A group of Wrigley Field rooftop businesses yesterday in federal court sued the Cubs and Chair Tom Ricketts, accusing the team of "violating the terms of its revenue-sharing contract and trying to create a price-fixing scheme that would monopolize the market for game tickets," according to Jared Hopkins of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The businesses "want a financial judgment as well as injunctive relief that prohibits the Cubs from blocking the views into Wrigley from the rooftops." The 58-page filing "purports to pull the curtain back on meetings and negotiations" with Ricketts and team execs. The investors "allege that the Cubs told the rooftop businesses they were causing demand for Cubs tickets inside Wrigley to drop and sought a solution by creating a price-fixing operation." When the rooftop businesses declined, the team "used the proposed signs to intimidate them into selling or have their views obstructed." The suit also alleges that the team "is in violation of its terms of the revenue-sharing contract with the [businesses] because the document granted a nonexclusive license to sell tickets to view Cubs games in the agreement." The suit contends that blocked views "would hurt the rooftops' ability to sell tickets to games, diminish competition and increase [the] Cubs' total market share of selling views to live games, hurting consumers" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1/21). In Chicago, Brian Slodysko notes this lawsuit is "just the latest salvo in an ongoing war of words, centering on a $375 million stadium improvement plan that the rooftop owners say will deliberately block their views of the historic ballpark." It is the second suit involving the Cubs "filed this month by groups with an economic interest in the rooftops." The previous one "was filed in Cook County court" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 1/21).
