Cablevision's MSG filed suit against the Yankees for
the second time in two months on Tuesday, claiming the team
put "an outlandish" $2.4B value on its TV rights for the
next ten years after a study by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter,
according to Ronald Blum of the AP. MSG filed the suit in
NY Supreme Court, the same place it obtained an injunction
against the Yankees from going ahead with its own TV plans
in August. Blum: "After [Tuesday's suit] was filed, the
Yankees withdrew their latest television proposal, and MSG
then withdrew the lawsuit, leaving the status of the team's
TV rights for next year unclear." One Yankees official
"confirmed" that the team had withdrawn the proposal Tuesday
night and said that the team "would present MSG with a new
offer" (AP, 10/19). In N.Y., Bob Raissman writes that the
current suit "was ostensibly filed to prevent the team from
legally gaining the right to start its own" RSN. Under
terms of the current agreement between MSG and the Yankees,
the team "would have that right if a certain period of time
elapsed." Raissman adds that now both parties are "back to
square one" in the TV negotiations (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 10/19).
