It’s that time again when we take a look at what’s been happening in hockey’s business and legal world. Once a week we cover the big and not so big stories in this arena. We also include a featured story of the period. Let’s take a look at what has been happening this period.
Hockey’s Business and Legal News
FTC Bans Noncompete Agreements – The Ripples Will Be Felt in Hockey
Recently the Federal Trade Commission issued a final regulation prohibiting the use of noncompete clauses and agreements in employment or employment like contracts. The regulation will go into effect sometime in August of 2024. But this is important as it affects employment contracts across the board. This could include NIL agreements as well as professionals’ abilities to play in multiple leagues. How this will specifically affect hockey is to be seen, but it will certainly be felt.
The FTC banning noncompetes has enormous implications for the sports industry. From coaches' contracts, to prohibitions on athletes playing in two leagues, to NIL and endorsement deals, to analytics work contracts–the range is very wide.
— Michael McCann (@McCannSportsLaw) April 24, 2024
I take a look: https://t.co/xNs4M97m7f.
Monday Night Hockey to Be Featured on Amazon Prime in Canada Next Year
The NHL, Rogers Communication and Amazon announced a historic two-year broadcasting deal. The deal will begin next season and see all Monday night national regular season NHL games streamed exclusively on Prime Video in Canada. This deal is the first of its kind between the NHL and a streaming service in Canada. It will feature a whole new broadcast team as well. This deal is part of Amazon’s strategy to become more implanted in sports streaming.
Prime Video to Become the Home of National Monday Night NHL Games in Canada Beginning in 2024-25 Season, with Prime Monday Night Hockey
— Sportsnet PR (@SportsnetPR) April 25, 2024
Rogers, Amazon and the NHL bring live games to more fans across more deviceshttps://t.co/Gyt0bGRual
Group Working to Maintain Amateur Hockey in Arizona
A group of NHL Alumni in combination with others including Olympic champion Lyndsey Fry are working to maintain amateur hockey in Arizona by establishing the Matt Shott Arizona Hockey Legacy Foundation as a non-profit organization. The goal of this foundation is to invest in and support amateur hockey in Arizona even with the departure of the Arizona Coyotes. Some of the NHL alumni involved include Jason Demers and Michael Grabner.
Important news: a group of #NHL alumni and stakeholders, including Olympic champion Lyndsey Fry, have banded together to help preserve amateur hockey in Arizona in wake of #Yotes departure. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) April 25, 2024
Details: pic.twitter.com/1uDLKyq8SV
Hockey’s Business and Legal Headlines Featured Story: Why Sexual Abuse Cases May be Delayed…or Not Tried at All in Canada
For this period’s hockey’s business and legal headlines featured story, reports have surfaced providing that there have been numerous sexual abuse and human trafficking cases dismissed in Ontario since December due to a lack of judges. Federal funding is reportedly lacking in paying for enough judges and due to that, the calendar is backlogged.
More notably, the Supreme Court in Canada has provided that cases must be tried in Superior Court within 30 months or will be dismissed due to violating an accused person’s right to a trial in a reasonable amount of time. This is why the sexual assault case involving members of Canada’s 2018 WJC team will likely not be tried anytime soon. It also might be something that affects further similar cases down the road in hockey.
Multiple cases of sexual assault and human trafficking have been dismissed in Ontario since December because the federal government has not hired enough judges and judicial vacancies are leading to significant delays in cases.
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) April 27, 2024
The Supreme Court has said cases in Superior Court…
Post image attribution: Jon Kolbert, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons