(Chicago) The Chicago Cubs and owners of Wrigley Field rooftop bars squared off in federal court Wednesday as their long-running battle kicked up a notch.
The rooftop owners want a temporary restraining order banning the Cubs from erecting advertising signs that would block their views of the ballpark for at least a week.
But the judge hearing the case couldn’t help firing a sly zinger at the serial loser Cubs, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
After an attorney for the Cubs told U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall that anti-trust law hasn’t applied to baseball for 97 years, Kendall shot back:
“It’s gone on as long as 100 years? So, not as long as the Cubs haven’t won?”
The judge added, “Sorry, I had to do that!”
The Cubs’ president of baseball operations, Crane Kenney, who was watching in the court gallery, laughed at that comment, but declined to comment as he left court for lunch on prior allegations by the rooftop owners that he strong-armed them and boasted, “We control the city.”
At issue Wednesday is whether Kendall will temporarily ban the Cubs from putting up any signs blocking the views of Wrigley Field from two rooftops whose owners have refused to sell their businesses to the Cubs.
The owners of the Skybox and The Lakeview Baseball Club allege the Cubs violated a 2002 profit sharing agreement by pressing ahead with a redevelopment of Wrigley Field that will block their views. They also allege that the Cubs plotted to violate anti-trust law by using the signs to strong-arm them into selling up, so that the Cubs could control ticket prices.
Much of the detailed legal argument Wednesday morning turned on whether the outfield signs the Cubs plan to erect constitute an “expansion” of Wrigley Field, which would be allowed under the 2002 contract, or whether they are an “addition” to the ballpark, which would violate the contract.
The rooftop owners’ lawyer Thomas Lombardo told the judge, “If the signs go up, the businesses will be destroyed,” adding that the “Cubs stated goal is to control pricing.”
But representing the Cubs, lawyer Andrew Kassof said the rooftop owners had presented no evidence that they would not survive until opening day. He claimed that 60 percent of the rooftop tickets for the new season are already sold.
And he added that the law says that a temporary restraining order of the type the rooftop owners want is an “unusual, drastic and extraordinary remedy” to the dispute.
Kendall said she would hear more evidence Wednesday afternoon before ruling.
Regardless of her ruling, the case is expected to rumble on for weeks, if not months.
–Sun-Times
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