U.S. District Court Judge Donovan Frank on Friday heard arguments on the sign dispute between the Vikings and Wells Fargo, telling lawyers that he would "issue his order no later than two weeks from Friday," according to Rochelle Olson of the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE. The Vikings have "asked Frank to issue an emergency order to force Wells Fargo to cover signs on the rooftops of their two 17-story buildings adjacent to the new U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis." Frank said that he "would welcome all parties to a mediation session that would include the city of Minneapolis and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority." Frank: "It’s difficult for me to understand ... why we couldn’t bring everybody together. I would have thought the city would have stepped in and got everyone together." Lawyer Kevin Coan "argued that the signs amount to the sort of 'ambush advertising' the Vikings wanted to prevent around the new stadium." The bank "countered that the signs are within the parameters" of a two-year-old agreement and "cause no monetary harm to the Vikings or the image of the new stadium." Frank said several times that the court "would volunteer to mediate the discussion and give it priority," though neither side "expressed interest in that." Coan said that monetary damages "would not be enough to compensate the harm because the Vikings had a right to control the image of the area surrounding the stadium." Wells Fargo attorney Chris Grote said that the signs on the rooftops "are no more prominent than the flat Wells Fargo logo painted on the rooftops." Grote argued that the "difference between flat signs and letters raised 18 inches on 17-story buildings is minimal." So he said judicial intervention is "not appropriate when there is no irreparable harm" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 1/17).
