Sports and Entertainment Districts

Barnes & Thornburg’s Sports and Entertainment Districts team comprises experienced sports, public finance, and infrastructure attorneys from around the country. This group of lawyers has worked for more than 30 years with sports teams, leagues, real estate developers, universities, and municipalities to help build the modern sports district from the ground up, including through all of the financing, real estate, development, sponsorship, and media transactions that are necessary to maximize the revenue opportunities for any such project long after opening night.

While the arena is the central piece of any modern entertainment district, the vibrancy, economic development, and year-round utilization stem from the variety of restaurants, hotels, apartments, and retail that allow the district to flourish during — and beyond — gameday.

Public Finance and Infrastructure Development

B&T’s attorneys have served in various roles in some of the biggest stadium and arena deals in the country, including as development counsel, owner counsel, bond counsel, and underwriters’ counsel. In the past five years alone, our attorneys have served as counsel on more than 100 higher education financings in the United States, representing over $15 billion in the aggregate. This experience allows us to help structure a project no matter the shape it needs to take — design-build, construction manager/general contractor, public-private partnerships, and beyond.

Our attorneys have structured deals for professional stadiums, arenas, and training facilities alike. We’ve worked through single- and multi-authority structures, joint ventures, parking and infrastructure financings, and public-private partnerships that support these projects well past opening day.

Learn More About our Public Finance Practice

Mixed-Use and Entertainment Districts

To attract fans before kickoff and to keep them engaged after the final whistle, we help owners, developers, and universities develop the space around a venue into a real destination, encompassing apartments, restaurants, hotels, and more. We facilitate the deals that make it happen.

Professional sports teams have long been building year-round neighborhoods around their stadiums and arenas, and college athletic departments across the country are chasing similar models to fund their programs, engage their students, and offer fans and local residents a more attractive set of options throughout the week. We help clients determine whether a stadium or arena district makes sense for their site, then guide the clients through zoning, permitting, and the remaining approvals standing between concept and groundbreaking.

We’ve also served as sponsor’s counsel and bond counsel on major mixed-use sports developments, including large-scale public-private partnerships built around outdoor sports complexes and the special districts that finance the neighborhoods surrounding professional arenas.

Learn More About our Infrastructure Practice and our Higher Education Infrastructure Capabilities

Sponsorship, Media, Events and Operations

To create additional financial opportunities for a stadium district, we negotiate all of the major sponsorship and media deals, including naming rights and local and national distribution contracts, that bring in more revenue for the owners and operators.

Our sports industry attorneys serve as longtime outside counsel to major professional sports leagues on media, content, and licensing matters, and we currently advise dozens of professional teams across the country’s top sports leagues in negotiations for high-profile transactions such as marquee naming-rights agreements.

In addition, our sports and entertainment attorneys have worked on stadium and arena event licenses for global sports organizations such as the NBA and NFL, as well as advising promoters, sponsors, and venues on performance, touring, sponsorship, and compliance matters.

Finally, we pride ourselves on helping clients protect the district’s intellectual property and the people working on and performing in it — everything from trademarks, fan-app data and cybersecurity, to labor contracts for the crews, talent agreements for musical artists and visas for the athletes on the field and performers on stage. When disputes arise, we can step in as litigation and insurance recovery counsel to resolve them and keep operations moving.

Learn More About our Sports Practice

Real Estate and Construction

Our Real Estate and Construction Law Practice Groups provide legal support for clients as they embark on virtually any kind of construction project or facility renovation, or encounter disputes related to a project. As part of a comprehensive approach to meeting clients’ needs, we help assess risk and advise them on their rights, obligations, and options. Engaging us early in your project gives us a chance to put our best minds to work on land purchases, zoning issues, environmental, labor and employment issues, OSHA compliance, Fair Housing matters, and every kind of contract.

Learn More About our Real Estate Practice and our Construction Law Practice