Request By:
Mr. Frank Sgroi, Chairman
Kentucky Athletic Commission
Kentucky Towers, Suite 306
430 West Walnut Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; Joseph R. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General
You have requested an opinion of this office as to the meaning of the term "immediate vicinity" as it appears on the Kentucky Athletic Commission license and ask whether this term should be deleted from the license entirely. In its present form, the license contains a blank to fill in the name of the Kentucky city which is followed by the term "and immediate vicinity. "
In providing for the requirement of an annual license to conduct professional boxing and wrestling matches, KRS 229.071(1) states as follows:
No person shall conduct or advertise a professional match without an annual license from the commission to conduct such matches within a specified area and a permit to hold the specific match and the accompanying program of events at a specified location on a specific date.
The term "immediate vicinity" appears nowhere in the statute. Instead, the term used in the statute is "specified area." The name of a particular city would be a specified area but when coupled with the term "and immediate vicinity" an ambiguity arises. For example, if the specified area is Louisville, would Shively, St. Matthews and Valley Station be in the "immediate vicinity? " Where is the line to be drawn? If the specified area is Lexington, would Versailles and Nicholasville be in the "immediate vicinity" even though they are in different counties? The term "immediate vicinity" also raises more questions than it answers and the term is not used in the statute.
Your attention is also directed to KRS 229.071(3) which states as follows:
The annual license fee shall be three hundred dollars ($300) where the professional matches are to be conducted within fifteen (15) miles of the city limits of a city or cities containing an aggregate population of two hundred thousand (200,000) or more and one hundred dollars ($100) elsewhere. Each such license shall expire twelve (12) months after the date of issue.
This provision means that the annual license for Louisville (and possibly Lexington if the 1980 Census indicates that Lexington's population has reached 200,000) is three hundred dollars ($300) and that the "specified area" for Louisville would be the City of Louisville or within fifteen (15) miles of its city limits. For all other Kentucky cities and towns, the annual license is one hundred dollars ($100) and the "specified area" included only that area within the town or city limits itself. If the town is unincorporated, "specified area" means within the town's boundaries as understood by local custom and usage.
Based on the above conclusions, it is our recommendation that the term "and immediate vicinity" should be deleted from your license form. The term is vague and ambiguous and is used nowhere in the statutes.