Latest news with #OneTeamPartners
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
MLB players' association head acknowledges federal investigation into OneTeam Partners
ATLANTA — Baseball players' association head Tony Clark acknowledged a federal investigation into One Team Partners, a licensing company it founded with the NFL Players Association. 'We understand that there is an investigation going on right now and we have and we will continue to fully cooperate with that investigation,' Clark told the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday. The government has not commented on its probe. OneTeam says on its website that it's 'the first multi-billion-dollar company built for athletes, by athletes.' It helps license player rights for sponsorships, media content, video games and more. Clark defended the union's financial transparency with its members. 'An audit's done every year,' he said. 'The players as a group wanted to go through all of it. And so we went through all of it and then that group presented those findings to players at the board meeting.' ___ AP MLB:
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
MLB players' association head acknowledges federal investigation into OneTeam Partners
ATLANTA (AP) — Baseball players' association head Tony Clark acknowledged a federal investigation into One Team Partners, a licensing company it founded with the NFL Players Association. 'We understand that there is an investigation going on right now and we have and we will continue to fully cooperate with that investigation,' Clark told the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday. The government has not commented on its probe. OneTeam says on its website that it's 'the first multi-billion-dollar company built for athletes, by athletes.' It helps license player rights for sponsorships, media content, video games and more. Clark defended the union's financial transparency with its members. 'An audit's done every year,' he said. 'The players as a group wanted to go through all of it. And so we went through all of it and then that group presented those findings to players at the board meeting.' ___ AP MLB:
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
MLB players' association head acknowledges federal investigation into OneTeam Partners
FILE - Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark answers a question during a news conference in New York on March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) ATLANTA (AP) — Baseball players' association head Tony Clark acknowledged a federal investigation into One Team Partners, a licensing company it founded with the NFL Players Association. 'We understand that there is an investigation going on right now and we have and we will continue to fully cooperate with that investigation,' Clark told the Baseball Writers' Association of America on Tuesday. Advertisement The government has not commented on its probe. OneTeam says on its website that it's 'the first multi-billion-dollar company built for athletes, by athletes." It helps license player rights for sponsorships, media content, video games and more. Clark defended the union's financial transparency with its members. 'An audit's done every year,' he said. 'The players as a group wanted to go through all of it. And so we went through all of it and then that group presented those findings to players at the board meeting.' ___ AP MLB:
New York Times
6 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Tony Clark says FBI investigation hasn't changed his job leading MLB players' union
ATLANTA — Asked if a federal investigation has jeopardized his work leading the baseball players' union, Tony Clark said Monday afternoon that his job is unchanged. 'My work is the same as it's always been,' Clark said during batting practice prior to the Home Run Derby at Truist Park. 'And our responsibility is to continue to protect and advance the rights of our players.' Advertisement In some of his first public comments on the matter, Clark, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, gave little insight into the probe that has embroiled officials inside both the MLBPA and the NFL's union. The investigation, which is being conducted by the Eastern District of New York, is related to OneTeam Partners, a licensing company the two unions co-own with three other sports unions. Clark declined to say whether he personally is under investigation. Nor would he disclose what he understands the status of the probe to be or when he believes it could conclude. 'My response to those three (questions), and probably any other one you're going to ask associated with it, is going to be the same,' Clark said. 'We understand that there's an investigation. That investigation is ongoing. We have been and will continue to be fully cooperative as a result.' Clark and the players in the union have retained different outside lawyers in response to the investigation. So too have Lloyd Howell Jr., the head of the NFL Players Association, and his union. The Athletic previously reported on a move that raised alarm within one of the unions. In that instance, a proposal to modify an equity program at OneTeam Partners created controversy last year when an NFLPA official alleged that the plan had the potential to lead to union officials enriching themselves. Officials from multiple sports unions, including Howell and Clark, sit on OneTeam's board of directors. Both Clark and Howell signed a resolution last June supporting the plan. OneTeam Partners, which the NFLPA owns a 44 percent stake in and the MLBPA a 22 percent stake, said the plan was not ultimately enacted and that it was part of 'an exploratory review to determine whether the company could lawfully offer incentive-based compensation to current and prospective board members.' Advertisement OneTeam has also said that 'OneTeam is not the subject of the investigation and has not been accused of any wrongdoing in any way.' The company declined additional comment Monday. The NFLPA last winter retained an outside firm, Linklaters, to review the matter. Now, the FBI is involved. The full scope of the investigation is unclear. The Eastern District of New York has not publicly commented. It's been a long run of controversy for Clark. Just before Opening Day in 2024, some players and a former MLBPA lawyer challenged Clark and pushed him to fire his second-in-command, Bruce Meyer. Later, at the end of 2024, an anonymous complaint about Clark was filed to the National Labor Relations Board. It's a crucial time for the union with the sport's owners and players nearing another round of collective bargaining. The current agreement expires after the 2026 season, and negotiations are expected to get underway no later than next summer. 'Regardless of what is going on around us, my first focus, my second focus and my last focus is going to be to ensure that the players are educated on the things that they need to be educated on in preparation for whatever tomorrow's going to look like,' Clark said Monday when asked about the string of bad news. Commissioner Rob Manfred said in June that he was following news of the federal investigation into Clark. 'Honestly, I've read the articles. I think you would think I was somewhat negligent if I haven't,' Manfred said. 'Beyond reading the articles, there's not much for us to do. One thing: you know, I did spend a year in a federal district court when I was a kid. One thing you learn about FBI investigations: let them do their thing and stay out of their way, and that's where we are.' Manfred subsequently said players have been out of step with the MLBPA's leadership. Clark responded at the time in a statement saying Manfred was trying to divide players. (Photo of Tony Clark from 2022: Luis Magana / Associated Press)
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The board decision that sent the MLB, NFL unions into controversy
Last June, eight members of the board of directors for a licensing group called OneTeam Partners, which is co-owned by the players unions for five major sports leagues, signed a resolution that would have included the member unions in a plan to receive 'profits units.' Those units, like traditional equity, could be turned into cash if the company did well. It was a move that raised alarms within at least one of the unions. Advertisement By late 2024, an official at the National Football League Players Association had repeatedly raised concerns that implementing the plan could mean that labor officials serving on OneTeam's board of directors — including the head of the NFL players union, Lloyd Howell Jr., and the leader of the Major League Baseball players union, Tony Clark — were attempting to make a change that could lead to their own financial gain, potentially at the expense of union members. The resolution, which was obtained by The Athletic, called for any eventual payouts — made through what is known as a senior employee incentive plan (SEIP) — to go to the unions the board members hail from. The resolution also directly acknowledged the possibility that the unions could then grant that money to their board members. 'The explicit goal throughout the process was to financially enrich the individuals who serve on the OTP Board as labor organization representatives,' the NFLPA official wrote to lawyers in a communication criticizing the plan, which was reviewed by The Athletic. '… the idea was to pay the money into the unions, then the individuals.' In a statement to The Athletic, OneTeam said that though the plan was considered, it was ultimately abandoned. Advertisement 'In early 2024, OneTeam initiated an exploratory review to determine whether the company could lawfully offer incentive-based compensation to current and prospective Board members,' OneTeam Partners said. 'This exploratory effort was part of a broader initiative to assess strategies for attracting high-caliber, independent talent. 'Following the legal advice of a labor law expert, it was determined that the best practice, if implemented, was to make grants to the respective players associations. In so doing, any future payments would be governed by each union's player-approved bylaws, policy, and governance frameworks. It added: 'To be unequivocally clear: no OneTeam board member, nor any union employee, was directly or indirectly granted equity in OneTeam, holds equity in OneTeam or is a participant in its SEIP and any claim to the contrary is simply misinformed and false.' Federal authorities are conducting an investigation related to OneTeam Partners and union officials. The full scope of the probe, which is being run out of the Eastern District of New York, is unclear. The Eastern District of New York declined to comment. Advertisement Five major sports unions hold stakes in OneTeam, the two largest belonging to the NFLPA and the Major League Baseball Players Association, which together own two-thirds of the company, according to people briefed on the business structure who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The NFLPA has 44 percent, the MLBPA 22 percent. The unions representing players in Major League Soccer, the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team and the Women's National Basketball Association own much smaller shares in OneTeam: 3.3 percent for MLS, .3 percent for the USWNTPA, and .2 percent for the WNBA, according to one of the people briefed on the structure. Early this month, the FBI started calling MLB and NFL players or their representatives. Prosecutor David Berman is heading the federal investigation, said people briefed on its process who were not authorized to speak publicly. With a federal investigation underway, the NFLPA has retained outside counsel separate from the outside lawyers retained by its executive director, Howell. Howell's lawyer did not reply to requests for comment. 'We're guided by our responsibility to our members in everything we do and we will continue to fully cooperate with the investigation,' the NFLPA said in a statement to The Athletic. Advertisement The MLBPA declined to comment Friday. That union too has retained outside counsel separate from its leader, Clark. His attorney did not return requests for comment. The NFLPA official who voiced concern about the incentive plan wrote that they were concerned about the potential for various conflicts of interest. The official argued internally that the change to the plan could dilute the players' existing stakes, which they held via their unions. The official also questioned whether the players were informed of how their financial interests might be affected. The NFLPA official's email with lawyers shows talk of changing OneTeam's SEIP dated to 2023, when a new CEO took over. In March 2024, OneTeam asked outside counsel whether there would be any issues granting union officials on its board participation in a SEIP, according to the same email. In response, the official wrote, the law firm flagged concerns regarding the National Labor Relations Act were any units to be granted directly to union board members. Plans like SEIP are common in the business world. Companies use them to reward and lure top leaders, and the programs often grant traditional shares in a company. Private companies in particular will often grant something that operates similarly to shares but is not traditional equity, according to Chris Crawford, managing director for the executive compensation practice at the firm Gallagher. Advertisement 'It's not a publicly traded, readily tradable environment,' Crawford said. 'It gets into these third-party transactions that get a little bit messy. The most common is by a generic term called 'phantom stock.'' Hence OneTeam's use of 'profits units.' But ultimately, OneTeam is not a common business because it is largely owned by unions. Union officials have legal obligations to their members and their members' interests, and most unions don't have for-profit arms with the overlay of those governance concerns. 'The labor organizations' representatives on the OTP Board are there as FIDUCIARIES representing their union members' direct ownership interests in the Company — their legal duties are not to the Company generally, but rather their union members' ownership in the company,' the NFLPA official wrote in the email to lawyers. Advertisement The union officials have their positions on OneTeam's board because of their union roles, positions for which they are already compensated. Howell was paid $3.6 million by the NFLPA for the 12 months from March 2024 through February 2025, according to the union's annual disclosure filed with the Department of Labor. Clark was paid $3.5 million for the 2024 calendar year, per the baseball union's filing. The NFLPA has four seats on OneTeam's board, and the MLBPA has three seats. Both Howell's and Clark's signatures appear on the resolution to change OneTeam's senior employee incentive plan. The unions representing players in MLS, the USWNT and the WNBA share one seat on the board that rotates. Only the signature of Becca Roux, the head of the USWNTPA, appears on the resolution from last year. Roux, as well as Bob Foose, head of the MLSPA, and Terri Jackson, head of the WNBPA, have hired Steve McCool of McGuireWoods as outside counsel. Advertisement 'I notified the prosecutor in New York that I represent a number of OTP board members,' McCool said by phone Friday. 'My clients have no cause for concern and they are available to answer any questions the government may have about this matter.' Outside investors own the remaining 30 percent of OneTeam that is not owned by unions. The SEIP resolution called for the NFLPA to receive 44 percent of the new plan units available to the board, and the MLBPA 33 percent. The other three unions were in line to receive 3.7 percent each. The outside investors on the board were not going to receive any new incentive units, the resolution said. Such an arrangement has the potential to create at least the appearance of a conflict of interest, according to Lee Adler, a labor lawyer with no involvement in the matter who has long worked as counsel to unions. Advertisement 'Is there something in that set of criteria for the incentive that might have some influence on how or what the union officials who sit on the board actually end up … legislating (at OneTeam)?' asked Adler, a lecturer at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. NFLPA employees said at a meeting in November 2024 that they expected payments via SEIP would be $200,000 to $300,000, the NFLPA official wrote in the email. Sports unions have moved aggressively to capitalize on their players' branding rights. The MLBPA and NFLPA were among the founders of OneTeam in 2019. Both unions already had for-profit arms that handled licensing business, and those arms still exist today. But they were betting that a company with aggregated rights would have greater leverage. The venture has been a boon not only for the unions but also for the private equity investors who partnered with them. RedBird Capital cashed out its 40 percent stake in 2022, when the company had a $1.9 billion valuation. The windfalls from name, image and licensing rights carry a slew of gains for athletes, including bolstering traditional labor objectives like collective bargaining. The NFLPA reported about $101 million in revenue from OneTeam from early 2024 into 2025, and the MLBPA about $45 million for 2024. But both the baseball and football unions have been wrapped up in public controversy this year over, in part, OneTeam. Advertisement Late last year, an anonymous complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board levied allegations at Clark, including concerns over equity from OneTeam. The football union, where internal complaints had already been lodged, then brought on an outside firm, Linklaters, to conduct a review. The NFLPA has not publicized that firm's findings. But in March, in an email reviewed by , Howell notified OneTeam's board of directors that Linklaters found the NFLPA and OneTeam had been in compliance. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. NFL, MLB, MLS, WNBA, Sports Business 2025 The Athletic Media Company
