California high school athletes seek right to player profits in new lawsuit

By Mike Scarcella

June 2 (Reuters) - California’s governing body for high school sports, along with several media companies are facing a new lawsuit for allegedly depriving student athletes of their rightful pay from broadcasts, ticketing and other revenue.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in the San Francisco federal court by a former high school football star, challenged rules restricting payments to athletes established by the nonprofit California Interscholastic Federation.

The federation’s members include more than 1,600 public and private high schools in California.

The lawsuit appears to be the first class action in the United States seeking to unleash compensation for the commercial use of the names, images and likeness of potentially hundreds of thousands current and former high school athletes.

It follows years of litigation against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which has agreed in a proposed landmark settlement to allow schools for the first time to begin directly paying student athletes.

"Like the cases that have led to important reforms in college sports, we're asking a simple question: if corporations are cashing in on high school athletes' hard work, then why can't the athletes themselves?” said attorney Yaman Salahi, who filed the California lawsuit. “We're pushing to make the system fairer and to bring long-overdue rights to young athletes."

The California Interscholastic Federation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Streaming and ticketing services provider 2080 Media Inc, which does business as PlayOn Sports, in a statement on Monday denied that it has participated in a price-fixing conspiracy in California or elsewhere.

Other defendants, including broadcaster Spectrum SportsNet LLC, and sports news platform SBLive Sports Inc, either had no immediate comment or did not immediately respond to a request for one.

The lawsuit seeks class action status for California student athletes who competed for member schools since May 30, 2021. The named plaintiff, Dominik Calhoun, is now enrolled at Boise State University, where he will play football.

California Interscholastic Federation serves more than 800,000 athletes annually and is the country’s largest youth sports agency, according to the lawsuit.

The federation allows students to receive payments from third parties in narrow circumstances, the lawsuit said. Such endorsements or advertising can’t be made on school property, and the student is not allowed to appear in uniform.

Other payments from broadcasting agreements, ticket sales and sponsorships are forbidden under the federation’s rules.

The lawsuit also challenges the federation’s player eligibility rules that restrict the ability of students to transfer schools for athletic reasons.

The case is Dominik Calhoun v. California Interscholastic Federation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 3:25-cv-4603.

For plaintiff: Yaman Salahi of Salahi PC, and Joel Young of The Tidrick Law Firm

For defendants: No appearances yet

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