2) Good friend and colleague Dr. Ryan Rodenberg, fellow traveler in professional service and academic contributions, as well as several empirical legal scholarship journeys, and I co-authored “Sports Law Analytics“, published in the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Analytics online journal, May-June 2011. A podcast on it is available as well.

Honoring us with their presence and contributions during our kickoff event were several top executives from the sport industry, and we are blessed to have many good friends and supporters joining our Advisory Board team for future directions of the program and our students’ tremendous benefit. Importantly, the work conducted around the days of the symposium in Alliance for Sport Business workshops, in regard to directions of the field and programs in Schools of Business, was simply outstanding and truly promising for the future.

Wholehearted thanks to all who participated and celebrated with us!

SportBusiness staff, readers, and Andy Brown (Editor, World Sports Law Report) nominate the most influential lawyers in the sports industry over the past year and explain why they made the list. The Sport Business International Journal is widely acknowledged as the most comprehensive publication for the international sport industry.
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Several updates on various projects and significant developments for our SLU Program, the Alliance for Sport Business, our collaborative research groups, and a host of promising opportunities we have been blessed with, to ensue over the course of the next couple of months… It will surely be a plenty busy and entertaining spring… We will all keep enjoying the learning process and contribution efforts.

Also overdue, some NCAA amateurism policy and international student-athletes updates, during an extremely hectic fall and academic year. Roundup of amateurism-related proposals, commercial actors and promotional activity, agents and professional sports counseling panels, as well as the usual tidbits of insight from key stakeholders, should follow upon return from the NCAA Convention in San Antonio, over the second week of Jan. Further, the Scholarly Colloquium will allow for important discussions and yield potential directions for gender and inclusion policy, with our panel focusing on transgender and intersex athletes’ matters, following the ISLBC keynote forum.
Stay tuned and if around during the days of the Convention in San Antonio, please feel free to contact so we may visit and brainstorm on issues of interest.

Dr. Kaburakis is cooperating with several academic and industry constituents, organizing the International Sport Law and Business Conference, to take place in Istanbul, Turkey, September 6-7, 2010. This promises to be an excellent gathering of intellectual capital, with tremendous potential for meaningful contributions to the field through the establishment of partnerships, quality publications, and mutually beneficial initiatives pursued by sport professionals. At times of extremes, intense hardship felt by this and most other industries, as well as the concurrent opportunities that trying times carry, there is no better venue to reach balanced analysis and carefully weighed recommendations than Istanbul, embodying the “bridge between worlds” since its founding. Do consider joining the outstanding group of colleagues that have been contributing research, reviews, and support in September. As you will realize by the Call below and after perusing the conference website, this is definitely a worthwhile venture, with a great deal to offer.

Keep checking the ISLBC website for updates and consider making travel plans well in advance. These will be busy, productive, and thoroughly enjoyable times in Istanbul. As evident from recent past, when Greek and Turkish colleagues put their heads together… miracles tend to happen!

Istanbul University Law Faculty Centre of Comparative Law, Moroglu-Arseven Istanbul Law Firm, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Sport Management Graduate Program, and the International Association of Sports Law (IASL) are pleased to organise an academic and practitioners conference, to take place in Istanbul, Turkey, September 6-7, 2010, discussing the internationalisation of sport business, legal and policy issues, and opportunities for collaboration between academic units and sport business practitioners.

International Comparative Law, Policy, Sport Business Management, Strategy, Marketing, and related fields’ submissions with an emphasis on academics-practitioners collaboration prospects are particularly encouraged.

Suggested topics include (not limited to):

• International sport governance and policy, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and legal challenges/conflicts
• Self-regulation of sport v governmental intervention
• Political science, economy, and international relations in the context of sport and international governing bodies
• Change management and organisational decision-making in sport institutions and governing bodies
• Human rights and sport, discrimination and classification, age, colour, disability, gender identification, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status issues
• Athletes’ migration, transfers, restrictions, and governing bodies’ regulatory frameworks’ legal/policy challenges
• Foreign policy, immigration law, citizenship, naturalisation, “home-grown” rules, and foreign players’ limits in sport leagues
• Players’ agents, licensing systems, legal and ethical challenges
• Players’ and coaches’ contracts, trends and contemporary problems
• Sport labour and unionisation
• Intellectual Property in the digital age, public domain extensions, entertainers’ and athletes’ rights of publicity
• Gaming and Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games
• Gambling, sport betting, liberalisation v state monopolies, and licensing systems’ legal/policy challenges
• Tax and Real Estate law, sport facility financing, state subsidisation, and debt management
• Bankruptcy Law, special liquidation mechanisms for insolvent sport clubs, and state intervention
• Competition-Antitrust Law, exemptions, and specificity of sport
• Interscholastic and intercollegiate sport and education policy issues
• Torts, negligence and institutional liability, safety v privacy, defamation, assault and battery in sport
• Criminal Law and sport culture, hooliganism, violence, and legal/policy interventions
• Doping, performance-enhancing substances, genetic manipulation, new science, and drug-testing systems’ legal/policy challenges
• Risk Management, insurance, and economics
• Sport Communications, Broadcasting, New Media, and legal, policy, marketing, management, and financial challenges
• Entrepreneurship in the sport industry
• Strategic Management, human resource management, and competition in the sport industry
• Sport Marketing innovation, ambush marketing, and sponsorship
• Sport economics and forecasting
• Sport analytics, statistics, and research methods’ applications in sport
• Litigation and procedural strategies in sport.

Abstract submissions may fall under four distinct categories:

1)     Single presentation by one or more presenters; limit of 250 words, excluding references, submitted by lead author

2)     Two to four presentations under a unifying theme by several collaborating presenters; limit of 250 words per each individual presentation, excluding references, submitted by unified theme session Chair or one of the contributing authors

3)     Symposium/Workshop Discussion Panel proposal by two or more contributing presenters; limit of 800 words, excluding references, submitted by Panel Chair or one of the panelists

4)     Poster session by one or more authors; limit of 250 words, excluding references, submitted by lead author

Submission signifies commitment to attend, present, and register for the conference upon acceptance.

Please submit abstracts by Friday, April 30th, 2010, to the Chair of the Scientific Committee, Dr. Anastasios Kaburakis at: tassos.kaburakis@islbc.org, or akabura@siue.edu

Include complete contact information and institutional affiliation. Lead authors/Chairs will be notified within two weeks of submission.

Full manuscripts may be submitted to a Special Issue of IASL’s Journal, the International Sports Law Review, Pandektis, by the end of 2010. Details will follow in correspondence with accepted authors and conference presenters.

Upon acceptance notification, contributors will be required to advise the Conference Organising Committee within two weeks of intent to attend and present.

US licensed attorneys will be able to receive Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits by their respective State Bar Associations for presenting or attending conference sessions. The Conference Organising Committee is presently pursuing CLE credits sponsorship; more information will be available soon.

ISLBC coincides with several Istanbul events of interest, such as Istanbul as 2010 Cultural Capital of Europe, the Istanbul Biennial, the U2 Concert, and the FIBA World Basketball Championships for Men, with which ISLBC has no official partnership. Interested parties should contact each event’s organiser for timely purchase of tickets and more information.

First Session was Thursday, October 1st, 6p, at ACS (new library):
Bridges to Higher Education. Combining Education and Athletics.
Administrators, Academic Advisors, Coaches, Parents, and Prospective Student-Athletes session.
Various key constituents and administrators attended. Pleasant surprise to see approximately 80 attendees there. Everyone in this session contributed in making it a very informative, insightful, and enjoyable evening in view of assisting young student-athletes who wish to pursue both their academic and athletic dreams internationally.

Second and third sessions were held at the new library above the ACS gym on Saturday, October 3rd, 9a:
The Bridge to the World of US College Basketball.
Session I: “How you can help your players…” Scholarship opportunities for Greek and international athletes in US colleges and universities. Amateurism policy and recent developments.
Session II: “How you can help yourself…” Coaches’ opportunities for graduate studies, involvement with NCAA coaches, and NCAA teams.

Coaches and basketball constituents from all parts of Greece and Cyprus attended the event.
Time was well spent, discussing important issues of impact on young people’s academic and athletic pursuits.
Thanks to all the coaches who attended during the national election weekend. Your presence was much appreciated and organizers trust you enjoyed a productive experience. Hopefully this interaction and ensuing opportunities for further cooperation will allow coaches and administrators to offer valuable service to young athletes.

The clinic was an outstanding event, featuring top-level NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s basketball coaches with long records of success in highly competitive settings, NCAA post-season participation, NCAA Final Fours, USA basketball and international coaching experience, as well as Greek coaches with recent unprecedented international competitions’ success in FIBA events. The clinic was accredited by the Greek Basketball Coaches Association and the Greek Basketball Federation.

The clinic’s homepage is found here.

Schedule is found here.

Coaches and presenters bios here.

Links from the Coaches Association here and here.

Images from the clinic:

More images from the clinic can be found here.

There has been considerable work invested into the project and it promises to be a top quality event. According to the latest updates from ACS Athens and the Coaches Association, coaches and basketball constituents from all parts of Greece will attend the event.

The clinic’s homepage and registration forms found here.

UPDATE:

Due to the general national elections in Greece October the 4th, the clinic updated schedule is found here.

Coaches and presenters bios here.

Links from the Coaches Association here and here.