Whether the venue is field, court, ice, course, track, or clear blue sea, Covington understands the real business of sports entertainment. Our sports finance group consists of leanly staffed teams – usually no more than one or two associates and an experienced partner – helping leagues and teams to build multi-billion dollar spectator facilities. We've represented parties in the purchase and sale of dozens of major and minor league teams; we know the leagues, the lenders, and the specialized “rules of the game” in the unique world of sports industry transactions.
Our transactional work in sports goes deeper than facilitating team sales and financing stadiums. We also understand the branding value of sponsorship and advertising to sports businesses and their marketing partners. And our sports media practice represents virtually every US major league sport, drawing on the long history of Covington’s central role in the development of the communications industry. That experience – from the early days of satellite, cellular, internet, and other new communications technologies – informs our media work for sports clients today. Covington’s sports lawyers understand the changing roles of television, radio, Internet, wireless, MP3, and the ever-evolving platforms for the distribution of sports content.
If a media platform already exists, we’ve handled sports transactions across it; if the platform is a new one, we help our clients evaluate how the new platform fits with – or challenges – their existing rights grants and the sports media landscape.
We also understand the legal framework in which sports leagues need to operate. For years, we’ve provided advice to professional leagues and amateur sports organizations on their internal constitutional matters, and on governance questions involving club decision-making, commissioner authority, and the role of amateur international governing bodies over their local federations and participants.
Representative Matters
- Representation of the USTA in a groundbreaking six-year television and multi-platform partnership with ESPN and the Tennis Channel creating a summer-long “Open Season” for tennis featuring more than 400 national television hours for the U.S. Open and the Olympus U.S. Open Series commencing in 2009.
- Representation of Major League Baseball in the negotiation of carriage agreements for the distribution of The MLB Network, which will, when launched in 2009, be the first and only network dedicated to providing baseball programming to MLB fans 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a year-round basis. Covington also assisted Major League Baseball in negotiating the joint venture agreement for ownership of The MLB Network, and has assisted the National Hockey League in negotiating the joint venture agreement for ownership of the US version of the NHL Network.
- Negotiation of television, digital rights and satellite radio rights agreements for Major League Baseball, NASCAR, the NFL and other major sports leagues, including negotiation of the record-setting, multi-year television agreements for the NFL with each of the major American networks: NBC, CBS, Fox and ESPN.
- Representing the USTA in the adoption of “Instant Replay” technology for U.S. Open and U.S. Open Series matches and in its acquisition of interests in The Tennis Channel and in various U.S. Open Series tournaments leading up to the U.S. Open.
- Representation of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission in the relocation of the Washington Nationals (formerly the Montreal Expos) to Washington, DC and in the related financing, construction and leasing of a their new home stadium.
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