Collective Bargaining in Professional Sports provides a timely and practical overview of the impact and importance of the collective bargaining process in the business of professional sports in the United States. Focusing on the contemporary history of collective bargaining in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL), but drawing out important lessons for all professional sports, the book sheds light on some of the key issues within modern sport business and sport governance. It offers an inside look into topics such as revenue sharing, competitive balance, circumvention of league rules, player free agency, player social activism, player discipline, and the ethical and legal issues around the use of wearable biometric tracking systems to collect player data. An essential read for sports business industry practitioners and students alike, this is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport business, sport law or labor relations. It is also a valuable resource for anyone who wants to increase their understanding of the business and financial operations of professional sports leagues and teams, player contracts and salaries, and the role and authority of professional sports league commissioners.

The Oxford Handbook of American Sports Law is a timely and engaging compilation of commentaries by leading experts on the most significant issues in US sports law. The book blends analysis of historical and contemporary controversies with prescriptions for how courts and lawmakers can reconcile the competing interests of leagues, owners, and players. The Handbook also establishes a foundation for future research on sports law issues. As technology and social media alter the ways fans, athletes, and team officials interact, legal doctrine will be challenged to adapt, and the Handbook both forecasts these debates and outlines where the law may be headed.

Private-sector collective bargaining in the United States is under siege. Many factors have contributed to this situation, including the development of global markets, a continuing antipathy toward unions by managers, and the declining effectiveness of strikes. This volume examines collective bargaining in eight major industries--airlines, automobile manufacturing, health care, hotels and casinos, newspaper publishing, professional sports, telecommunications, and trucking--to gain insight into the challenges the parties face and how they have responded to those challenges.The authors suggest that collective bargaining is evolving differently across the industries studied. While the forces constraining bargaining have not abated, changes in the global environment, including new security considerations, may create opportunities for unions. Across the industries, one thing is clear--private-sector collective bargaining is rapidly changing.

Collective Bargaining in Professional Sports provides a timely and practical overview of the impact and importance of the collective bargaining process in the business of professional sports in the United States. Focusing on the contemporary history of collective bargaining in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL), but drawing out important lessons for all professional sports, the book sheds light on some of the key issues within modern sport business and sport governance. It offers an inside look into topics such as revenue sharing, competitive balance, circumvention of league rules, player free agency, player social activism, player discipline, and the ethical and legal issues around the use of wearable biometric tracking systems to collect player data. An essential read for sports business industry practitioners and students alike, this is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in sport business, sport law or labor relations. It is also a valuable resource for anyone who wants to increase their understanding of the business and financial operations of professional sports leagues and teams, player contracts and salaries, and the role and authority of professional sports league commissioners.

Employment relations, much discussed in other industries, has often been neglected in professional sports despite its unique characteristics. The book aims to explore in detail the unique nature of the employment relationship in professional sports and the sport industry.

This book examines the employment arrangements of professional athletes in the Premier League football competition, the National Basketball Association competition and rugby union played at an international level. It describes the organisation and regulatory frameworks of these three professional team sports and highlights the legal, economic and regulatory factors that influence the final form of an athlete’s working conditions. It provides a comparative analysis between the sports on issues such as the role of collective bargaining, wage regulation, salary caps, nationality restrictions, eligibility, player movement and the acquisition of a player’s intellectual property. It discusses the approaches adopted in each sport for balancing the interests of labour and management, the problem of controlling private regulatory power in professional sport, and considers the extent to which legal or government intervention is required in an athlete’s employment relationship. National law can assist players in a domestic league to secure an involvement in the determination of working conditions but it has a more limited effect in a competition organised by an international governing body. This book argues that social regulation through soft law processes at an international level may benefit athletes, consumers and sport globally. It provides a useful case example for comparison with the organisation of other professional team sports in Europe, North America and Australasia. This book is important reading for scholars and practitioners in the fields of international sports law, employment law, competition law, European law and human rights law. It is also highly recommended for students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels taking modules and courses in Sports Law or Sports Business Management. Dr. Leanne O’Leary is a dual-qualified solicitor, Senior Lecturer in Law and member of the Centre for Sports Law Research at Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom. This book appears in the ASSER International Sports Law Series, under the editorship of Prof. Dr. Ben Van Rompuy and Dr. Antoine Duval.