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148 U. Pa. L. Rev. 203 (1999-2000)
Big League Perestroika the Implications of Fraser v. Major League Soccer

handle is hein.journals/pnlr148 and id is 223 raw text is: COMMENTS BIG LEAGUE PERESTROIKA? THE IMPLICATIONS OF FRASER V. MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER EDWARD MATHIAS' INTRODUCTION The filing of an antitrust suit by Major League Soccer (MLS) players against MIS' was viewed as a rite of passage for the new league.2 After all, every established major professional sports league has been sued for alleged violations of the antitrust laws for practices relating to league rules concerning everything from franchise reloca- tion to the wages of practice squad players. The importance of Fraser v. MLS for the future of professional sports leagues, however, tran- scends the continuing legality of the MLS regulations challenged in the suit. Fraser is momentous because it is the first antitrust challenge t B.A. 1992, Amherst College; M.S. 1997, University of Massachusetts;J.D. Candi- date 2000, University of Pennsylvania. I would like to express my appreciation to Pro- fessors Glenn Wong, Lisa Pike Masteralexis, and Edward Rock. I would also like to thank Kirstin Thorne, Bill and Jane Mathias, and Thomas Rapisarda for their support. 'The court adjudicating the lawsuit has already issued one ruling on pre-trial mo- tions made by the litigants. The motions concerned the legality of MLS's transfer fee arrangement with Federacion Internationale de Football Associacion (FIFA), the sport's international governing body. The arrangement requires any soccer league seeking to procure the services of a MLS player to pay MLS a fee, even if the player's MLS contract has expired. SeeFraser v. Major League Soccer, L.L.C., 7 F.Supp. 2d 73, 79 (D. Mass. 1998) (denying parties' cross-motions for summary judgment regarding MLS's transfer fee rule). The opinion did not address the single entity issue, the piv- otal legal issue in the pending litigation and the focus of this Comment. $ After hearing of the lawsuit, NBA Commissioner David Stern reportedly told MLS Commissioner Doug Logan, Congratulations, you've finally arrived. Michael Rosen- thal, MLS Raises Expectations, L.A.DAILYNEWS, Mar. 19, 1997, at S4. 3 See, e.g., Brown v. Pro Football, Inc., 518 U.S. 231 (1996) (defining the extent of the non-statutory labor exemption to antitrust); Flood v. Kuhn, 407 U.S. 258 (1972) (reaffirming baseball's antitrust exemption); NBA v. Williams, 45 F.3d 684 (2d Cir. 1995) (holding that the non-statutory labor exemption to antitrust did not expire when parties engaged in collective bargaining reached impasse); San Francisco Seals v. NHL, 379 F. Supp. 966 (C.D. Cal. 1974) (dismissing a hockey team's antitrust claim against its league). (203)

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