As the U.S. sports industry continues to evolve at a rapid pace, 2026 is a pivotal year for legal and regulatory change. From federal Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) legislation and AI-driven intellectual property risks to stadium security regulations and the expansion of sports entertainment districts, stakeholders face a complex and shifting legal landscape. Colleges, professional leagues, teams, and developers alike must prepare for increased scrutiny, new governance models, and heightened regulatory involvement. Understanding these emerging legal trends will be essential for managing risk and capturing opportunity in the year ahead.
Our Chalk Talk team took a hard look at the year ahead and is making these bold predictions:
1. Stadium Security Laws Will Expand to Address Drone Threats
Sports leagues and teams need to contend with increasingly complicated security environments, including risks posed by new technologies such as low-cost drones. Conversely, new technologies provide improved tools to support stadium security efforts. From a legal and regulatory perspective, sporting venues will want to track the Federal Aviation Administration's forthcoming Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, "2209," which will set new standards and processes for restricting drone flights over sporting events and critical infrastructure. We are also tracking:
2. Sports Entertainment District Development Accelerates
The year ahead will see the launch of more sports entertainment districts than ever before. Teams are realizing the value they can add to gameday experiences by developing areas around stadiums or moving to new venues with surrounding real estate opportunities. Similarly, property owners and developers will start to band together to form their own mini-districts to challenge teams for this value.
From a legal perspective, teams and municipalities will continue to enter into detailed agreements that facilitate new development. These development agreements set a framework for how zoning and entitlements will work, define infrastructure and construction obligations, and can allow private development of publicly owned land.
3. Sports Betting Expansion Will Trigger Heightened Legal Scrutiny in 2026
Sports betting will continue to be a major headline this year, especially given recent investigations that just hit the news. We will see fans, sports professionals, teams, leagues, governing bodies, and governments all wrestling with the practical and legal implications of betting in sports entertainment. As sports betting opens new opportunities for increased fan engagement, revenue streams, and the sports entertainment economy at large, the stakeholders have to determine how far this integration should go and what, if anything, they can do to control it.
Legally, teams, leagues, and governing bodies will take a close look at their practices, policies, rules, and regulations to ensure they are capturing potential pitfalls and enforceability. The transition to new or revised rules will increase scrutiny and internal investigations. Each team needs a playbook in place to regulate daily operations in the face of increased gambling and to respond appropriately as issues come up.
Expanded betting opportunities also open the door to novel disputes by gamblers who may claim that their financial interests have been negatively impacted by player, team, and league decisions. We expect to see plaintiffs bring new claims in attempts to recover gambling losses through litigation, leading to matters of first impression where savvy counsel is key.
4. College Sports Will Adopt Centralized Governance and Professional Management
College sports need a commissioner. The current system, without a clear leader in charge of overall regulation and decision making on issues like NIL, is inefficient. Structure and governance are critical for any organization, regardless of its size. But when college teams began paying their players, the old system failed to adapt to the new business model. Someone akin to the CEO of a major corporation, is needed, vetted and hired by a board of directors, who can establish parameters for all schools and coaches. College sports have professionalized, and they need a professional business and legal structure, in addition to a decision-making body, to best guide this new reality.
5. NIL Enforcement Will Evolve Using AI
The NIL era has allowed many more athletes and public figures to monetize their NIL rights. Next up, how do those people protect their NIL to preserve the value for themselves and those that are paying to use it? Those leveraging NIL will need to ensure they have effective legal strategies in place to monitor their rights in order to protect that value and preserve the value of those rights for their partners who pay handsomely for those rights. Large companies have undertaken such efforts for years. With the "democratization of NIL," smart organizations will seek out help to audit the use of NIL and trademark rights and to actively enforce them and preserve and expand revenues from their use.
6. Congress Will Enact a Federal NIL Framework in 2026
This is the year Congress will finally pass a federal NIL bill—one that grants the NCAA some protection from antitrust liability while maintaining current rules allowing athletes to be compensated for use of their NIL. Many believe the current system is unsustainable, and they have a right to be concerned. The House settlement was meant to bring some stability to college sports, but change has come slowly. College athletes continue to move freely from program to program in pursuit of the highest bidder, while schools sue each other for tampering and sue athletes for breach of contract, and players sue the NCAA for additional eligibility.
Meanwhile, former professional athletes are returning to college competition, and "college" players in their mid-20s are increasingly common. The balance between amateurism and commercialization has collapsed into a largely unregulated marketplace, where college sports risk losing any meaningful distinction from professional leagues. The growing legal, economic, and political pressure to impose a federal framework will push Congress to enact legislation in 2026.
7. Organized Labor and Media Rights Disputes Will Reshape Sports in 2026
- State and local authorities implementing new powers to counter drone threats, plus new FEMA grant money to support these efforts
- A new requirement that the attorney general must report on the sufficiency of protections for critical infrastructure, including sporting events where large numbers of people gather
- Evolving state privacy laws that regulate the use of new technologies for security purposes
Organized labor and collective bargaining will dominate the sports landscape in 2026, with disputes over media rights taking center stage. Whether it's the ongoing negotiations at the WNBA, the ramp-up of discussions related to the expiring MLB contract, or the post-House settlement chaos in NCAA athletics, leagues, teams, and players will be forced to wrestle with some of the thorniest questions facing the sports industry in the recent past. Chief among those issues is how media revenue is shared with players. With massive social media platforms allowing players and unions to engage in direct communication with the public at large, 2026 promises to be a fascinating year for sports entities and organized labor.
If you or your company would like to talk about what's ahead for the sports industry in 2026, please contact the authors or visit the Venable Sports Law team's web page. And subscribe to Chalk Talk here.