Tiffany Oates, Director, recently authored an article for Sports Business Journal, “Sports districts demand more from community benefits agreements. Can teams deliver on their promises?” discussing community benefit agreements (CBAs) and what they reveal about a team’s commitment to the community.

Early CBAs assumed that teams and fans simply arrive for games, generate temporary disruption, and otherwise remain largely absent from neighborhood life. Those traditional CBAs that treat agreements as charitable packages or game-day safeguards, Tiffany explained, are simply not equipped to meet the ongoing responsibilities these neighborhoods demand.

The challenge for most teams is their lack of ability to manage a variety of long-term obligations, including multidecade financial tracking, workforce hiring and retention verification, among other variables. Teams that achieve that ability, however, can create genuine community partnerships and establish themselves as long-term community partners.

Read the full article on Sports Business Journal here.