Hope Solo's legal troubles and the 2015 World Cup

(Photo: Jordan Stead, AP)

[Editor's note: Hello ladies and gents, we're going to (hopefully) make a more concerted effort to get you content moving forward. This particular piece comes from contributor Johanna Fernandez, so please read and enjoy! -- Ben Rosales]

With the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada closing in, the US Women’s Soccer team waited anxiously for a judge’s ruling on Hope Solo’s domestic assault charges. Hope Solo is the US Women’s Soccer team’s main goalkeeper. Hope Solo has been the US team’s goalkeeper since 2000, is a two-time gold medalist, and currently holds the national record for most career shutouts. The judge’s decision would determine Hope Solo’s eligibility to play on the national team in this year’s world cup.

Fortunately for Solo, on January 14, 2015, a judge dismissed Solo’s domestic violence assault charges of two misdemeanor courts of fourth-degree assault. Solo’s attorney, Todd Maybrown, successfully argued that he could not depose witnesses for the prosecution because they refused to be questioned despite a court order; thus, allowing the judge to dismiss all charges.

The incident arose during a Christmas party involving Solo, her half-sister, and her nephew. According to a police statement, officers responded to a 911 call by a man who reported that a woman would not stop “hitting people.” When police arrived at the Seattle home Solo appeared to be “intoxicated and upset.” The police noticed that Solo’s half-sister and nephew had visible physical injuries. Police believed that Solo was the “primary aggressor and had instigated the assault,” after interviewing several witnesses.

The judge’s decision means that Hope Solo will not be suspended from playing in June’s World Cup in Canada. Suspending Hope Solo would have meant applying the Amateur Sports Act, which requires an arbitration process for cases like Hope Solo’s. In the opinion of an ESPN commentator, it would have been possible that with a conviction, “an arbitrator would have agreed with the suspension.”

Team USA appeared to have no secure goalkeeper succession plan. Hope Solo had started 26 of the past 30 American games, and will now continue to play in the World Cup. 

Recently, Hope Solo’s husband Jeremy Stevens was stopped for a DUI in Los Angeles with Solo in the passenger seat.  

March Madness: Price Fixing and the NCAA

Article by Cornell Law School Student, Samantha Koppel 

In places all over the country, UConn, Florida, Wisconsin, and Kentucky fans are gearing up to cheer their teams on in the Final Four. UConn defeated three top-4 teams en route. Florida is on a thirty game win streak. Kentucky became the first team to knock out the defending championship team and the last runner up (Louisville and Michigan, respectively).¹ All the while, the NCAA is getting sued. Why you ask? Here's the picture the plaintiffs paint.

People make money writing articles like these²:

The NCAA owns websites like these (which means people make money coding it...need I even mention the ad-space?)³:

Men's College Basketball is so profitable, in fact, that back in 2010, CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting paid close to $11 billion (to the NCAA) for 14 years of broadcasting rights for 68 teams. ⁴ As a result: We know the players' names. We could wear their mass-produced jerseys. We would recognize them if we saw them in an airport somewhere (and some might even ask to take a picture with them). They are famous. Yet, we call them, "student-athletes" and we call college athletics "amateur sports." Moral of the story: college sports are a major industry... unless you are a player. And at first glance, you might think that this structure is fair. The plaintiffs beg to differ.  

They play on a national platform, and most of them will go pro.

Actually, no. The chances of those players, no matter how good they are, of going pro are 1.2%.⁵ And that's just Men's NCAA Basketball. Men's Soccer? 1.0%.⁵ Women's Basketball? 0.9%.⁵ The lesson here, is, if you want the best chances to go pro, play Men's Baseball (where a lucky 11.6% of NCAA players go pro).⁵

Scholarships!

This is a more complicated issue. But, as it turns out, that the average NCAA player is worth $289,031/year to the NCAA.⁶ So, for most players, their participation results in a huge windfall for the NCAA. Why? Because the average full-athletic scholarship is worth $23,204/year.⁶ So, the average basketball player is losing out on $1,063,307 over the course of his four years in college. And even the student-athletes that are famous cannot capitalize off of how much their own face is worth. There is an NCAA rule that prohibits making money off of your likeness.⁷ If an athlete gets hurt, they do not get access to the kind of healthcare that someone else who makes over $200,000/year would get. The kicker is, unless those students can afford that kind of healthcare (and make a recovery), they will lose out on that $23,000 they get for school, not to mention the measly 2% chance they had at going pro.

So the NCAA is getting sued in a New Jersey federal court.⁸ If successful, the rules limiting the amount of full scholarships would be struck (the complaint calls this "price fixing").⁸ But this is not the only lawsuit. A former West Virginia running back has claimed that the NCAA colludes to cap the the value of athletic scholarships.⁹ There's a class-action law suit along the same lines that is out for blood class-action damages.⁸

What do you all think? Sound off in the comments. 

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1 Chris Chase, For The W!N "11 Amazing Facts About the 2014 Final Four http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/03/final-four-stats-facts-2014-ncaa-tournament-florida-uconn/"^↩
2 Scott Gleeson, USA Today "Bracket Briefing: 10 Most Important Players in the Final Four http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2014/04/01/bracket-briefing-10-most-important-players-in-the-final-four/7149227/^↩
3 NCAA Official Final Four Website http://www.ncaa.com/final-four^↩
4 Thomas O'Toole, USA Today "NCAA Reaches 14-Year Deal with CBS/Turner" http://content.usatoday.com/communities/campusrivalry/post/2010/04/ncaa-reaches-14-year-deal-with-cbsturner/1#.UzwoG9yZad8^↩
5 Tony Manfred, Business Insider "Here are the odds Your kid Becomes a Professional Athlete (Hint: They're Small)" http://www.businessinsider.com/odds-college-athletes-become-professionals-2012-2?op=1^↩

6 Huma, R., & Staurowsky, E. J. (2012). The $6 billion heist: Robbing college athletes under the guise of amateurism. A report collaboratively produced by the National College Players Association and Drexel University Sport Management. Available online at http://www.ncpanow.org^↩
7 NCAA "Remaining Eligible" http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/current/remaining-eligible^↩
8 Jerry Hinnen, CBS Sports "Labor Attorney Jerry Kessler Files Antitrust Lawsuit vs. NCAA" http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/24488838/labor-attorney-jeffrey-kessler-files-antitrust-lawsuit-vs-ncaa^↩
9 Mike Singer, CBS Sports "Lawsuit Asserts NCAA 'Colludes' to cap Value of Athletic Scholarships" http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/eye-on-college-football/24469742/lawsuit-asserts-ncaa-colludes-to-cap-value-of-athletic-scholarships^↩

iTunes Radio and Music Streaming Industry: The Virtue of Competition

Article by Cornell Law students, Minsuk Han and Donial Dastgir

When Apple unveiled iTunes Radio in June 2013 as a part of a developer preview of iOS 7¹, it confirmed years of speculation and anticipation that Apple would enter the music streaming market. Rumors of Apple’s plans had abounded since Pandora became popular and amplified upon the introduction of iTunes in the Cloud² and Spotify’s American debut ³ in 2011. A preeminent music streamer in Europe, Spotify’s American debut marked the Swedish company’s aggressive expansion plans and drew significant attention to music streaming market.⁴

Given Apple’s dominance in the digital music market, ⁵ iTunes Radio is considered to be a significant threat to Pandora and Spotify. Some have labeled it a “Pandora killer.”⁶ When Apple finally made iTunes Radio available for the iOS devices, Macs, and PCs in September 2013, the advertising-supported music streaming service prompted Mike Herring, CFO of Pandora, to acknowledge that iTunes Radio posed a “credible threat” that Pandora took “very seriously.”⁷ Apple has built an iTunes ecosystem that numbered 575 million users in June 2013.⁸ It is estimated that 500,000 new users, actively willing to pay for music, are added each day.⁹ As a result, iTunes has the most user “accounts with credit cards anywhere on the Internet.”¹⁰ This enables Apple to analyze the myriad of data on user download and purchase history to create “curat[ed] playlists that match [people’s] taste.”¹¹

iTunes Radio has performed well so far, “notch[ing] 11 million unique listeners in just five days.”¹² And it cannot be denied that iTunes Radio benefits from its connection to iTunes. For example, one can save favored streaming songs on a wish list and buy them later with little difficulty (or buy them instantly while you are streaming it on iTunes Radio).¹³ Upcoming albums are often previewed in their entirety on iTunes Radio exclusively.

However, there is reason to believe that iTunes Radio will not be able to quickly, if ever, win the music streaming market. iTunes Radio users do not find its automated song selection to be superior to Pandora’s, at least yet.¹⁴ In addition, other players are moving fast to provide a better user experience. For example, Spotify recently allowed all its users to shuffle play any playlists on their mobile devices, a feature that had been previously limited to Spotify’s paid service, Spotify Premium.¹⁵ At the same time, they have also expanded use of its iPad app beyond Spotify Premium users.¹⁶ Such innovations would probably not have happened had the streaming services been under the constant pressure to attract new customers in this relatively new, yet highly competitive, industry.

Further, Apple is not the only company that introduced a new music streaming service recently. In May 2013, Google introduced Google Play Music All Access,¹⁷ while Beats Electronic’s Beats Music service debuted in January 2014.¹⁸ Beats Music carries the unique advantage of being marketed by AT&T, which can conveniently bill its customers’ mobile service account, giving Beats Music instant access to AT&T’s 110 million customers.¹⁹

It is clear that the battle for the streaming music market is far from over. This is undoubtedly a good thing for consumers. As more music services become available through new and innovative platforms, and Apple and other music streaming service providers keep striving to improve their services, we, the users, reap the benefit of having a wealth of increasingly good choices.

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1 Apple, Apple Announces iTunes Radio (June 10, 2013), https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/06/10Apple-Announces-iTunes-Radio.html.^↩

2 Apple, Apple Introduces iCloud (June 6, 2011), https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/06/06Apple-Introduces-iCloud.html.^↩

3 Spotify Blog, Hello America. Spotify Here (July 14, 2011), http://news.spotify.com/us/2011/07/14/hello-america-spotify-here/.^↩

4 Alex Pham, Spotify’s Digital Music Service Debuts in U.S., L.A. Times (July 14, 2011), http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/14/business/la-fi-ct-spotify-launch-20110715.^↩

5 As of 2012, iTunes accounted for about 75% of global digital music market with $6.9 billion revenue from music sales. See Horace Dedlu, Measuring the iTunes Video Store, Asymco (June 19, 2013), http://www.asymco.com/2013/06/19/measuring-the-itunes-video-store/.^↩

6 Laura DeLisa Coleman, Why Apple’s iTunes Radio Isn’t a Threat to Pandora or Spotify...Yet, The Daily Beast (Nov. 12, 2013), http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/12/why-apple-s-itunes-radio-isn-t-a-threat-to-pandora-or-spotify-yet.html.^↩

7 Joan E. Solsman, Pandora CFO: We Do Internet Radio ‘Better Than Anyone’, CNET News (Oct. 14, 2013), http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57606159-93/pandora-cfo-we-do-internet-radio-better-than-anyone-q-a/.^↩

8 See Horace Dediu, What’s an Apple User Worth? Asymco (June 14, 2013), http://www.asymco.com/2013/06/14/whats-an-apple-user-worth/. ^↩

9 See id.^↩

10 MG Siegler, Apple Now Has 200 Million iTunes Accounts, Biggest Credit Card Hub On Web, TechCrunch (Mar. 2, 2011), http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/02/apple-200-million-itunes-accounts/ (quoting Steve Jobs).^↩

11 Amadou Diallo, Quest for the Perfect Playlist: iTunes Radio, Pandora and Spotify, Forbes (Sept. 24, 2013), available at http://www.forbes.com/sites/amadoudiallo/2013/09/24/itunes-streaming-radio-versus-pandora-and-spotify/.^↩

12 E. Solsman, At This Pace, iTunes Radio Beats Pandora in a Month, CNET News (Sept. 24, 2013), http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57604226-93/at-this-pace-itunes-radio-beats-pandora-in-a-month/.^↩

13 See Marc Hogan, Apple’s iTunes Radio Isn’t the iPod of Streaming, But It’ll Do, Spin (Sept. 19, 2013), http://www.spin.com/articles/apples-itunes-radio-first-impressions-review-streaming-service/.^↩

14 Shane Cole, 92% of iTunes Radio Listeners Still Use Pandora, Says New Report, AppleInsider.com (Oct. 28, 2013), http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/10/28/92-of-itunes-radio-listeners-still-use-pandora-says-new-report.^↩

15 Josh Lowensohn, Spotify's Free Shuffle Mode Arrives on iPhone, The Verge (Jan. 8, 2014), http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/8/5288522/spotifys-free-shuffle-mode-arrives-on-iphone^↩

16 Candice Katz, Music for Everyone. Now Free on Your Mobile, Spotify (Dec. 11, 2013), http://news.spotify.com/us/2013/12/11/music-for-everyone-now-free-on-your-mobile/.^↩

17 Brian Anthony Hernandez, Google Unveils Streaming Music Subscription Service, Mashable.com (May 15, 2013), http://mashable.com/2013/05/15/google-play-music-all-access-streaming-subscription/.^↩

18 Victor Luckerson, Beats Has a Secret Weapon to Decimate Spotify, iTunes, Time Business & Money (Jan. 16 2014), http://business.time.com/2014/01/16/beats-music-streaming-service-partners-with-att/. ^↩

19 See id.^↩

The National Hockey League and the Olympics

Article by Cornell Law student, Douglas Chalke.

Prior to 1998, the National Hockey League did not take a hiatus for the Winter Olympics. For the past five Winter Olympics, however, the Games have featured a collection of the best hockey players in the world. With the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi ending only a few days ago, questions are already circulating about whether the NHL will allow its players to compete in 2018 in Pyeongchang. In place of the Olympics, the NHL is considering re-instating the World Cup of Hockey, which ran seven times from 1976-2004. The stated reasons for pulling players from the Olympics, though, have been flawed and logically incoherent.

Many of those who oppose the use of NHL players in the Olympics have recently voiced their displeasure, none more candidly than New York Islanders general manager, Garth Snow. After Islanders star John Tavares was injured in Sochi, Snow lashed out saying, “This is probably the biggest reason NHL players shouldn’t be in the Olympics… We lost our best player and he wasn’t even [injured while] playing for us.”

Snow has a legitimate grievance. Tavares will likely be sidelined the rest of the season, and that will surely hurt his organization in both wins and ticket sales. The only solution to this problem, however, would be to have no international hockey tournaments involving NHL players. Replacing Olympic hockey with World Cup hockey would not create fewer injuries unless you think for some reason NHL players are less likely to get injured in hockey games sponsored by the NHL than in hockey games sponsored by the IIHF. Not having NHL players participate in any international tournament, meanwhile, ignores opportunities to grow the game beyond the traditional markets.

Also speaking out against allowing NHL players to participate in the Olympics is former NHL defenseman, Mark Howe. When asked why, Howe responded, “I just like the amateur so much better… [because] you get the stories of the Mike Eruziones and the Jim Craigs.”

Howe’s romantic characterization of amateur hockey at the Olympics makes sense when you think about 1980’s “Miracle on Ice,” when Team USA, staffed with amateur hockey players, overcame the powerhouse U.S.S.R. to win gold in Lake Placid. Removing NHL players from the Olympics because of that idealization, however, does not stand up to scrutiny. For starters, removing NHL players would not make the Olympics an amateur tournament. The NHL is the best professional hockey league, but it is not the only one. Players from other professional leagues like the KHL, the SHL, and Liiga, would still send their best players to Pyeongchang, even if the NHL did not. An Olympics without NHL players would not be an amateur tournament -- it would be a professional tournament without the best professional players. 

Moreover, removing NHL players from the Olympics does not make Cinderella stories like the Miracle on Ice any more likely. When Howe talks about “the Mike Eruziones and the Jim Craigs” he is talking about one story. The four Olympics before 1980 and the three following were all won by the U.S.S.R./Russia. Team USA beating the Soviet Union was a remarkable upset and maybe the inspiring sports story of all time. But the story is so remarkable because an underdog performed to unique success, not because it is representative of amateur hockey.

Underdogs are ever-present in the NHL era of the Olympics, they just don’t come from the United States. If there is an inspiring upset to win gold with NHL players present, it could be a team like Switzerland or Latvia. The Mike Eruziones of the future could be someone like Paul DiPietro who scored two goals for Switzerland in the 2006 Olympics to upset Canada. The Jim Craigs could be someone like 21-year-old Latvian goalie Kristers Gudlevskis who stopped 55 of 57 shots in a nail-baiting 2-1 loss to Team Canada in the quarterfinals in Sochi. While there hasn’t been an Olympic story like the Miracle on Ice since 1980, and there may never be again, there is no reason to believe that having NHL players in the Olympics makes such a story less likely. Rather, it means the Cinderella team won’t be Team Canada or Team USA.

Finally, while Olympic stories wouldn’t be any better in the absence of NHL players, the quality of hockey would surely be worse. In Sochi, fans were treated to exceptional narratives and exceptional hockey. T.J. Oshie became a household name scoring a whopping four shootout goals to lift the Americans over the Russians. 43-year-old Teemu Selanne was named MVP of the tournament in his sixth Olympics after scoring two goals, including the game winner, in the bronze medal game for Finland. In 2010, the gold-medal game between the USA and Canada was one of the fastest-paced and most exciting hockey games ever played. The game culminated with an overtime winner from Sidney Crosby, creating a “where were you when” moment for this generation of hockey fans. None of this would have happened without NHL players in the Olympics.

Perhaps NHL players will not be allowed to participate in 2018 Winter Olympics and the NHL will instead bring back the World Cup of Hockey. But doing so will not reduce injuries, nor will it create better Olympic stories. It will just make the quality of hockey worse.

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