Arent Fox Counsels Los Angeles Lakers in Naming Rights Deal with UCLA Health

The agreement includes naming rights to the Lakers’ new practice facility – UCLA Health Training Center – and grants exclusive in-game health care support that will be provided by UCLA Health. Arent Fox Sports leader Richard L. Brand worked closely with Daniel M. Grigsby, General Counsel for the Los Angeles Lakers, on the transaction.
 
Scheduled to open in the fall of 2017, the new 120,000-square-foot building will be owned exclusively by the Lakers and will be home to both the Lakers and the Development League’s D-Fenders.
 
The deal between the LA Lakers and UCLA Health is the most recent in a string of major naming rights and sponsorship transactions that Arent Fox and Mr. Brand have advised on. That includes serving as outside counsel to the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins on an 18-year stadium naming rights agreement with Hard Rock International that was announced in August. A month earlier, Mr. Brand served as counsel to Inova Health System, advising them on a multi-year naming rights and sponsorship transaction with the NFL’s Washington Redskins.
 
Arent Fox and Mr. Brand have been industry leaders in this space stretching back to 2007, when the firm advised the Brooklyn Arena, LLC and the then-New Jersey Nets in connection with the Barclays Center naming rights transaction, the largest deal of its kind in the history of sports and entertainment. In 2015, Arent Fox, led by Mr. Brand, served as counsel to Mercedes-Benz on the largest marketing deal in the company’s history, a naming rights and sponsorship transaction with the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC for Atlanta’s new stadium, and advised Golden 1 Credit Union in the historic naming rights partnership agreement with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. In 2013, Mr. Brand led a team from Arent Fox that advised the San Francisco 49ers in a naming rights and sponsorship transaction with Levi Strauss & Co. that was reportedly the largest in the history of the West Coast.
 
Mr. Brand has been recognized as a leading sports attorney by Chambers USA, Legal 500 and US News & World Report. He is frequently featured on the Yes Network’s Forbes SportsMoney talk show, and he also has appeared on CNN, Fox Sports, and other national television and radio broadcasts. Mr. Brand focuses on naming rights, media rights, acquisitions of professional sports franchises, sponsorships, arena/stadium licenses, executive contracts, concession agreements, suite and club seat licenses, and financings for teams and facilities. He also represents numerous professional teams in all facets of their operations.
 
From coast to coast, Arent Fox boasts one of the most experienced and diverse sports law practices in the country, with clients spanning individuals and team sports in major league, minor league and amateur sports. The group regularly advises companies and organizations in football, baseball, basketball, tennis, cycling, hockey, soccer, wrestling, collegiate and high school sports and the Olympics on a wide array of issues, including those involving acquisitions and sales of teams, property and event companies, financings, media and technology agreements, intellectual property matters, and naming rights and other sponsorship transactions.