Athletics and Antitrust: Recreation or Big Business?

By Gaspare J. Bono, Stephen M. Chippendale and John W. Lomas, Jr., of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP   Contemporary athletics is a big business, and perhaps no area of the law has impacted sports more in recent years than antitrust. As discussed below, three recent federal court rulings—all by the Northern District of California—demonstrate that sports continue to be the subject of antitrust scrutiny, especially when competitors on the field are also collaborators in the boardroom.