of business
6. Noncompete clause
5. An agreement in which the athlete
allows a person or agency to represent
them in marketing the athlete’s ability
or name
6. Prohibits a person from working in a
competing business for a specific
period of time
What is the relationship between
athlete’s and their agents?
An agent negotiates contracts for a celebrity's or
athlete’s endorsement opportunities.
Agents represent individual clients.
Represent businesses or organizations in order to
expand their name recognition.
They also required negotiating skills.
They need to have a good understanding of the law.
Agent gets paid a percentage of the celebrity's
negotiated earnings.
Celebrities choose their agents.
 The (SSG) represents a bunch of agents that do good work and expect
excellence and are good at representing their client or celebrity or
athlete.
 Being selected in the first round of the draft receives a good
bargaining chip to be able to increase status and salary.
 Athletic agents are very careful to follow federal and state laws on
the management of athletes.
 Agent must be registered to be an official agent of the league.
What is the
relationship between
athletes and their
handlers?
The success of the sponsor's product is affected by
the athlete's image.
They are there to mentor athletes and keep them in
good graces of the publics eyes.
Help maintain positive publicity and their main
focus is with the athlete’s image.
What is the
relationship?
Advisers mainly deal with
the financial and business
side.
They assist athletes on how
to manage their wealth such
as investing their earnings
wisely for the future.
How do legal agreements work?
• Many players rely on their agents to determine
and understand what is put in writing for there
contracts.
• Agents must be familiar with contract law.
• Contracts should be straight forward.
• Contracts are enforceable by law when they
involve a promise in exchange for something of
value.
• http://proathletedirect.com/media.html
• http://www.investopedia.com/financial -edge/0810/Top-7-ProAthlete-Contracts.aspx
• http://sportslaw.uslegal.com/sports -agents-and-contracts/sportscontracts-%E2%80%93-basic-principles/
• http://www.therichest.org/tag/top-ten-athletes-salaries/
These are examples of agents and their athletes and
the signing of contracts.
http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDWn5Uo_0pw
http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=A220f2oXfus
http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAKIqJNc3Ic