Alexander Steinberg advises investors, teams, leagues, media companies and brands on the transactions and commercial arrangements driving the growth of sports, media and entertainment as an institutional asset class. Drawing on his in-house experience at the National Football League and ESPN, Alex combines M&A and private equity work with commercial rights and media experience, helping clients both acquire and grow sports and entertainment assets and unlock their commercial value. His practice focuses on:
- Mergers and acquisitions, private equity and other equity investments, including control and minority acquisitions, LP interest transactions, recapitalizations, dispositions and strategic joint ventures structured for league approval
- Media rights, content licensing and distribution matters, including team-owned and direct-to-consumer platform launches and other complex licensing arrangements
- Commercial rights matters, including sponsorship agreements (including stadium naming rights, founding and cornerstone partner agreements for new and renovated venues), ticketing agreements, concessions and merchandise agreements, and gaming related agreements
- Financing transactions, and other matters relating to general corporate practice
Alex regularly provides counsel to programming networks, broadcast stations and other rights holders across a full spectrum of legal and strategic business matters, including domestic and international affiliation agreements (both with traditional distributors and "over the top" distributors), media rights agreements (both local and national) and distribution via emerging technologies.
Alex regularly represents buyers, sellers, financial investors (private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and high net worth individuals) and sports franchises in the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and European football leagues, as well as investors and businesses in motorsports, youth sports, sports technology, advertising and marketing. He advises on controlling and non-controlling equity investments, recapitalizations, and the structuring of bid groups, consortiums and other complex joint ventures. In addition to representing clients in strategic transactional matters, Alex acts as an advisor to the firm's sports and media clients on a wide range of general business law and governance matters.
Alex previously worked in-house at the National Football League and ESPN, Inc. supporting their respective media businesses, and providing him with a highly unique perspective on every transaction.
