Sports Law 2010: Does the NBA Still Have Market Power?

In the 2002 case Fraser v. Major League Soccer, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a jury's finding that Major League Soccer clubs compete in an international market for men's professional soccer labor and thus lack enough "market power" to collude illegally under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.

Since Fraser, few courts have addressed the geographic market definition issue in a labor-side antitrust matter. However, as we approach the 2010s, this issue seems likely to resurface.

In my newest law review article, Does the NBA Still Have Market Power? Exploring the Antitrust Implications of an Increasingly Global Market for Men's Basketball Player Labor (to be published in Volume 41 of Rutgers Law Journal), I discuss the potential antitrust implications of approximately 10-15% of the premier men's basketball labor force moving seamlessly between the NBA and foreign leagues.

Presuming the Supreme Court does not cut away too much at sports-antitrust law when it rules in American Needle v. Nat'l Football League (oral arguments begin Jan. 13, 2010), I predict the issue of geographic market definition will emerge as an important one for sports law in the upcoming decade.