Hi guys, I was recently assigned a research paper for my sports law class. I am definitely interested in writing about tri/multisport/cycling/running community. The first big topics that came up to mind were 50WTK and doping. I can easily find lots of information, but looking for actual legal documents concerning these topics have been more difficult. I was wondering if anyone (A) has suggestions for other topics? or (B) knows where I could find more information on either of the topics I mentioned concerning the legalities of them.
Thanks!
Taught sports law for years. You should write about differences between ISPs and team sport athletes. Or you could cover doping issues etc
Thanks…I may send you a message in the future. Would be interested in hearing your thoughts on something. I am really interested in doping, but I’m not sure how to make it a “law paper” versus any old high school research paper.
You could cover the international law aspects, complying with WADA and USADA etc, going through the Court of Arbitration for Sport etc etc. You could cover contract law aspects, such as effect on sponsorship and marketability, compliance with contract clauses and breach of contract.
Liability issues for course cutters. Fraud charges (esp. if they won anything of value). Restitution to those they “beat”, etc.
To me it’s interesting that they rarely seem to face charges.
You would have tons of information if you were willing to look outside of our community. Soccer for instance has had many cases that were
widely publicized and forced multiple countries and the European court to look at transfers (Bosman ruling). There is currently a discussion to
completely rethink the transfer regulations and this will without a doubt be settled with the European court again if they move forward. Currently,
unlike the NFL, soccer is virtually free of any caps etc. and it’s always the same clubs who get the same best players and who get richer.
Another (somewhat) interesting case if you’re into motorsports is the law pertaining to tobacco and alcohol advertisement in Europe and how it’s
affected F1, enduro, etc. Several years ago, many European countries decided to ban tobacco and alcohol ads in some way, and it led to interesting
cases since Ricard (among others) was the main sponsor of several races (yep…a strong alcohol, very popular in the south of France, main sponsor
of big auto racing events). All these are widely discussed online and you could easily find tons of documents.
And of course, if you really want to scratch your head (I’d suggest bringing up the topic in the lavender room 
) you could investigate the
law as it relates to transgender and hermaphrodite participants in professional sports.
I just did on campus interviews for law clerks for my law firm. It was interesting hearing what they were all doing their law review notes on. Collective bargaining seems to be a popular topic these days. I think the idea of paying college athletes is interesting. FIFA also has a host of issues going on that you could write about.
If you’re interested in doping as it relates to tri (and sports in general), there is an interesting debate going on about whether the government could create criminal sanctions for dopers. Does discouragement of doping rise to the level of a public interest such that it warrants criminal sanctions? Another issue could be private causes of action, i.e. if there are two racers, one dopes and the other doesn’t, could the non-doping racer sue the doper for negatively affecting their race?
Sometimes I wish I was back in school so I could just think about these theoretical things instead of the stuff I have to deal with on a day to day basis!
What about the special tax status given to the IOC and its associated national federations? The IOC is essentially a very large, diverse, entertainment company, so why are they afforded special status? Back in the days when Olympic athletes were amateur, I could see an argument for special status. But today, there is no longer an amateur/pro distinction required. So how is the IOC any different from Nascar, NFL, X-Games, etc.?
So how did they get the status, do they still deserve it, etc.
Well the NFL was a not for profit until April this year. And then they realize that it was advantageous for them to forego this status. Interesting rationale…
Plenty of recent stuff with Deflategate. In fact, UNH sports law professor Michael McCann (also a contributor to Sports Illustrated) is teaching a course on it this year. He’s a good Twitter follow also.
A study of trademark law related to Ironman™ would also be interesting. WTC did not apply for the mark until 1990. I believe that “ironman” was in widespread international use by that point.
Now trademark law has created a near monopoly; independent races cannot fight WTC because “winning” would cost too much. Is the trademark system working?
How about the IP issues relating to coaching or a specific examination of privacy or anti competitive law with regards to zwift or strava as a platform for data sharing.