Sports

Representative Experience

  • Counseled the Oakland Athletics baseball club on the acquisition and development of approximately 140 acres of land for a new baseball stadium and entertainment and residential project to be located in Fremont, California.
  • Ongoing representation of Olympic gold medalist and World Champion boxer Oscar De La Hoya. We represent him individually and Golden Boy Promotions, his boxing promotion company, in a variety of matters, including business acquisitions, strategic alliances and grants of equity interests to boxers and key executives.
  • Represented a sports icon in acquiring an equity interest in, and finalizing a multi-year contract to serve as head coach of, an NHL hockey team. In addition, we have represented this same individual in dozens of endorsement and licensing arrangements with companies as varied as Anheuser-Busch, Ford, McDonald’s and Pepsi.
  • Represented an Olympic gold medal figure skater in connection with his involvement in the production and staging of a professional figure skating touring company.
  • Represented American Golf Corporation in the 2007 sale of the Las Vegas National Golf Club. The nearly $40 million, all cash sale price is one of the highest values achieved for a daily fee golf facility in the United States. The buyer was a consortium of local developers and the Bank of Phoenix provided the debt financing.
  • Counsel in one of the golf industry’s largest transactions completed in 2007. Represented Sequoia/Canongate in its acquisition of “The Woodlands,” in Houston. The resort includes five golf courses, restaurants and hotel facilities.
  • Represented Sequoia/Canongate on all of its acquisitions since the company’s 2003start up. Client’s projected size is 26 golf courses by the end of 2008, which represents an aggregate transaction value of over $150 million.
  • Represented Joe Guerra, former CEO of American Golf Corporation, in the formation of a joint venture with Boston-based Parthenon Capital. We represented the joint venture, Sequoia/Canongate Golf, in its subsequent acquisition of 23 golf courses, including the May 2007 acquisition of a five-course portfolio in The Woodlands, Texas. 
  • Represented American Golf Corporation in the sale to CNL and Eagle of a portfolio with 42 golf courses located in eight states throughout the United States.
  • Represented American Golf Corporation in the sale to Century Golf /Walton Street of its Texas assets and operating group which included 16 golf facilities.
  • Represented American Golf in the sale of its entire Texas portfolio, approximately 27 courses, to Century Golf.
  • Counseled The Racquet Club of Palm Springs and the other sellers of a historic hotel complex in the Palm Springs. At issue was the defense of an action for specific performance and damages brought by the buyer after the buyer failed to close escrow timely in the purchase and sale of the property. The seller terminated the sale. The buyer claimed breaches of the purchase and sale agreement and fraud, and the seller claimed that the buyer could not raise the funds necessary to close. We obtained an order expunging the buyer’s lis pendens, after which the seller resold the property to a third party and the action became limited to damages. After a month-long bench trial, the court awarded judgment to our client, the seller.
  • Represented the owner of the Oakland Athletics in negotiating the acquisition and financing of a new baseball stadium.
  • Served as special counsel to the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission as to CEQA and related regulatory matters in its negotiations with the National Football League.

For more information as to the services we provide to the Sports Industry, please visit our Entertainment Law page and/or contact Jeffrey Spitz.