I’m sure you’re saying, “Wait, another alphabet soup of regulation?” Yep. GDPR stands for The General Data Protection Regulation. Heard of it? The topic's been floating around the news over the past couple years, and today it finally becomes enforceable. But how many of you have been paying attention? Hopefully you all raised your hand as this new regulation could have an impact on your business. For the sake of this blog post, let's say you haven't done your homework on GDPR. If that's the case (which I'm sure it's not), we'll start by defining it.

The number of minor league and team acquisitions and divestitures are on the rise throughout the United States. The cause? It can mostly be attributed to the growth of summer collegiate sports, new sports (such as Ultimate Disc, eSports, etc.), and the continual transition of mom-and-pop businesses being acquired by larger portfolios. But this recent trend is causing some unique hurdles in sports business.

Unlike purchasing a business in the open market, there's one more layer of bureaucracy to overcome in a sports. That extra layer is the league’s approval or disapproval of a new buyer (i.e., the Miami Marlins acquisition attempts). Sports team purchases come with great uncertainty as closing can't occur until the league approves its new "partner." And this process can be quite complicated depending on the league. So, below we've outlined the typical considerations and steps during the purchasing process in order to help leagues and buyers ensure their acquisition or divestiture deals go as smoothly as possible. This information comes from years as a sports executive, owner, lawyer, and now league commissioner.

Lawyers, in a sense, are like doctors. You might even compare them to car mechanics. Before you disagree, hear me out:

If you’re like most people, you have a general practitioner or “family doctor.” You see them regularly for checkups, in the same way you may go to your local car dealer for routine maintenance like an oil change. But what if you need something outside of the scope of work they cover? Say a hip replacement or a new paint job? You go to someone who focuses on your area of need, right?

You wouldn’t put trust in someone that doesn’t do work in those areas on a daily basis. And it should be the same when it comes to your attorney.

Roger Goodell. Adam Silver. Rob Manfred. You’ve likely seen them on TV, wearing well-tailored suits and reading meticulously-written speeches. One day they’re responding to a PR crisis involving a high-profile athlete, another delivering Draft Day selections. That’s the life of a League Commissioner – at least how the public generally sees it.

But, as a League Commissioner myself, I know first-hand quite a bit of work goes on beyond what airs on TV.

A successful League Commissioner must wear many hats: business person, speaker, politician, lawyer, and public figure, to name a few. They’re required to listen and respond to the demands of players, coaches, fans, and team owners.

Above all though, a League Commissioner must provide value to teams and their owners, while ensuring a consistent and positive fan experience across the league.

With that in mind, I’m here to shed light on what makes for a great Commissioner. Below are three things League Commissioners could, and should be doing, to help foster league success: