Supreme Court to Consider NFL's Antitrust Status

2 years ago

0 Comments Say Something »

Text Size

Correspondent

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments this month on whether the National Football League should be considered as a single entity or as separate businesses when defending against antitrust claims.

Lawyers for pro football owners will ask the justices to rule that the NFL should be shielded from antitrust laws because its teams, while competitive on the field, function in business as one entity.

If exempted from the antitrust laws, owners could get together to restrict salaries for players and coaches and raise prices for tickets, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In the early 1990s NFL players won an antitrust suit that gave them the right to sell their services as "free agents." The agreement expires next year. Players want to extend it but owners want it abolished.

"For the NFL, this case is like buying a lottery ticket. If they win, it's a huge victory, with the potential to be incredibly significant," Tulane University professor Gabe Feldman told the paper. "If not, they don't lose much."

Arguments begin Jan. 13.

Filed Under: Supreme Court

Tagged: antitrust law, AntitrustLaw, Daily Guidance, DailyGuidance, NFL, supreme court, SupremeCourt

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.