Overview Choate has one of the nation’s leading sports lending practices, serving as lead counsel to financial institutions in franchise loans to MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL, MLS and minor league teams, special purpose loans to individual professional leagues, college conferences and their financing affiliates, securitizations of media revenues, and project financings for arena and stadium construction projects, including in Atlanta, Jacksonville, Charlotte, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Austin, Seattle, Baltimore, and Arlington, Texas, among others. Choate has long-standing relationships with key personnel at leagues, teams, developers, and financial institutions, and our extensive knowledge of ownership and debt and securitization rules, project financing structures, media contracts, and collective bargaining agreements enable us to resolve even the most challenging issues for our clients. Moreover, Choate is at the cutting edge of developments in traditional bank financing, construction financing, lease financing, structured financing (including asset securitization), private placement of debt securities, municipal financing, and tax-exempt and tax credit financing. Our attorneys’ depth of knowledge and range of experience in all these disciplines provides an important advantage to clients seeking to finance sports-related assets.