USA : A Structural Overview of Competition Law as Applied to U.S. Major League Team Sports

The business of major league team sports in the United States was once viewed as something different under competition law, with much deference afforded the "sporting" world. However, these industries have become multi-billion dollar enterprises with broad economic impacts. The application of competition law to U.S. major league team sports has been fundamental to the structure and history of these industries. Anachronistic exemptions from the antitrust laws for sports enterprises have been in retreat, and college athletic competitions that generate billions of dollars in annual revenues are now under renewed competition law scrutiny. Notwithstanding the greater application of the antitrust laws to these "sports," they have thrived economically with substantial revenue increases and greater flexibility as teams have more opportunities to compete with one another. The increased application of competition law to major league sports teams in the U.S. has been a great benefit to consumers. This experience should be well considered as the EU and other areas consider how competition law should apply to sporting enterprises