Who Owns High School Sports?
April 9th, 2009 - byTV rights and online marketing deals are usually the subject of collective bargaining agreements of professional sports leagues. They are becoming increasingly important in college athletics as teams try to maximize revenue in any way possible. But, High Schools arguing over ownership rights takes things to a whole new level. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletics Association is suing the Wisconsin Newspaper Association and Gannett Co. after they streamed a webcast of a high school basketball playoff game.
The WIAA is making the argument that, “the association alone has the right to stream school athletic games online.” They also argue that they have the sole right “to control the transmission, Internet stream, photo, image, film, videotape, audiotape, writing, drawing or other depiction or description of any game.”
Of course a counter-suit was filed with the WNA arguing, “WIAA has no right to interfere with Newspapers’ editorial discretion to report tournament events utilizing any technology of their choosing, including photography and Internet streaming, subject only to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions applied equally to all similarly situated journalists.”
The counter suit goes so far to claim that the WIAA is actually invoicing local newspapers for covering the events they have historically reported on for years. Peter Fox the executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper sums up their argument by saying, “The issue for Wisconsin newspapers is the WIAA’s overarching claim of ownership of all these aspects of hometown, high school sports.”
Should the Association be able to claim ownership rights? If not, does somebody else own them? Would you still feel the same way if ESPN was making millions of dollars by showcasing high school games? (Don’t laugh, last weekend was the first ESPN RISE National High School Basketball Invitational)
What do you think?
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