Sports Investor – Lexington Legends MiLB Acquisition
Represented a sports investor in the acquisition of the Kansas City Royals' Class A affiliate Lexington Legends, and the team's home stadium, Whitaker Bank Ballpark.
Matters
Legends Hospitality – Live Nation Strategic Partnership
Represented Legends Hospitality in a major strategic partnership with Live Nation to provide concession services at 34 of Live Nation's music venues in North America. The partnership represents one of the largest venue food and beverage contracts in history.
Yankee Global Enterprises – Refinancing
Represented Yankee Global Enterprises in a refinancing of its senior secured credit facility with a bank syndicate.
Joint Venture/Employment Arrangement
Represented client in a consulting arrangement with Sports Professional Management, Inc., a sports agency business.
Emmes Capital LLC – 180 Water Street
Represented an affiliate of Emmes Capital in a real estate development joint venture involving partial conversion of office space into residential units.
New York City FC – Soccer Stadium Development
Represented an affiliate of New York City Football Club in a memorandum of understanding with the City of New York for the financing, development and construction of a new soccer stadium.
Tampa Bay Lightning – Amalie Arena Naming Rights
Represented the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning in its arena naming rights agreement with Amalie Oil Co.
Legends Hospitality – New Technology Investment
Represented Legends Hospitality in a proposed investment in software that consolidates sports franchise data.
New York Market Radio – General Corporate
General corporate representation of New York Market Radio, a non-profit marketing association supported by the New York area radio stations.
Sterling Equities – Formation of Brooklyn Bolts FXFL Team
Represented Sterling Equities in the joint venture formation of the Brooklyn Bolts, one of four teams in the new Fall Experimental Football League ("FXFL"). The FXFL is a professional football league which serves as a developmental platform for players, coaches and referees.
Sports Investor Group – Buffalo Bills Acquisition Bid
Represented a final round bidder, a consortium of high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors, in the proposed acquisition of the National Football League's Buffalo Bills, and in related stadium issues and compliance matters with the NFL constitution.
Private Equity – Venture Capital Fund
Represented a private equity firm in establishing a semi-independent venture capital fund platform, including the negotiation of the terms of the venture capital fund platform documents and related compensation and governance issues.
New York City FC – Radio Broadcast Agreement
Represented New York City Football Club in a multi-year radio license with CBS Radio to broadcast the team's matches on WFAN 660 AM / 101.9 FM.
Balfour Investors Inc. – Cleancor Joint Venture
Represented domestic and foreign private equity investors affiliated with Balfour Investors Inc. (“Balfour”) in the formation of Cleancor Energy Solutions LLC (“Cleancor”) joint venture. Cleancor is an energy merchant bank focusing on financing for and investment in clean-fuel start-up or early stage enterprises, technologies, infrastructure, logistics services and projects. Balfour is a merchant bank whose principals have acquired assets across a multitude of industries for more than 35 years.
Chicago Cubs – CBS Radio Broadcast Rights Agreement
Represented the Chicago Cubs in a multi-year radio license with CBS Radio to broadcast Cubs games on WBBM Newsradio 780AM. The radio license is part of a sports and entertainment partnership that also includes several promotional initiatives across all seven of CBS Radio's local Chicago radio stations and digital and social media platforms. Additionally, the partnership will create and produce live music events at or near Wrigley Field.
Yankee Global Enterprises – 21st Century Fox Acquisition of YES Network
Represented the New York Yankees and Yankee Global Enterprises in 21st Century Fox's multi-billion dollar acquisition of a majority stake in the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES Network). The two-step acquisition raised 21st Century Fox's ownership position in the regional sports network to 80 per cent. The remaining 20 per cent stake continues to be held by Yankee Global Enterprises.
Legends Hospitality – Concessions Operations
Represented Legends Hospitality in transactions involving the operation of all food and beverage concessions and premium catering at both Angel Stadium of Anaheim and Tempe Diablo Stadium.
Yankee Global Enterprises Affiliate – New York City FC
Represented an affiliate of Yankee Global Enterprises, LLC and the New York Yankees in their joint venture with Manchester City to create New York City FC, Major League Soccer's 20th franchise.
Private Investment Firm – Venture Capital
Represented large private investor in connection with the preparation and negotiation of terms sheets for complex equity investment in a variety of privately held businesses.
Private Equity Firm – Fiber Optic Network Development
Represented private equity investment firm in the arrangement of a joint venture with the objective of expanding fiber optic cable networks in a major municipality.
Horizon Telecom – Securities and Reorganization Issues
Represent Horizon Telecom, a publicly traded facilities-based telecommunications carrier that provides voice and data services to commercial, residential and local market segments, in connection with its securities law issues and the reorganization of its wireless personal communications service provider subsidiary.
IT Service Technology Agreement
A New York-based provider of managed IT services in negotiation of technology agreements to provide certain data and communications network services to commercial office buildings.
Joint Venture – Sports Professional Management, Inc.
Represented client in a consulting arrangement with Sports Professional Management, Inc., a sports agency business.
Plainfield Asset Management – Westside Transload / Transload America
Represented Plainfield Asset Management in its investment in operators of solid waste transfer stations on federally regulated railroad property. We protected our client’s minority equity position in these operators by implementing stockholders’ agreements with broad super-majority approval provisions, and helped navigate federal and state environmental regulations and federal pre-emption issues.
Investment Firm – Venture Capital Investments
Represented off-shore investment firm in connection with its ongoing venture capital investment activities. The firm invests in domestic, as well as foreign companies with a primary focus on medical devices and hi-tech Israeli start-up companies.
Yankee Global Enterprises – Senior Credit Facility
Represented Yankee Global Enterprises in the refinancing of its senior credit facility consisting of a term loan and a revolving line of credit. Yankee Global Enterprises is a holding company that invests in media and sports-related businesses, including the New York Yankees.
Sports Investor Group – San Diego Padres Acquisition Bid
Represented a sports investor group, which included a former Major League Baseball All-Star, in a bid to acquire the San Diego Padres.
Yankee Global Enterprises – Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Triple A Acquisition
Represented Yankee Global Enterprises and affiliates in the acquisition of franchise rights for the New York Yankees minor league Triple A affiliate based in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Royal Bank of Scotland – Distressed Debt
Represented Royal Bank of Scotland in its trading activities involving various tranches of distressed bank debt.
Telecommunications Company – NYC Fiber Optic Franchise
Represented a major new telecommunications company in negotiating and obtaining approval for New York City franchise to install fiber optic cable throughout the City of New York.
Emmes Asset Management Company LLC – Acquisition
Represented Emmes Asset Management in connection with the acquisition of a preferred equity interest in Waterside Plaza, a multi-family residential complex on the East River.
Highbridge Capital Management – Los Angeles Dodgers Financing
Advised Highbridge Capital Management regarding the rules and regulations applicable to Highbridge's $60 million interim bankruptcy financing to the Los Angeles Dodgers. We also advised Highbridge on its proposed long-term $150 million credit facility to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Stellar Pharmaceuticals Inc. – Private Placement
Represented Stellar Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a cross-border private placement of units consisting of one million common shares and three series of "step-up" warrants to purchase up to an additional three million common shares.
New York Yankees—Network Video Distribution
Representation of the New York Yankees in connection with a video distribution agreement between Major League Baseball Advanced Media and the YES Network, the primary broadcaster of New York Yankees games.
Real Estate Investment Manager – Private Equity Joint Venture
Represented an affiliate of a real estate investment manager in a joint venture transaction with a private equity fund. The joint venture was formed to identify, acquire, hold, and dispose of first loss position unguaranteed bonds issued in connection with multi-family bonds issued by Freddie Mac under its capital execution program.
LED Display Manufacturer – Employment Issues
Represented an LED display manufacturing company in employment issues, restrictive covenant enforceability, and contract disputes.
New York Yankees Affiliate – Joint Venture
Representation of a New York Yankees' affiliate in connection with the creation of a joint venture that would seek to build upon the value associated with the marks and other intellectual property rights of the New York Yankees by seeking licensing arrangements for the branding of products within certain designated consumer product categories.
Sports Company – Memorabilia
Representation of company jointly owned by the New York Giants and New York Jets in connection with the entry into a memorabilia sales agreement with Steiner Sports. Under the agreement, Steiner Sports was granted the right to effect sales of stadium seats, signage, field goal netting and other Giants Stadium memorabilia.
NFL Player – Rolling Stone Restaurant Joint Venture
Represented SFF Investments LLC, which is wholly owned by a current All-Pro NFL player, in a joint venture to create a Rolling Stone-branded restaurant and bar in Hollywood, CA.
New York Yankees/Top Rank – Stadium Slugfest
Represented both Top Rank and the New York Yankees in the Stadium Slugfest event at Yankee stadium. The event featured the Super Welterweight Championship bout between Yuri Foreman and Miguel Cotto. This was the first boxing event at the new Yankee Stadium, which generated a great deal of media coverage and was offered as part of HBO's regular subscription service rather than pay-per-view. We represented Top Rank and the Yankees with respect to the site agreement, and also produced all agreements with the fighters, HBO, the international TV broadcasters and sponsors.
Yankee Stadium – New Era Pinstripe Bowl
Representation of an affiliate of the New York Yankees in connection with a new college football bowl game, the New Era Pinstripe Bowl, to be played at Yankee Stadium. The first New Era Pinstripe bowl will feature teams from the Big 12 and the Big East and will be televised by ESPN. We negotiated the telecast agreement, the title sponsorship agreement and the agreements with the Big 12 and Big East Conferences.
Foreign Sports Investor – Bid for English Premier League Club
Represented an investment group led by a prominent foreign investor and nationally-recognized sports industry advisor in connection with a potential bid for an English Premier League football club.
Yankee Global Enterprises LLC – Refinancing
Represented Yankee Global Enterprises LLC in refinancing its senior credit facility consisting of a term loan and a revolving line of credit. Yankee Global Enterprises LLC is a holding company that invests in media and sports related businesses, including the New York Yankees.
Professional Sports Team – Credit Facility Refinancing
Represented a professional sports team in the refinancing of a senior secured credit facility. The refinanced credit facility consists of a several million dollar term loan and a revolving line of credit component. The refinancing is secured by many different assets owned by the team and required other third party approvals.
Legends Hospitality – Joint Venture Formation
Represented Legends Hospitality LLC - a joint venture among the Yankees, Dallas Cowboys and two private equity firms—in setting up business operations (which include running concession services at stadiums, arenas and other large venues), obtaining necessary permits and authorizations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida, and protecting the company's intellectual property rights.
Yankees Stadium – Hard Rock Café Deal
Represented the New York Yankees and its affiliates in two separate joint ventures with the Hard Rock Café. The Hard Rock Café and a newly branded "NY Steak" prime steakhouse restaurant will open in an area adjacent to right field at the new Yankee Stadium.
Software Company – Going Private
Represented a publicly traded software company in its transformation into a privately held company. We advised the company and its board of directors of the various securities law, Sarbanes-Oxley Act and corporate/fiduciary implications associated with taking the company private, and helped the company navigate its way through the regulations of the OTC Bulletin Board applicable to withdrawals of shares eligible for quotation.
Hollinger International – Investment Monetization
Represented Hollinger International in its efforts to monetize certain of its venture capital and private equity investments.
Real Estate Company – Tennessee and Louisiana Acquisitions
Representation of subsidiaries of a major real estate company in joint ventures formed with affiliates of an investment bank to acquire shopping malls and commercial real estate in Tennessee and Louisiana.
Major League Baseball Team – Private Placement
Represented a Major League Baseball team in a private placement of $41 million of variable rate senior notes.