Sports Lawyer Leon Rose Named President of New York Knicks

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Madison Square Garden Company Executive Chairman and CEO James L. Dolan has announced that Leon Rose has been named President of the New York Knicks, effective immediately. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Rose joins the organization from CAA Sports, where he was co-head of the basketball division and represented some of the NBA’s biggest stars.

“Leon is one of the most respected executives in professional basketball, with decades of experience successfully working with NBA players and team management in all facets of the game. We are confident he brings the right combination of expertise and relationships to ensure the long-term success of our franchise,” said Dolan. “”

In his role as President, Rose will oversee all basketball operations and personnel for the team. A Cherry Hill, New Jersey native, he became one of basketball’s most powerful agents, with a 25-year career that saw him manage the careers of some of the game’s greatest stars. Rose graduated from Dickinson College, where he was a member of the basketball team. He earned his J.D. degree from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and before joining CAA Sports, was a partner at the law firm of Sherman, Silverstein, Kohl, Rose & Podolsky. Rose coached basketball for five years, three at the high school level and two at the college level.

Expert Talks About What It will Take for Sports to Return

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Professional and college sports leagues are unlikely to resume their COVID-19-interrupted seasons anytime soon, according to Mitchel Rosen, a preparedness expert at the Rutgers School of Public Health.

Rosen’s research interests include preparedness, personal protective equipment, occupational health and safety, and public health capacity development. He also is sports fan, who offered the following thoughts on steps taken by the NHL, NBA, NCAA and other major sports organizations to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Rosen is an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and the director of the Center for Public Health Workforce Development.

Were you surprised many major professional sports leagues and the NCAA ended or postponed their seasons so abruptly?

No. We have been seeing an exponential growth of cases. New disease models have also shown us just how quickly COVID-19 can spread if proper mitigation efforts are not put in place. These measures are aligned with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations to avoid gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks.

When do you expect sports to return?

I don’t think there is any way we could guess at what point sports will make a comeback since there are many factors involved, including how quickly we can ‘flatten the curve’ and make informed scientific decisions of when players can get back together. The general population at large, sports leagues, and fans must look at the importance of the work that their state and local public health authorities do every day to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

What needs to happen for sports to return?

State and federal public health authorities will determine when it is safe for sports to resume. The first step is controlling the COVID-19 pandemic by following state and federal public health guidance to ensure that we do not initiate a spike in new cases.

Why aren’t teams playing without fans?

Even with no fans present, there is potential for COVID-19 transmission. Players, coaches, trainers, other team staff, and broadcast production members would still be in close contact with each other and not able to follow the principals of social distancing. If infected, these individuals can then spread the disease to those that they are in routine contact with, such as their family members and others within their social circle.

Alicia Jessop Appointed President-Elect of Sport and Recreation Law Association

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On March 6, 2020, associate professor of sport administration Alicia Jessop was appointed as the Sports and Recreation Law Association (SRLA) president-elect. The appointment comes after five years of actively participating in the association including previously serving on the association’s board of directors as the member-at-large overseeing honors and awards.

“I see this as a unique opportunity for my field because sport law is still emerging. It is an honor to be at the helm of this organization driving the strategy and the conversation about where [sport law] goes,” says Jessop. “I am excited to collaborate with peers across the world and bring it all back to the classroom at Pepperdine.”

At the association’s annual conference in Louisville, Kentucky, members shared their nominations and confirmed Jessop as the president-elect during the awards banquet at Churchill Downs. The position serves a three-year term and leads the association through years of growth and advancement of sport law pedagogy.

Jessop is a licensed attorney whose research focuses on the intersection of sport, business media, and law. She has also followed female and minority leadership in intercollegiate sport governance at the NCAA Division I level as well as female representation in sports reporting. Beyond presenting her research at several conferences, she has published numerous articles across the Washington Post, Forbes, and The Athletic. She also frequently appears on television and radio to provide commentary and analysis on sport law and business.

The SRLA aims to further the study and dissemination of information regarding legal aspects of sport and recreation. With its diverse members from different educational and experiential backgrounds, the Association serves academicians and practitioners in private and public sport and recreation settings. To learn more about the association, visit the SRLA website.

Canada Announces It Will Not Send Athletes to Olympics

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The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC), backed by their Athletes’ Commissions, National Sports Organizations and the Government of Canada, “have made the difficult decision to not send” Canadian teams to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2020.

The COC and CPC urgently call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the Games for one year and we offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring. While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community.

This is not solely about athlete health – it is about public health. With COVID-19 and the associated risks, it is not safe for our athletes, and the health and safety of their families and the broader Canadian community for athletes to continue training towards these Games. In fact, it runs counter to the public health advice which we urge all Canadians to follow.

The COC and CPC reviewed the letter and news release sent Sunday by the IOC. We are thankful to the IOC for its assurance that it will not be cancelling the Tokyo 2020 Games and appreciative that it understands the importance of accelerating its decision-making regarding a possible postponement.

We also applaud the IOC for acknowledging that safeguarding the health and wellness of nations and containing the virus must be our paramount concern. We are in the midst of a global health crisis that is far more significant than sport.

The COC and CPC would like to thank our athletes, partners and the Canadian sport community for their patience and for lending us their voices during these unprecedented times. We remain hopeful that the IOC and IPC will agree with the decision to postpone the Games as a part of our collective responsibility to protect our communities and work to contain the spread of the virus.

Disruption of sports has ‘substantial, uncertain’ impact on long-term broadcast rights, ticket sales, fan attendance, says WVU economist

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With fears over the novel coronavirus shuttering the sports world, Brad Humphreys, economics professor at West Virginia University, said the long-term economic impact could be “substantial” and “uncertain.”

Humphreys, whose area of expertise is the economics and financing of sports, has authored several peer-reviewed papers and testified twice before the U.S. Congress on the economic impact of professional sports teams and facilities.

As of Thursday (March 12), the threat of COVID-19 had caused the NBA and NHL to suspend their seasons, the cancellation of the NCAA basketball conference tournaments and the postponement of MLB spring training.

Humphreys provided the following insights about the fallout from the pandemic.

 “In general, sports teams earn revenues from selling tickets, media broadcast rights, and corporate sponsorship. Sponsorship contracts tend to be long term, so a short run interruption of play likely will not affect this source of revenues.

“In terms of media broadcast rights contracts, teams, leagues and conferences supply games to broadcasters in exchange for broadcast rights fees. The short-term impact of interruption of play on broadcast rights fees will depend on the exact terms of the contracts. Since the contracted games are not being played, broadcasters may seek to reduce their payment of rights fees, if their contracts allow for this.

“The long-term impact of disruption of play on broadcast rights fees could be substantial. TV networks and sports networks like ESPN will likely be willing to pay less for the rights to broadcast sporting events if they anticipate future disruptions in play due to the cancellation of games.

“For example, the NCAA signed an $8.8 billion broadcast rights deal with CBS/WarnerMedia to broadcast the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament through 2032.  This contract is the primary source of revenues for the NCAA, and also financially benefits college sports conferences and teams. A cancellation of the tournament would mean no supply of games for CBS and its affiliated stations to broadcast. This would put a substantial hole in the broadcast schedule for almost a month, and would lead to ratings declines and potentially ad revenues. Without knowing the exact terms of the contract, it is difficult to determine what redress, if any, CBS/WarnerMedia would have.

“In terms of ticket sales and attendance, the short-run impact depends on the details of the refund policy in place in each league. Many tickets to sporting events are sold in advance to season ticket holders or individual game attendees, and the economic impact on teams (and conferences in the case of college sports) will depend on the terms of sale, which differ across sports. For example, MLB tickets for games canceled are not refundable, but can be exchanged for tickets to future games. In any event, refunds for tickets sold to canceled sporting events represents little economic hardship for teams and leagues in the short-term, except for transaction costs generated by the refund process.

“The long-term impact of game cancellations on fan attendance are less certain.  One factor that will affect how current game cancellations affect future attendance depends on the strength of fans’ habit for attending games, in the jargon of behavioral economics.  Fans with a strong habit for attending games will return after an unexpected interruption; fans with a weak habit for attending will not.

“Little research focuses on the role played by habit formation in the decision by fans to attend games. One paper that does address this topic, my paper Are Fair Weather Fans Affected by Weather? Rainfall, Habit Formation, and Live Game Attendance written with Qi Ge and Kuhn Zhou and recently published in the Journal of Sports Economics, finds evidence of strong habit formation among fans attending MLB games. This paper uses rainfall as an exogenous shock to the cost of fan attendance.  If these results generalize to other sports, then the long-term impact of game cancellation on attendance will be small.”

Sports Lawyers Association Conference Is Cancelled

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From SLA President Bobby Hacker:

Dear SLA Members:

As we represent the entire sports world it is only fitting that we act in a like manner, therefore, we are cancelling this year’s conference in Miami. This was not an easy decision and it weighed heavily upon the executive committee as well as the entire board of the organization. As you know one of the highlights of membership in the Sports Lawyers Association is attendance at our Annual Conference. Not only does the program provide the best experts in the industry providing news and insight, but the networking opportunities are unparalleled. Unfortunately, the declaration of a pandemic by the WHO forced us to take a long hard look at moving forward, but once there was a declaration in Florida and yesterday the Miami Dade emergency declaration, the decision, although difficult, had to fall on the side of cancellation, but beyond the declared states of emergency, we have a responsibility to consider the well-being of our members and the community at large. With the recent declaration of a national emergency our decision made even more sense.

Over the next weeks we will be notifying you of some webinars that we will be offering at or near the time of what would have been this year’s conference. We are expecting this to be something we continue beyond May as a means of fulfilling our mission of advancing our profession. Our goal is to bring panels scheduled for May to the digital world and as we set those programs we look forward to your participation.

I want to assure all of you that our mission to be the pre-eminent sports law organization continues. Our website offerings to members, the outreach events (also on a temporary hold), our new podcast programs and the Member in the Spotlight feature show that we truly are much more than our annual conference. Our community is strong and while the SLA will not be bringing you a major conference this year, we will have CLE available through a variety of means, not the least of which will be the upcoming webcasts as noted above.

Wishing all of you, your family, friends and colleagues, good health throughout this crisis and beyond. Thank you all for your continued support and see you in Los Angeles in May 2021!

 

Director of University of Southern Mississippi’s National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security Resigns, Effective April 1

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Dr. Lou Marciani has announced his retirement from his role as Director of The University of Southern Mississippi’s (USM) National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) effective April 1, 2020. Dr. Marciani has served as NCS4 Director since its inception in 2006 following the United States Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) increased effort to defend potential soft targets for terrorism in the wake of 9/11.

Specifically, NCS4 emerged from a 2006 doctoral dissertation about the standards required for effective security management at university sport venues. Building upon this fundamental research, NCS4 is now an international research and education center for sports safety and security. NCS4 collaborates with professional sport leagues and venues, intercollegiate and interscholastic athletics, marathon and endurance events, and international sporting events along with professional associations, private sector firms, and government agencies. Since 2006, Dr. Marciani has attained more than $13 million in federal grants for homeland security.

Hot Off the Presses – NCAA to Limit Attendance at March Madness

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“The NCAA continues to assess the impact of COVID-19 in consultation with public health officials and our COVID-19 advisory panel. Based on their advice and my discussions with the NCAA Board of Governors, I have made the decision to conduct our upcoming championship events, including the Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, with only essential staff and limited family attendance. While I understand how disappointing this is for all fans of our sports, my decision is based on the current understanding of how COVID-19 is progressing in the United States.  This decision is in the best interest of public health, including that of coaches, administrators, fans and, most importantly, our student-athletes. We recognize the opportunity to compete in an NCAA national championship is an experience of a lifetime for the students and their families. Today, we will move forward and conduct championships consistent with the current information and will continue to monitor and make adjustments as needed.”

— Mark Emmert, NCAA president

NCAA Statement on COVID-19 and Sporting Events

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“NCAA member schools and conferences make their own decisions regarding regular season and conference tournament play.  As we have stated, we will make decisions on our events based on the best, most current public health guidance available. Neither the NCAA COVID-19 advisory panel, made up of leading public health and infectious disease experts in America, nor the CDC or local health officials have advised against holding sporting events. In the event circumstances change, we will make decisions accordingly.”

– Mark Emmert, NCAA president

Sports Law Instructor/NFL Sports Agent Kelli Masters to Keynote Alliance of Channel Women Event in Las Vegas on March 9

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Alliance of Channel Women, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of female channel leaders in technology, has announced that NFL Sports Agent Kelli Masters will be the keynote speaker at ACW’s 10th Anniversary celebration at ACWConnect Live! 5-8 p.m. March 9 at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo in Las Vegas.

In 2020, ACW is celebrating a decade of empowering channel women. ACW was founded in 2010 and has grown in membership and mission with the intent to be agents of change for women in the channel community.

Keynote speaker NFL Sports Agent Kelli Masters knows all about driving change. Widely recognized as one of the most influential women in sports business, Masters will share her story as NFL sports agent, attorney, journalist and Miss Oklahoma, in her keynote address, “Agent for Change: The Power of Diversity in Leadership.”

Masters has represented more professional athletes than any woman in the industry, having served as agent/contract adviser to players in every NFL draft since 2006 as well as numerous athletes in the MLB draft and the Olympics. In 2010, she made history as the first woman to represent a first-round pick in the NFL Draft.

Masters also is as an Adjunct Professor at Oklahoma City University and Oklahoma Christian University, teaching Sports Law. She is a sought-after writer and speaker on topics of sports and nonprofit as well as leadership, diversity and discovering purpose in life. Her first book, Dream Job, is in the works.

The ACWConnect Live! will be held from 5-8 p.m., March 9, 2020, in Room Bassano 2708 at The Venetian & Sands Expo. The networking event is open to all attendees of the Channel Partners Conference & Expo event. It is free to all ACW members and $30 for non-members. Click here to register.