What are the current legal issues facing youth sports organizations? In this episode, Nate Snyder and Adam Brown discuss the variety of legal services, assistance, and advising that youth sports organizations and other sports businesses and organizations need but may not know about. They first discuss corporate and nonprofit formation and governance issues, including forms, formalities and requirements, governance documents and bylaws, onboarding, turnover, risk management, litigation preparation, and more. Then the team discusses vendors and sponsors, agreements needed, and sponsorship structures. In addition, Nate addresses some of the things to consider with arena and facility licensing and development.
Nate and Adam move on to discuss “employment” issues, including coaches, officials, employment law considerations, HR issues, board of directors, independent contractors, volunteers, employees, dispute resolution processes (including appeals), and necessary structures to address any type of issues that may arise in this area. Nate also provides insight into current trends in youth sports, including outside investments, private equity, charitable gambling, and some of the large dollar interests involved with youth sports.
There are so many legal issues that sports organizations need to think about and address, especially when there is so much turnover as volunteers and members move in and out of the system. An attorney can help create processes, systems, and procedures to help provide stability, manage risk, plan for succession, and help organizations improve their function, which allows for more focus on the sports experience and the improvement of the players on the field.
