Partner Kevin R. Schulz was quoted in a Law360 article titled, “4 Ways The Pandemic Altered Sports Law, For Better Or Worse.”
In discussing how the pandemic negatively impacted the sports industry, Schulz told Law360 that such effects included putting an economic strain on relationships that lessened an emphasis on “win-win” models of negotiation. As it relates to mergers and acquisitions, media rights and sponsorship deals, Schulz told the outlet: “I am looking forward to a time when we can get back to the true win-win situations in these sports deals without the downward drag of the pandemic.”
For example, Schulz alluded to a team not wanting to discount a sponsorship deal, viewing the COVID-19 disruption as a mere aberration. In that situation, the sponsor may be less inclined to pay the price it would have paid before the pandemic because it may not see the same value or because marketing budgets have shrunk due to the pandemic’s impact on underlying businesses