Sports Contracts – Basic Principles
Contracts in sports are no different than contracts in everyday life. Professional athletes are compensated for their services with a paycheck just as anyone else. This section examines the nature of personal services contracts of pro athletes. However, even the amateur athlete deals with important contract-related issues. Amateur athletes often have to make tough choices about changing their status from amateur to professional given the dramatic increase in money that may be available to be earned in their sports. Some professional athletes are paid a lot more money in one year than most people ever earns in their lifetimes.

Sports Agents and Contracts

Sports agents serve a valuable role in terms of securing and negotiating contracts for the professional athlete. Lawyers who represent athletes have generally been trained in the fundamentals of contracts and should be familiar with the current market value of their client relative to other athletes within the same sport.