Haynes and Boone's Newsroom

The Business of Baseball Explored at Sports and Entertainment Breakfast Roundtable
07/24/2009

NEW YORK – Four luminaries from the baseball world explored the business side of the major and minor leagues in a wide-ranging and lively discussion presented in the latest Haynes and Boone, LLP sports and entertainment breakfast roundtable.

Entitled “The Business of Baseball from the Minor Leagues to the Major Leagues,” the session included Sylvia Lind, Major League Baseball’s director of baseball operations, who detailed the league’s efforts at worldwide expansion.

That campaign now includes the World Baseball Classic, which features the U.S. and national teams from foreign countries in an extended tournament during non-Olympic years. “It’s so intriguing to be part of the World Baseball Classic and go to any of these venues and see how the culture of other places is intertwined with baseball,” she said.

Another panel participant, Gary Perone, the Brooklyn Cyclones director of new business development, discussed the changing relationship between minor league teams and their major league affiliates. One example mentioned by him was how minor league promotions have pushed the major leagues to experiment with new concepts and to re-focus energies on the stadium experience that fans expect when they come to a game.

The right mix of messages and give-aways can be invaluable in attracting press and fan attention to minor league’s smaller venues. One of his favorite examples was when the team for one day changed its name to the “Barack-lyn Cyclones.” The idea was to key on the fact that Brooklyn turned out to vote for President Obama in higher numbers than any other borough, giving away Obama bobblehead dolls and hiring an Obama impersonator to prank the crowd. “When you go to the gate before the game and you have 5,000 people waiting for a bobblehead, you know you’ve done your job,” Mr. Perone said.

Emil Bodenstein, a baseball scout, fantasy baseball columnist and CEO of Locker Room Memorabilia, told the audience that events like MLB’s Futures Games have provided new and valuable venues for evaluating foreign-born talent, as well as emerging US talent.

Art Shamsky, a member of the World Champion 1969 Mets, provided insight into one overseas effort to expand baseball. He discussed his experience as manager of the Modi'in Miracle of the Israel Baseball League, exploring the reasons behind that league’s failure and the promise of its resurrection in the future.

“I want to thank Haynes and Boone for having us here,” said Mr. Bodenstein. “Obviously, based on the attendance, these breakfast meetings are needed.”

Roundtable moderator and head of the law firm’s Sports and Entertainment Practice Group, Ed Schauder, said this second roundtable in the series was a resounding success. “We’re ecstatic about the extensive interest this effort has generated within the sports and entertainment worlds,” he said.

Attendance at the events is by invitation only. Interested parties who are unable to attend may access podcasts available for download at the Haynes and Boone Web site.

The next session, scheduled for Sept. 9, will take a detailed look at the planning behind the 2011 World Police and Fire Games in New York on the ten-year anniversary of September 11, 2001.

The Haynes and Boone Sports and Entertainment Practice focuses on representing franchise owners and executives, sponsors, film-makers and producers in the sports and entertainment industries, as well as lenders and investors, by drawing on the firm’s full resources, which include more than 500 lawyers across 30 practice areas and a dozen offices worldwide.