U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton "found in favor of
the NFL on Monday and threw out" St. Louis' $130M antitrust
suit, according to William Lhotka of the ST. LOUIS POST-
DISPATCH. After 21 days of trial over five weeks, Hamilton
decided that the antitrust arguments by the St. Louis
Convention and Visitors Commission (CVC) "were too weak for
a jury to decide." Hamilton made her ruling "two days
before the case was to go to the jury of four men and eight
women." CVC Dir Bob Bedell "immediately authorized" CVC
attorney Alan Popkin to appeal. Popkin said that he
"expects a reversal and another trial in eight months to a
year." In her ruling, Hamilton said that the CVC "had
failed to prove a conspiracy," and she added that there was
no evidence that the NFL "directly deterred other teams
besides the Rams from bidding" on the city's $300M stadium.
Since it could not prove "an injury to competition," it
could "not prove any damages." She said that the CVC had
"never made any attempt to contact other teams about bidding
on the stadium the city was building," and she added that
NFL owners testified that they had been "uninterested" in
St. Louis because of lease "problems" with beer distributor
Jerry Clinton, "concerns for their existing leases as well
as loyalties to their communities, all independent
individualized reasons to choose not to bid in St. Louis."
NFL attorney Frank Rothman: "The CVC felt it was damaged.
They failed to ask themselves who damaged them. If they had
asked, they would have realized that the answers are: one,
the Rams, and two, themselves." After the ruling, jurors
said they voted 10-2, "informally" before they left the
courthouse, in favor of the CVC (POST-DISPATCH, 11/11).
SHAW OF THE RAMS: Rams President John Shaw is "strongly
considering stepping aside as team president while
continuing to work for the team in a less visible -- and
less influential -- consultant's role," according to Jim
Thomas of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Shaw: "[I]t's
something I'll seriously consider, maybe three or four
months from now." Thomas notes that "ill will" between the
league and the Rams over the team's relocation from Anaheim
"deepened" once the CVC suit was filed in '95 and "then
again when it became known that the Rams would share in any
damages from the suit." Shaw: "Despite my assertions that
this wasn't our lawsuit -- which it wasn't ... the league
still kind of took it personally" (POST-DISPATCH, 11/11).
