Sports
We advised on the stadium naming rights contract for the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (this was originally the BT Millennium Stadium).
We have handled sponsorship deals with Newcastle United (Newcastle Brown) and Chelsea (Coors) for Scottish & Newcastle.
We advised the Football League in connection with its legal claims for £678 million against ITV Digital and its shareholders Carlton Communications and Granada Media, when those publicly listed companies refused to settle the creditors of their broadcasting joint venture, ITV Digital, upon the insolvency of that company. This was a ground-breaking case being the first time that UK publicly listed companies had allowed a subsidiary to go down leaving unpaid creditors in this manner.
We acted for Wimbledon FC in relation to the sale of the club to Wimbledon Dons on its relocation from South West London to Milton Keynes. The sale was achieved via a company voluntary arrangement which provided for payment of all football debts in full and for the compromise of unsecured creditors claims.
We advised Opus Media Group on a series of high-profile publishing licence agreements in order to obtain the rights to publish a unique series of high-quality premium-priced books under the 'Kraken Opus' imprint. Licence agreements include Formula One, Arsenal, Manchester United, Diego Maradona and the NFL: these projects are ongoing and have attracted national media comment. We also negotiated related agreements such as product endorsement contracts with Sir Bobby Charlton and Sir Alex Ferguson, image rights agreements with Joe Montana and Diego Maradona, and a photographers agreement with Walter Ioost. One copy of the Manchester United opus, published in 2006, was bought at a charity gala in Dubai for a staggering £758,000, which was a world record price for a sporting publication. The Opus was signed by the Prime Minister of Dubai, HRH Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, on a specially created signature page that had the family coat of arms on it. The number 777 - the Sheikh's favourite number, and viewed as extremely lucky in Arabic culture - was also sewn into the inside of the Opus.
We advised the British Olympics Association (BOA), the body responsible for organising the UK's participation in the Olympic Games Winter Olympics, and Paralympic Games, in relation to its Joint Marketing Programme Agreement with the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games ('LOCOG') relating to joint marketing and fundraising initiatives by the BOA and LOCOG towards the 2012 Olympic Games.
We acted for the National Lottery Commission (NLC) in its negotiation of licences with the Olympic Lottery Distributor and LOCOG relating to the use by those organisations of the National Lottery trade marks in recognition of the funding provided by the National Lottery in relation to the London Olympic Games in 2012. Such licences also provide for the development of a joint logo between the NLC and the licensees to publicise their relationship.
We have advised the Football Licensing Authority, the independent public body set up under the Football Spectators Act 1989 and funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, since it was first established. The FLA is tasked with monitoring local authorities' oversight of spectator safety at international, Premiership and Football League grounds; and we recently assisted the FLA to apply this expertise in structuring a series of secondments to LOCOG in connection with the London 2012 Olympic venues.
We were appointed to advise the National Stud on the establishment of a new charitable trust as part of a restructuring of the arrangements between the National Stud and the Levy Board. This was a very complex and high profile project for which we were appointed following the National Stud's acceptance of our own initial feasibility study. The restructuring generated a significant dowry for the new charitable trust, which was established to provide training for those entering the equestrian industry and also to promote humane behaviour towards horses. Our advice on the restructuring of the arrangements included state aid, charity and tax issues, and involved detailed liaison with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport.
We act for Matchroom, the company that promotes and broadcasts snooker, boxing and other sports worldwide, including advising on its audio-visual rights agreements with Sky Sports and its participants agreements (the boxers participating in the prize fights that it televises). We have also advised Matchroom generally on the marketing of its "Prizefighter" boxing format.