When faced with high stakes, high visibility lawsuits, professional sports leagues for many years have turned to Covington’s litigators. And for good reason: In the last decade alone, Covington has successfully defended professional sports leagues in lawsuits challenging the terms of employment for practice players, college player eligibility rules, stadium lease arrangements, franchise relocation policies, and many other policies and practices. The venues have been no less varied and extensive: from the state courts of California to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Our sports litigation and regulatory lawyers tackle a wide range of sports-specific disputes, including:
- litigating antitrust claims unique to the sports industry;
- litigation over constitutional claims arising from security-related patdowns of all fans entering a sports facility on game day;
- arbitration, including in the Court of Arbitration for Sports, over anti-doping standards;
- enforcement of copyright and trademark rights in sports media content of leagues, individual teams and stadium/arena entities;
- advice on sports equipment and facility liability issues; and
- broadcast regulatory actions, involving FCC license issues as diverse as the FCC’s indecency policy in sports broadcasts and the application of cable “must carry” rules in affiliation disputes between sports television networks and the cable, satellite, and broadcast operators that carry them.
Representative Matters
To cite just a few examples of our sports litigation efforts, Covington has successfully defended the NFL’s franchise relocation rules -- and its limit on the number of franchises -- in three separate antitrust actions in recent years:
- In the late 1990s, following a six-week federal jury trial, Covington secured a directed verdict, ultimately affirmed by the Eighth Circuit, in a suit brought by the Rams’ stadium landlord in the wake of the club’s relocation to St. Louis.
- In 2005, Covington secured the dismissal, ultimately affirmed by the Third Circuit, of a similar challenge, brought by a taxpayer plaintiff, to the terms of the Steelers’ stadium lease.
- In 2006, following three years of litigation, Covington secured summary judgment, recently affirmed by the Sixth Circuit, of a similar challenge brought by Hamilton County, the Bengals’ stadium landlord.
In each of these cases, the skills of Covington’s litigation team, coupled with the firm’s extensive institutional knowledge of the law and business of professional sports, contributed mightily to the outcome.
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