HOWARD L. GANZ	212.969.3035	hganz@proskauer.com
	JOSEPH M. LECCESE	212.969.3238	jleccese@proskauer.com
	BRADLEY I. RUSKIN	212.969.3465	bruskin@proskauer.com

Proskauer currently serves as counsel on a broad variety of matters to the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the ATP Tour, the WNBA, Major League Soccer, and the National Basketball Development League. Proskauer also has advised numerous purchasers and prospective purchasers of professional sports teams (including the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Jets and Montreal Expos), and has handled matters for other sports entities such as the United States Olympic Committee; World Cup USA 1994, Inc.; the Ladies Professional Golf Association; the New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals and Anaheim Angels. Proskauer's distinguished alumni hold senior business and legal positions with a variety of sports leagues, sports teams and other sports-related entities, and include NBA Commissioner David Stern and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

On a daily basis, Proskauer's Sports Law Group applies the broad interdisciplinary skills needed to resolve the business issues and disputes that affect sports clients in the highly competitive entertainment and media marketplace. The Sports Law Group consists of numerous transactional, tax, labor, litigation, antitrust, real estate, bankruptcy, intellectual property and new media lawyers with extensive experience in sports matters. A sampling of their experience follows.

I. Litigation
Proskauer has handled litigations and antitrust proceedings involving virtually every significant issue affecting the sports industry, including:

• whether sports leagues should be treated as single entities under the antitrust laws, including the three-month jury trial in which Major League Soccer prevailed
  
  
• control of the domestic and international telecast rights to games and the related intellectual property issues, including the "superstation" litigation involving the Chicago Bulls, WGN and the NBA, and the DirecTV class action litigation involving the NHL
  
  
• major internal investigations, including representing the NHL in connection with certain allegations regarding gambling
  
  
• development of stadiums, including successfully defending legal challenges to the rights of the New York Jets to proceed in developing a stadium on New York's West Side
  
  
• the right of NHL teams to contract with various players to whom the Russian Ice Hockey Federation and its teams have claimed exclusive rights, including obtaining successful decisions permitting Alex Ovechkin and Nicholai Zherdev to continue playing in the United States
  
  
• the scope of rights between general and limited partners in a professional sports club, including the successful defense of fraud and breach of partnership agreement allegations against the majority general partner of an MLB club in a multi-week international arbitration
  
  
• the scope of most favored nations provisions, including obtaining many millions of dollars for an NFL team in a dispute with its stadium landlord
  
  
• enforcing the contractual and intellectual property rights of licensors domestically and internationally
  
  
• notification proceedings before the European Commission and investigations by European domestic regulatory bodies on behalf of leagues
  
  
• the scope of rights of first refusal and rights of first negotiation provisions in a wide variety of contexts, including in an arbitration before the NFL Commissioner involving a dispute among the owners of a team
  
  
• the right of a league to determine who its members will be and other related issues involving expansion opportunities and the location of its clubs, including cases such as Charlotte Rage v. AFL, Hunt Sports v. NHL, and SDC v. NBA
  
  
• the right of a league or circuit to determine its eligibility rules or to set its annual schedule, including successfully defending multiple antitrust challenges by players and by tournaments against the ATP Tour
  
  
• the obligations of teams and leagues to comply with the ADA, including defense of a challenge to the seating availability at Yankee Stadium
  
  
• numerous bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings that have affected the sports industry, including the bankruptcies of CCM, Marvel, Starter, Pro Player, Pinnacle and the Pittsburgh Penguins
  
  
• the right of a league to reduce the number of its teams without incurring continued contract obligations to its players, including a trial victory in Bishop v. MLS

II. Labor and Employment
Proskauer also has advised and litigated on behalf of its league and team clients with respect to a wide variety of collective bargaining and employment law matters, including:

• representation of the NHL in the collective bargaining negotiations and season-long lockout leading to the NHL's new "salary cap" system
  
  
• representation of Major League Baseball in the collective bargaining negotiations between the clubs and the Major League Baseball Players Association
  
  
• the negotiation, particularly on behalf of the NBA and the NHL, of numerous collective bargaining agreements with unions representing players, referees and other game officials
  
  
• the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements between the WNBA and the union representing WNBA players
  
  
• litigations and arbitrations relating to collective bargaining negotiations and the collective bargaining process, including disputes over the scope of the "labor exemption" from the antitrust laws (going back to Robertson v. NBA and continuing through NBA v. Williams), and the right of teams to withhold the payment of player salaries during a lockout
  
  
• assistance in connection with the adoption and administration of the "salary cap" for the NBA and proceedings involving disputes over the operation of the revenue sharing/salary cap system (including disputes over the rights of players to share in certain revenues)
  
  
• arbitrations with individual players over the interpretation of their player contracts and the application of salary cap rules
  
  
• proceedings on behalf of the National League and American League and MLB in their dispute with the union representing major league umpires
  
  
• defense of a league's (and team's) right to suspend or otherwise discipline players for on-court/field and off-court/field misconduct (including, for example, the suspensions of Latrell Sprewell and John Rocker)
  
  
• representation of several MLB clubs in salary arbitration proceedings with various players
  
  
• the scope of rights of first refusal with respect to free agents and other rules relating to player movement
  
  
• proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, on behalf of the NBA, WNBA, the NHL and MLB, involving representation hearings, elections and unfair labor practice charges
  
  
• the applicability of human rights laws to professional athletes and game officials on matters such as sexual and racial discrimination
  
  
• the applicability of the Americans with Disabilities Act to stadiums, arenas and circuits
  
  
• representing NBA Entertainment, NBA Properties, and NHL Enterprises in a variety of labor and employment matters
  
  
• representing individual teams and facilities in connection with labor and employment issues
  
  
• assistance in connection with the adoption and enforcement of anti-drug agreements with players' unions

III. Corporate and Transactional
Proskauer's transactional sports practice has involved numerous matters for both its league and team clients, including:

• the purchase, sale and financing of individual teams and tournaments
  
  
• the formation and structuring of new leagues, and the preparation of governing documents for sports leagues and team ownership groups
  
  
• stadium and arena leases and other stadium/arena arrangements, including naming rights, seat licenses, financings and securitizations
  
  
• the representation of leagues in connection with ownership transfers and financings and other corporate matters
  
  
• domestic and international television and radio agreements for leagues and local broadcast contracts for individual teams
  
  
• major licensing, sponsorship and marketing agreements
  
  
• arrangements to exploit new media rights, including through joint ventures
  
  
• contracts with team personnel (such as coaches) and other matters relating to the operations of individual teams
  
  
• advice with respect to the tax benefits and tax consequences of ownership of professional sports teams and facilities
  
  
• representation of leagues in bankruptcy matters involving teams and licensees

The specific matters handled by Proskauer have included:

• representation of the Lerner family in its acquisition of the Washington Nationals baseball team from Major League Baseball
  
  
• representation of Red Bull GmbH in its acquisition of the MLS MetroStars (renamed Red Bull New York) from Anschutz Entertainment Group
  
  
• represented the NBA in the grant of an expansion team to Charlotte, North Carolina in the 2004-05 NBA season, and in prior NBA expansions to Miami, Minnesota, Orlando, Toronto, Vancouver and other markets
  
  
• representation of the Philadelphia Eagles in their successful lease negotiations with the City of Philadelphia
  
  
• representing the ATP Tour in its $1.2 billion transaction with ISL, in which ISL acquired the worldwide television and marketing rights to the ATP World Championships and the "Super 9" Tournaments
  
  
• NBA expansions in Charlotte, Miami, Minnesota, Orlando, Toronto and Vancouver
  
  
• NHL expansions in Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus and Minnesota
  
  
• the formation and structuring of the WNBA and other new leagues, such as the National Basketball Development League and the XFL
  
  
• representing Jeffrey Lurie in the acquisition of the Philadelphia Eagles football team, the secured financing related to the acquisition, and the subsequent private offering of limited partnership units
  
  
• representing Robert Wood Johnson IV in the acquisition of the New York Jets football team and related financings
  
  
• representing Jeffrey Loria in the acquisition of a controlling interest in the Montreal Expos baseball team
  
  
• advising Alfred Lerner and Carmen Policy in their successful bid for the Cleveland Browns expansion franchise
  
  
• representation of the Florida Marlins, New Jersey Devils, New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles and their owners in connection with acquisition, team and stadium/arena development financing

IV. Internet and New Media
The Internet and broadband provide major new opportunities for sports leagues and sports teams to provide information and entertainment, and to engage in electronic commerce. Proskauer has been at the forefront of helping sports entities develop and exploit these opportunities. Our work has included intellectual property licensing; negotiating and drafting Internet co-branding agreements; crafting website development and hosting agreements; and advice and counseling on a wide range of new Internet legal issues, such as "linking," Internet taxation, and the relative rights of telecasters and Internet providers. Our Internet transactional work has included the formation of the strategic joint venture between the NHL and IBM known as NHL Interactive CyberEnterprises or "NHL ICE," and the representation of the NBA in a transaction with Convera Corporation in which Convera agreed to provide unique Internet and broadband services to the NBA and its teams.

Proskauer's ability to deliver such new media expertise has been further enhanced by its extensive and long-standing representation of clients in the film, music and entertainment industry, where it has been involved in a broad range of copyright, trademark and patent matters, including anti-piracy, domain name litigation, and negotiations with the software industry over new media applications, and by the experience of its iPractice Group, which has handled a broad array of Internet and new media matters.

Proskauer lawyers have written and lectured extensively on sports law issues and have participated in committee and panel discussions nationwide on matters of concern to sports leagues and sports teams. Proskauer continues to be uniquely capable of providing legal services on all aspects of the sports and media business to sports leagues, sports teams and their owners and executives, and other businesses engaged in sports-related transactions.

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