Comments on: Interview With Michael McCann

By: hggo2 » Blog Archive » Interview With Michael McCann

hggo2 » Blog Archive » Interview With Michael McCann — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:12:28 +0000

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life experience degree » Interview With Michael McCann — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 04:13:55 +0000

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By: Jason Wulterkens

Jason Wulterkens — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 02:08:23 +0000

Yeah no doubt sports have definitely been treated differently. Specifically though the history of the courts and Major League Baseball, which could’ve been an entire course in and of itself!

By: Matthew Allinson

Matthew Allinson — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 01:50:23 +0000

Jason, I completely agree. Sports law was one of the toughest courses I took in law school. I thought it would be very entertaining and easy, but it turned out to be the complete opposite. It has a mix of every area of law, including labor, intellectual property, anti-trust, licensing, and criminal law. It is basically a course that covers every area of law in the context of the crazy world of sports, which always seems to have its own twist and is often treated differently by courts.

By: Jason Wulterkens

Jason Wulterkens — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:10:57 +0000

True. However, what’s tough is for fans in these smaller markets to grasp that they can’t hang onto their stars forever, whereas teams like the Yankees can literally just pick them up whenever. Case in point is Johan Santana for the Twins. One of the faces of the franchise, arguably one of the greatest pitchers in team history, and people are talking about him commanding over $20 mil/season (thank you, Barry Zito) for his next deal.

Now when our payroll is around $70/mil, there’s little chance to keep him unless he accepts well under his market value. Over the very, very long run, I still give the competitive edge to teams like the Yankees and Red Sox that won’t blink at numbers like that, versus teams like the Twins who have to get somewhat lucky and try and replace stars like Santana via their farm system and cheaper free agents.

By: Darren

Darren — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:53:36 +0000

Thanks for the comments.

Going back to what McCann said about a cap not necessarily being necessary in the MLB…take a look at this year’s playoffs. Arizona Diamondbacks have a team payroll of $52M. Colorado Rockies – $54M. Cleveland Indians – $61M.

New York Yankees will be sitting at home watching the rest of the playoffs with their $200M payroll.

By: jason

jason — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 23:34:04 +0000

One of the best interviews yet. Great job.

Believe it or not, “Sports Law” as it’s taught is actually one of the hardest classes from an intellectual standpoint in law school, in my opinion. Labor and Antitrust law is some seriously convoluted and murky stuff. If you need convincing, just head over to the sportslaw blog and try and navigate your way through the N.Y. Rangers-NHL/single entity issue.

By: Nate Jones

Nate Jones — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:48:26 +0000

Loved the interview. Good stuff!