Seahawks Owner Ken Behring told Seattle's KIRO-TV yesterday
that he is "willing to do most anything" to avoid litigation,
according to the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER. Behring added that
when his son, team President David Behring, signed on to the
league's pledge to stay out of the L.A. market, he was "under
duress and feared a lawsuit" from the Raiders. Ken Behring: "He
had no choice. It was coupled in with the Raiders' move, and
nobody wants to be sued by the Raiders because they tend to sue
everybody" (Boren & Farnsworth, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER,
2/27). Columnist Art Thiel notes that Behring compared the "hate
campaign" he experienced during his ownership in Seattle to "Nazi
Germany." Thiel writes, "No wonder he hired a high-powered
public-relations firm. If Hill & Knowlton must go behind him to
shovel his every epic mess, they may have to hire all of China"
(SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER, 2/27).
TAKE KING COUNTY, AND THE POINTS: The P-I's Boren &
Farnsworth report Behring has "less than a 50-50 chance" at
winning the lawsuit to break the lease at the Kingdome, according
to Jim Gray of the National Sports Law Institute. Gray says the
definition of "world-class facility" will be at the center of the
suits (SEATTLE P-I, 2/27).
