N.Y. State Supreme Court Judge Lawrence Marks today declined to issue an immediate ruling in the MASN media rights dispute following four hours of oral arguments. Marks did not specify an expected timetable for when he will issue his ruling, but said it would be as soon as possible. A temporary injunction issued last summer already has the internal MLB arbitration decision, which would boost the Nationals’ annual local TV rights fee from $41M to about $60M, on hold until Marks makes his ruling. Two of the most commonly discussed figures in arguments today – MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Orioles Owner Peter Angelos – were not present in the courtroom, but Nationals Managing Principal Owner Ted Lerner and his son-in-law, Partner Ed Cohen, were in court, along with consultant Chris Bevilacqua.
MASN and the Orioles in their arguments today focused heavily on the involvement of Proskauer Rose and the law firm's simultaneous representation of the Nationals, MLB and several members from MLB's Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee, and what they saw as a corrosion of a fair arbitration process. The two entities also focused on arguments previously outlined in written briefs, such as a $25M advance paid by MLB to the Nationals in advance of the final outcome in the case, and the RSDC using an evaluation process inconsistent with how it rules on other clubs similarly holding equity in their local rightsholders.
