Practice Areas & Industries: Holme Roberts & Owen LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Holme Roberts & Owen LLP's sports law practice group is composed of a number of attorneys who are regularly involved with professional and amateur sports law matters.

Services Available

Our services extend to a wide variety of sport and recreational enterprises in the Rocky Mountain area and throughout the United States. Listed below are examples of the work we have successfully completed for our clients and some clients we represent on an ongoing basis.

Professional Sports

• Represent USA Swimming, USA Weightlifting, International Bowling Federation, USA Basketball, USA Gymnastics, USA Volleyball, United States Taekwondo Union, U.S. Association of Blind Athletes, USA Bowling, USA Rugby, U.S. Hang Gliding Association and other national governing bodies. Work for these NGB's has included television contracts, sponsorship arrangements, licensing agreements, tax exemption applications and unrelated business income taxation, trademark matters, grievance procedures, arbitrations, litigation, compliance with the Amateur Sports Act, employment and personnel issues and a wide variety of other matters
• Represent the United States Olympic Committee on Drug Control matters
• Served on the ad hoc Division of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport during the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan and various other Court of Arbitration for Sport Panels
• Served on numerous USOC and IOC task forces and panels concerned with anti-doping issues

Sports Organizations

• Represent several professional sports organizations with respect to pending antitrust issues
• Represent professional and amateur athletes, owners, and management personnel with respect to employment contracts, grievance procedures, arbitrations, estate planning and personal financial management matters
• Work with the Association of Tennis Professional Tour in doping control matters
• Negotiated the purchase of and represented Denver's former National Hockey League team throughout the team's tenure in Denver (three ownership groups)
• Were instrumental in negotiating the merger of the American Basketball Association into the National Basketball Association

NCAA Organizations

• Represent the Mountain West Conference
• Served as chair of the USA Gymnastics Men's Program Task Force which was instrumental in preserving NCAA championships in men's gymnastics
• Ongoing work with the USOC and NCAA to resolve conflicts between NCAA rules and the needs of National Governing Bodies

Community Sports Organizations

• Represent the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation
• Were instrumental in the organization of the Colorado Sports Council, the nonprofit corporation organized by Denver's civic and business leaders, to bid to have Denver designated as the host city for the Olympics and other national and international sporting events
• Chaired and counseled Colorado World Cup Soccer 1994, the committee organized under the Colorado Sports Council to bring World Cup soccer games to Denver in 1994

Individual Athletes

• Serve as counsel to a number of Olympic athletes, including several Olympic medalists
• Represent a number of professional hockey players and general managers of professional hockey teams

Recreational Industries

• Helped create or currently serve as counsel to several of the nation's leading ski resorts, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Copper Mountain, Steamboat Springs, Lake Eldora, Purgatory and Arapahoe Basin
• Serve as counsel for numerous local civic organizations including the YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region Colorado Springs Youth Cycling, and the Pikes Peak and Colorado Tennis Association

Clients:
Denver Nuggets, Pepsi Center , Colorado Avalanche , Colorado Baseball Partnership 1993, Ltd., , Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association , Los Angeles Kings , The Staples Center , Colorado Rapids , Roller Hockey International , London Knights ice hockey team , International Bowling Federation