#1: The Best Interests of Sport

Administrative Stuff

• Welcome!

• ANGEL/ syllabus

• Grading

• Computer policy

• Experimental video lectures

What is Sports Law?

• Applicable law comes in various forms– specific statutes (e.g. Title IX, agents’ registration acts)– judicial application of broadly worded statutes in specific context

of sports (antitrust, labor, IP)– arbitral or judicial interpretations of private agreements

• Applicable law tends to fall into one of two categories– specific rules need to learn (salary cap, NCAA eligibility

requirements, Title IX regs)– broadly worded statutes (antitrust “rule of reason,” MLB Const’s

“best interests of baseball”) that reflect policy judgments

Best Interest of Sport: Introductory Concepts

• Two recurring themes– Free market can’t resolve issues– Individual stakeholders’ interests diverge from long-

term interests of sport• Imagine that you were summoned by the chief advisor to

a benevolent dictator, and asked to explain to Her Majesty why she should allow sports in her realm: what are the socially beneficial functions of sport that would lead you to recommend that sports should continue/flourish?

Scope Note: Brief Word on Integrated Sports Structure

• In most of world, sports governance is integrated

• In US, sports are dis-integrated

Scope Note: Brief Word on Sports Gambling

• Consensus re match-fixing

• Other issues regarding legalized gambling

Different Contexts for Drug Issues

• Distinguish drug testing from drug use

• 3 different categories– illegal recreational drugs– legal recreational drugs (caffeine, nicotine,

alcohol)– performance enhancing drugs

Discipline for Recreational Drugs

• Wilson [41]: suspension for cocaine use– Rule 21(f), incorporated by reference in UPC, bars

“misconduct” that is “not to be in the best interests of baseball”– Art 11 of CBA permits players to be disciplined for “just cause”

• Putting aside individual contract issue between player and club if drug use diminishes performance, why is recreational drug use contrary to best interests of baseball?

• If teams bid heavily for druggies, doesn't this suggest that market adequately polices skills and fans don't care about drug abuse?

• If perception is key, what about domestic abusers? personal life?

Performance Enhancing Drugs

• What’s wrong with athlete’s use of PEDs?

• If concern is with behavior that is health-harming, should we also ban …– Caffeine– Playing hurt– Adding weight– Throwing curve balls?

Roger Clemens

• Why is steroid use unacceptable but abuse of Vioxx and cortisone is ok?

Politics and Crime• Unlike other sports where entry is privately

organized, in boxing promoters and boxers need licenses from state commissions

• Ali [1001]: NYAC denies license b/c the act of refusing to submit to draft, and conviction for the offense, is “detrimental to best interests of boxing”

• What sort of criminal or anti-social conduct is such that to permit miscreants to participate in sport is contrary to the best interests of the sport?

“Fundamental Essence of Sport”

• Two jurisprudential questions in Martin

– substantive question is what constitutes the “fundamental essence” of the sport of golf

– judicial question is what sort of independent review should courts give to private governing board’s determinations in this regard

• First legal issue: whether ADA requirement that “public accommodations” be available to the disabled where they can be “reasonably accommodated” applies to golfers, as opposed to spectators

Reasonable Accommodation under ADA

• Supreme Court’s doctrine– if granting relief would be “inconsistent with the

fundamental character of the game of golf” [1011], then it is not a reasonable accommodation and Martin loses

– if granting relief would give claimant an “unfair advantage,” then not a reasonable accommodation

• Majority concludes that allowing a disabled golfer to use a car is a reasonable accommodation– Do you agree?– Do you agree with Scalia that all sports rules are arbitrary?

If so, how does that affect determinations about the “best interests of the sport?”

Summing Up

• What do gambling, drug, crime, and disability cases say about what constitutes “the best interests of sport”?