The Latest
The lawyer's take on today's biggest sports stories.
- Governance
The Next WNBA Commissioner Won't Fix the CBA. Players Already Won It. The Real Fix Is Who the Job Reports To.
A seven-year deal ties pay to revenue through 2032. What players want now, accountability, isn't a contract term. It's a reporting line to Adam Silver.
- Contract
A $2,809 World Series Ticket Is Legal. Hiding Part of the Price Until Checkout Isn't.
Federal law doesn't cap what a resold ticket costs. The FTC's fee rule polices something else: whether the price you see is the price you pay.
- Labor & CBA
Can MLB Owners Force a Salary Cap? They Can Lock Out the Players. They Can't Impose the Cap.
A lockout stops the games but writes no terms. A cap needs the union's signature or a genuine impasse, and baseball's owners lost that fight in federal court in 1995.
- Governance
The NCAA Is Right That Ohio Can't Rewrite Its Eligibility Rules. It May Have Sued Too Soon.
A 1993 case says one state can't dictate a national association's rules. But DeWine's order commands no one, and no Ohio school has used it yet.
- Governance
A 24-Team College Football Playoff Isn't the NCAA's Call. It's a Contract Between ESPN and Two Conferences.
The conferences own the playoff, the Big Ten and SEC hold the veto, and ESPN writes the check. Read the access and revenue terms before calling it opportunity.
- Media Rights
ESPN Isn't Losing Troy Aikman to an Argument. It's Risking Him on a Calendar.
Aikman calls himself a free agent after this season. How free he really is depends on a clause nobody has reported: whether ESPN can match.
- Discipline
Alaric Jackson's Punch Came After the Whistle. That's Why It Cost Him Two Games.
Once a game ends there's no flag to throw. League discipline is the only penalty left, and the postgame handshake is the worst place to need it.
- Governance
Kentucky Couldn't Negotiate Its $500,000 Field-Storming Fine. It Needed 90 Seconds.
The SEC's rule doesn't really ban storming the field. It bans storming before the visitors and officials get off it, and that's the only way out of the fine.
- Governance
Will Man City Be Relegated? Guilty on Every Financial Charge, and Still No Punishment. Here's Why.
The Premier League's rules split guilt and sentence into two hearings. Only one has happened, and the gap between them is now City's most valuable asset.
- Governance
The Fan Interference Call Was Right. The Run That Decided It Came From One Official's Opinion.
Baseball's rule settled the fan in seconds. What would have happened without him was a judgment call, final and beyond protest.
- Gambling
Are Prediction Markets Gambling? The NFL Told the Supreme Court Yes. What It Really Wants Is a Referee.
The NFL partners with licensed sportsbooks and just told the Court Kalshi is gambling. Both can be true: its line is policed betting versus unpoliced betting.
- Antitrust
The EuroLeague Can Say No to the NBA. EU Law Won't Let It Stop Its Clubs From Saying Yes.
The rejection doesn't stop NBA Europe. It only takes the EuroLeague out of the room, with weaker tools to hold its clubs than it thinks.
- Labor & CBA
LeBron's Fanatics Helicopter Is Legal. The Line That Makes It Legal Is the Problem.
The NBA's circumvention rules stop at team ownership. Fanatics' CEO sold his Sixers stake in 2022, and that is what puts LeBron's commute outside them.
- Discipline
The NFL Held a Referee to the Same Standard as a Player. The Officials' Union Contract Decides If It Sticks.
Adrian Hill's one-game suspension is the first public test of the accountability terms the league bargained for in May.
- Governance
The NCAA's Concussion Rule Keeps Coaches Out of the Decision. It Doesn't Let the Player In.
Team physicians hold "unchallengeable" authority over return-to-play. That shields them from coaches, and gives the athlete's own doctor no role at all.
- Public Finance
A Public Bears Stadium Is the Right Deal. It Only Kills the Tax Bill If One Clause Makes the Bill.
Illinois law taxes a private tenant's lease on public property. Public ownership saves the Bears nothing unless lawmakers exempt the leasehold.
- Labor & CBA
The Pistons Paid $10 Million to Beat a Threat the CBA Had Already Neutralized.
Duren's qualifying-offer route topped out below Detroit's offer, because only his own team could give him a fifth year.
- Labor & CBA
Japan Can't Wall In Its Stars. Its Real Problem This Winter Is MLB's Labor Fight.
NPB controls when a star leaves, but not what he's worth or when he can sign. Both are set by agreements it isn't part of.
- Contract
Golden State Didn't Get a Discount on Curry. It Bought All the Risk.
Curry took $20 million under his max. He kept the player option on his age-41 season. The Warriors carry the rest.
- Gambling
Massachusetts Already Regulates Sportsbook AI. The Rule Turns on What DraftKings Knew.
205 CMR 257.02 doesn't ban AI targeting. It bans targeting an operator knows or reasonably expects makes betting more addictive.
- Antitrust
The Paramount Settlement Protects Movies and CNN. Nobody Asked About Sports.
The deal builds the biggest sports rights portfolio after ESPN. Not one concession touches it.
- Antitrust
The Senate's College Sports Bill Isn't About NIL. It's About Antitrust Immunity.
Athletes get codified protections. Schools get a cap backed by statute and a media-rights exemption. That's the trade.
- Governance
Apollo's Yankees Stake Might Already Be Over MLB's Cap
The Steinbrenners are selling at least 4%. Reporting puts Apollo's total position at 16%. MLB's own rule caps a single fund at 15%.
- Governance
The International Team Asked for Independence. The Tour Is Offering Permission.
The PGA Tour owns both sides of the Presidents Cup. Every change it has floated so far can be taken back by the Tour.
- Governance
Phil Mickelson's LIV Money Was Never Just $200 Million
He took equity over cash on a calculated bet. LIV's Chapter 11 filing is what that bet is worth now.
- Labor & CBA
Did the "Cohen Tax" work or backfire?
A mechanism built to make Steve Cohen's spending more expensive appears to have helped push the Mets' home run leader out the door -- and he hit a career milestone against them months later.
- Antitrust
Twenty-one eligibility suits, one motion, and a clock that does not care.
The NCAA wants the eligibility cases before a single judge. For an athlete suing for one more season, where the case sits is the case.
- Contract
Five of Miami's top six salaries aren't on the team.
The Dolphins are carrying an all-time record $182.29 million in dead cap. It was built on purpose.
- Gambling
The bettor isn't the licensee. That's why the review is of FanDuel.
Massachusetts puts the proxy-betting duty on the operator, and that placement decides who is actually exposed here.
- Labor & CBA
The Clippers didn't overpay Kawhi. They routed around the cap.
Four endorsement deals with companies doing business with the team, and a set of penalties that price the conduct rather than punish the contract.
- NIL
LSU's roster costs twice the cap. Both numbers are real.
The House settlement created an enforceable cap and an unlimited second track running beside it.
- Governance
"Does not set a precedent" is a drafting choice, not a disclaimer.
The PGA Tour wrote itself room to treat the next returning member differently. Whether it uses that room is still untested.
- Contract
The Browns aren't stuck with Watson. They're stuck with the restructure.
A cap-relief tool became the mechanism keeping Cleveland locked in.
- Ownership
The Lakers price isn't the story. The fund structure is.
Permanent capital rarely makes sense in venture. League governance is why it works here.
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