What are the effects of the anti-trust exemption?
It allows the owners to create exclusive deals, even when they are anti-competitive measures. The right to such deals could also hurt a rival league (although it might not matter; the USFL won $1 in damages in an anti-trust case). MLB could sign a contract with ESPN which allowed ESPN to broadcast a certain number of its own baseball games, and no games from any other league during the MLB season. The rival league would then be unable to negotiate with ESPN. The effects may be tested in George Steinbrenner’s current suit against MLB. Steinbrenner signed his own licensing deal with Adidas; MLB argues that this deal violates the major-league agreement in which MLB as a whole negotiates licensing deals. Steinbrenner is suing MLB on anti-trust grounds; the exemption may be held to protect MLB and force Steinbrenner to cancel his contract or share an agreed amount with other teams. (Jerry Jones, of the Dallas Cowboys, made a similar deal in the NFL, and the league didn’t try to block it.) T
