NEW AGE ATHLETES AS SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS

Are you interested in business, sports, or entertainment law? If so, this article may be right down your lane. This is an excerpt of an article from Professor Roger Groves which provides insight into a niche area that does not directly compete with established agents, but rather may provide a way to work for such agents or law firms.

NEW AGE ATHLETES AS SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS –

PROPOSING A PHILANTHROPIC PARADIGM SHIFT AND CREATIVE USE OF LIMTED LIABILITY COMPANY JOINT VENTURES

 

The author, Professor Roger M. Groves, teaches various business-oriented classes and serves as the Director for both the Business Law Program and the Center for Law and Sports, at Florida Coastal School of Law.

            While professional athletes in this country’s four most popular professional leagues have significant player salaries, this article focuses on the National Basketball Association (“NBA”).  The NBA players are Exhibit A for great potential and unrealized opportunity.  They comprise a group of the world’s most talented employees for this particular industry who by virtue of both wealth and the cultural connectivity, have the potential for an extraordinary “giving back” impact on urban America.  If the vast majority of those players establish charitable foundations and pool their funds they could do something unprecedented – have transformative effects on entire communities. Such like-minded players can be termed “New Age Athletes”.[1]

A statistical review of current NBA players reveals that most have similar income but are not nearly as focused on such charitable projects. The NBA teams in the aggregate pay their players a total of just under $2 billion a year.^[2]  Yet at various times during the 2009-2010 season, there were approximately 418 players, and only 130 appear to have a semblance of a foundation.[3]  A recent study of the 2008 season concluded that only 43 players were likely to have truly functional foundations.[4] The median salary per player for the aggregate 30 teams is $3,425,665.[5] If even half of 418 players funded a foundation with .05 percent of their salaries, without touching any endorsement money, over $71 million of charitable funds would be generated each year. If that group chooses to pool their funds over five years for a portfolio of common projects, they could contribute $355 million for those initiatives.

A view of the highest paid NBA players also provides a glimpse of a significant opportunity to raise equity capital for charitable causes. The 25 highest paid NBA players have a combined salary of over $462 million.^[6]  That represents more than the entire gross domestic product (purchasing power) of the country of Zimbabwe.[7] That purchasing power would make those players the 211^th richest nation in the world.^[8] If they allocated 10 percent of just their salaries for charitable causes, without touching endorsement income and pooled their funds for five years they would have amassed over $231million. Many of those top players have cultural connectivity with the crisis-burdened urban areas, and as such, high octane potential to be investors, as some already are, in urban projects.  In fact, 20 of the top 25 salaried NBA players are African Americans.^[9]

Birmingham Bombing Victims Honored

September 15, 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which was a known meeting place for Civil Rights leaders.  In addition to numerous injuries, the lives of Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins, ages 11 to 14, were claimed that day.  In the weeks prior to the bombing, the Civil Rights Movement had been making great strides for equality.  Dr. King had just given his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial and the Court’s had ordered the desegregation of Birmingham schools.

Despite having evidence regarding who the suspects in this horrific crime were, then FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover declined to pursue the case.  It was not until the late 1970s, that Alabama prosecutors were able to secure evidence that had been previously withheld in order to secure a conviction for one of the men responsible.  In 2000, a FBI agent in Birmingham discovered even more evidence that was not disclosed to the original prosecutors.  As a result, three more men were convicted in 2001 and 2002 and given life sentences for their roles in the bombing.  All but one of the men has since died in prison.