Industries
Sports Law
Overview
Gibson Dunn’s Sports Law Practice Group advises clients on the most complex sports industry matters, from the purchase and sale of U.S. and non-U.S. professional teams to precedent-setting litigation.
Gibson Dunn’s global sports practice represents a wide range of clients in matters relating to professional and amateur sports, including individual teams, sports facilities, athletic associations, athletes, financial institutions, broadcasters, sponsors and municipalities. The group operates as a single, multidisciplinary practice across the firm’s global offices, collaborating as each matter requires with colleagues in particular transactional, dispute resolution and regulatory areas. With some of the world’s finest practices that include M&A, finance, antitrust and litigation, we are uniquely qualified to offer clients innovative solutions in the following sports-related matters, among others:
- Acquisitions and dispositions of professional franchises and sports-related businesses
- Minority investments in sports teams
- Acquisition financing
- Strategic joint ventures
- Venue development (including public-private partnerships)
- Media rights representations
- Sponsorship transactions, including naming rights
- Arbitrations before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other Olympic movement international and U.S. governing bodies
- Arbitrations arising pursuant to dispute resolution provisions in professional sports contracts
- Litigation of sports disputes in U.S. federal and state courts
- Antitrust counseling and representation
- Collective bargaining and other labor matters
- Crisis management
- Organization of sporting organizations and competitions
- Development and enforcement of association rules and regulations
- Intellectual property and licensing
- Reorganizations and bankruptcy proceedings
“They are a great group of hard-working, smart and effective attorneys.”
Chambers USA
Experience
Recent representations include:
- RedBird Capital Partners: Advised RedBird Capital Partners in its $3.47 billion acquisition of the YES Network, a regional sports network, with an investor group including Yankee Global Enterprises, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, and others from The Walt Disney Company as well as the $1.2 billion acquisition of Italy’s AC Milan Football Club.
- Otro Capital and RedBird Capital: Advised Otro Capital and RedBird Capital in their investment in Alpine Racing, a world class F1 team that finished top 4 in the 2022 F1 World Championship.
- National Football League: Advised the National Football League, a professional sports league, in its joint venture with Skydance Media, a diversified media company, to create a global multi-sports production studio with Skydance Sports, developer of scripted and unscripted sports-related content and events.
- Shaquille O’Neal and Jersey Legends: Advised Shaquille O’Neal and his production company Jersey Legends, known for its award-winning, sports-orientated documentary content, on its strategic partnership with the newly formed Authentic Studios, the entertainment division of global brand development platform Authentic Brands Group.
- LIV Golf: Advised LIV Golf in its formation, development and all general corporate matters related to league operations.
- Beemok Capital: Advised Beemok Capital, a family office, on the acquisition of Cincinnati’s Western and Southern Open tournament from the United States Tennis Association, the governing body of U.S. tennis.
Recent representations include:
- New York Belmont Retail Partners: Advised New York Belmont Retail Partners in a master ground lease and three sub-ground leases for land owned by Empire State Development as part of the Belmont Park Redevelopment Project, which includes the development of UBS Arena, home of the NHL’s New York Islanders, and ongoing development of a retail center and garage located in Elmont, New York as the first Bicester Village destination retail center in the United States of Value Retail.
- Oakland A’s: Advising Oakland A’s Major League Baseball team in its efforts to develop a new stadium and ancillary development, first in Oakland and now, with the team’s announced relocation plans, in Las Vegas.
- The Kroenke Group: Advising the Kroenke Group, owner of the former St. Louis Rams football franchise, in leading the development team implementing the multi-billion dollar sports and entertainment complex on 298 acres in Inglewood, including SoFi Stadium and the YouTube Theatre.
- Murphy’s Bowl LLC: Advising Murphy’s Bowl in the land acquisition and pre-development strategy for the $1.2 billion Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center (IBEC), also known as the Intuit Dome, as the new home of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team as well as a fourth major concert venue in the City of Inglewood.
- The Golden State Warriors: Advising The Golden State Warriors in their successful entitlement of a new event center and mixed use development in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco.
- The Los Angeles Rams: Advised The Los Angeles Rams on the successful entitlement of the Team’s practice facility in the Warner Center neighborhood of Los Angeles.
- The City of Los Angeles: Advised the City of Los Angeles in the public-private partnership aspects of the construction of the Staples Center.