Sports Law – Company Analysis

Sports Law – Company Analysis

The Potential Issues With the Sale of the Team

One potential issue with the team’s sale is the lack of clear goals and vision. Currently, the team is performing poorly because the members and management are not working towards common goals resulting in internal conflicts and poor allocation of funds to support the activities that enhance the team’s performance. The second issue is the lack of morale among the players. This issue often arises when players are put in unacceptable positions due to bias and discrimination. For instance, if players are not compensated well, they may feel that they are giving too much and contributing to the team’s success, but their efforts are not rewarded. Benching team players who never miss practice could also lower their morale, affecting the team’s overall performance. The third potential issue is the lack of upfront investment from the players, thus reducing commitment because the team members are only tied by their mentor’s expectations and vision. The fourth issue is tossing players under the bus to protect the team. This issue creates a poor reputation for a team and may make some players withdraw their contracts and join other teams. It also limits the team’s chances of acquiring new talented players, thus stunting its growth.

The Impact of the Four Tort Lawsuits Pending Against the Organization

The four tort lawsuits against the team may result in fines due to failure to adhere to the team’s duty of care. The team may also be suspended from playing in the National Women’s Soccer League due to proximate cause, damages, and breach of duty evident in the incident that resulted in the lawsuits. The team’s management has a duty to protect its players from any harm, including harm arising from their interaction with the fans and the general manager. This duty could be enforced by statutes such as a law requiring fans to stay outside the pitch and search spectators’ bags before entering the stadium. The team’s management has a duty to anticipate foreseeable dangers such as when fans storm the field after a victory and take necessary precautions to protect the players. The team is obliged to compensate the players who sustained injuries because the injuries resulted from a breach of duty. Breach of duty arises when the team’s management fails to act, resulting in a poor standard of care. For instance, those in charge of the Galveston Country Pride all-female professional soccer team’s management should have enacted a safety rule that outlines the expected standard of care and deploying security personnel to keep fans out of the field under any circumstances.

The incident also clearly demonstrated proximate cause because the team’s management’s negligent action of letting fans storm the field by failing to deploy enough security personnel to prevent the incident resulted in the injury of four people, including a minor. There was also an actual injury, thus creating a justification for damages that could be compensated through fines and monetary compensation to the injured person. The team may be required to cater to the medical expenses of those injured during the incident because it is the team management’s negligence that led to the incident. Therefore, the fans cannot be blamed for storming the field because they were celebrating the team’s victory, and nobody stopped them from entering the field. Therefore, the incident could significantly impact the team’s financial stability because most of the financial resources will be used for legal fees and fines. The team may not play until the lawsuits are settled, hence halting the funding the team receives from investors and donors.

The pay structure for female athletes in the NWSL with an emphasis on potential future collective bargaining agreements and how that can affect business viability

There is a huge difference between how male and female athletes are paid. A survey conducted by the Sporting Intelligence Global Sports Salary Survey in 2017 found that female and male athletes playing the same sports are paid differently due to the increased discrimination of women in the sports industry. The survey found that female athletes are paid as low as a hundredth of the amount of money paid to their male counterparts (Sporting Intelligence, 2017). One of the main factors contributing to the pay disparity is poor management of the pay structure in the sports industry (Archer & Prange, 2019). For example, when a team from a separate division is created for professional sports among women, the amount of money paid to the winner is often low compared to that paid to a male winner. The justification for the pay disparity is that female sports are of lower quality compared to male sports. Male sports have also dominated social media platforms and are given a lot of praise and recognition. This is evident in male soccer teams in the Premier league that have gained global recognition due to betting sites that focus on creating a large fan base to increase the number of people placing bets.

Lawsuits associated with pay discrimination in the sports industry indicate that women’s rights are infringed when discussing and implementing pay structures. The discrimination mainly arises from administrations that are only concerned about enriching themselves at the expense of players’ welfare. The collective negotiation held between 2015 and 2017 held that the men’s and women’s tournament structure should be restructured to raise women’s pay. It also proposed considering general athlete needs in creating budgets relating to facility provisions without focusing on the gender of the athlete. The United States Women’s National Team filed a suit indicating that the United States has portrayed a high degree of failure to consider valuable aspects to execute better consideration and pay. The team’s pursuit maintains that there were cases of institutionalized gender discrimination resulting in gender-based pay disparity against athletes across the country despite the terms of their employment agreements.

There have been call-ups in both female and male national team players. In the United States, national players for male and female teams are represented by unions with differing collective bargaining agreement structures. The difference in the structures has exposed female national teams to drawbacks in pushing for equal pay (Paule-Koba et al., 2020). Female athletes are also expected to operate under a hybrid system, unlike their male counterparts, because the union only signs a specific number of players on a full-time basis while others are required to sign contracts that only cater for accommodation with little pay (Fisher, 2018). The pay for full-time players is often low, and sometimes players have to wait for more than one month to receive their pay. However, for male athletes, payments are made based on pay-for-play agreements. They are also paid every time they are called to play for national teams and get other off-field services if they are injured. Therefore, the gender pay gap can affect the success of female national teams due to a lack of morale among female athletes and their reluctance to play for national teams due to the fear that they may have to wait for months to receive their pay.

Policy for the team to review athletes’ contracts for endorsement deals that ensures the integrity and prosperity of the team

Policy scope

The policy will cover all female athletes in the Galveston Country Pride all-female professional soccer team.

Integrity and prosperity

All team members will be expected to make personal appearances that do not affect any scheduled matches. Full compensation will be provided to all players who play during the scheduled matches, including those who may get injuries that force them to withdraw from the game during a match.

Handling internal matters

The team’s management will address all internal matters, and no internal matters related to the team will be mentioned in the endorsement. Internal matters will also not be disclosed to an individual if the matter harms the individual or the integrity of any player in the team.

Relationships among team members

There will be no showcasing of relationships among team members because relationships are personal and should not be used as a medium of advertisement or entertainment.

Match appearances

Match appearances shall not exceed the number of hours agreed upon by the team management and the players. Team members will be informed about the number of hours before the date of the match to ensure that they are fully prepared.

Endorsements

Endorsements should not affect the team’s image. Team members and the management team are prohibited from discussing or disclosing internal matters that could affect a team member’s integrity.

Policy violation

All team members will be required to follow the terms of the policy at all times. Policy violations will be addressed by punishment imposed by the team’s management board.

The impact of potential lawsuits for equal pay for female athletes as compared with men’s salaries in professional soccer

One of the impacts of potential lawsuits for equal pay among female and male athletes is the increased cost of running the team because the team management will be required to adjust their pay structure and use the available finances to ensure that their female athletes are paid the same amount of money their male counterparts are paid. The team could use most of its financial resources to pay athletes and limit the amount of funds available to fund other operations in the team. The second impact may be donor withdrawal. Some donors may withdraw their funding because of the lawsuits due to the perspective that the funds are only benefiting the team’s management board and are not being used to compensate players appropriately. Some donors may also reduce the amount of money they donate to the team hence creating financial constraints.

Potential trademark and other intellectual trademark issues involved in the sale of the professional sports franchise

Every team has its trademark, which is used as its brand identity. The main potential trademark issue involving the sale of the professional team is the ownership of the team’s name. Currently, the team is named Galveston Country Pride all-female professional soccer team because it is owned by a local Galveston, Texas, country music radio and internet station. Therefore, the change of ownership would require changing the team’s name because it will no longer be associated with the country music radio and internet station. However, the buyer may feel that changing the name will make the team lose some fans because some fans may be supporting the team due to its affiliation with the radio and internet stations. On the other hand, the station may argue that the buyer cannot continue using the original name because it would be benefiting from the already-established relationship between the station’s listeners and the team’s fans.

References

Archer, A., & Prange, M. (2019). ‘Equal play, equal pay’: Moral grounds for equal pay in football. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 46(3), 416-436. https://doi.org/10.1080/00948705.2019.1622125

Fisher, C. D. (2018). The face of football bodies: ‘Resisting market enclosure and imagining another (Football) future’. Seven Faces of Women’s Sport, 59-79. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78743-710-420181005

Paule-Koba, A., Cooky, C., Cooper, J., & Watanabe, N. M. (2020). Chasing Equity: The Triumphs, Challenges, and Opportunities in Sports for Girls and Women.

Sporting Intelligence. (2017). Global Sports Salaries Survey 2017. https://globalsportssalaries.com/GSSS%202017.pdf

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Prior to beginning work on this final paper, review The EEOC Backs U.S. Women’s Soccer Team in Pay Discrimination Case (Links to an external site.). It is suggested that you review the National Women’s Soccer League (Links to an external site.) official website and Chasing Equity: The Triumphs, Challenges, and Opportunities in Sports for Girls and Women (Links to an external site.).

You are a recent UAGC graduate from the Forbes School of Business, and your first job is with the Galveston Country Pride all-female professional soccer team which is a member-team of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). The team is currently owned by a local Galveston, Texas, country music radio and internet station. The team meets its expenses each year but is coming under increasing financial duress due to a myriad of issues. The team has been for sale for several months with no potential buyers.

Your supervisor tasks you with creating an objective risk/benefit analysis for the owners of the club to ensure the ownership group of the difficulties and profits to be gained by selling the team. There are currently four tort lawsuits pending against the organization for injuries to four people (one a minor) sustained after a victory in 2019 when fans stormed the rain-drenched field after a victory. Two of the injured were hospitalized for over a month, while the injuries to the other two did not require hospitalization. The requested damages in the lawsuits are unspecified.

Provide a thorough analysis examining the potential issues with the sale of the team, including but not limited, to the following points:

In your paper,

Analyze in depth the potential issues with the sale of the team.
Assess the impact of the four tort lawsuits pending against the organization for injuries to four people (one a minor).
Evaluate the pay structure for female athletes in the NWSL with an emphasis on potential future collective bargaining agreements and how that can affect business viability.
Create a policy for the team to review athletes’ contracts for endorsement deals that ensure the integrity and prosperity of the team.
Analyze the impact of potential lawsuits for equal pay for female athletes as compared with men’s salaries in professional soccer.
Identify potential trademark and other intellectual trademark issues involved in the sale of the professional sports franchise.

REFERENCE Moorman, A. M., Sharp, L., & Claussen, C. (Eds.). (2021). Sports law: A managerial approach (4th ed.). Routledge.