MASN late Friday filed in New York Supreme Court its opposition to the Nationals’ bid to have the long-running media rights dispute sent back to MLB’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee. The Nationals in January filed its motion after Judge Lawrence Marks vacated the original RSDC decision in favor of the team back in November. The new filing by the Orioles-controlled MASN takes aim at several Nationals claims, including one that the continued “underpayment” in media rights fees by MASN is encumbering the club’s baseball operations. “As for the Nationals’ claims of financial ‘harm’ if rehearing is stayed pending appeal, nothing could be further from the truth. First, the Nationals have received (and continue to receive) substantial telecast rights fees from MASN as determined by MLB’s former media rights consultant, Bortz Media & Sports Group. ... Second, the Nationals fail to mention that they have also received tens of millions of dollars in MASN partnership profits distributions during the pendency of this dispute, including over $9.6 million in 2015. ... Third, as discovery in this case has revealed, the Nationals were paid an additional $25 million by MLB on a non-recourse basis above the Bortz-calculated telecast rights MASN has already paid to the Nationals," the filing reads in part. Given the Nationals owned a 16% equity stake in MASN last year, the club’s share translates to $60M in total profits for the RSN. The Nationals now own 17% of MASN, and its share will ultimately rise to 33%.
CREATING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: MASN, which has its own notice of limited appeal to move the case instead to a neutral party for arbitration, additionally argued a return to the RSDC would create numerous conflicts of interest. “It would also violate principles of fairness to compel MASN and [the Orioles] to arbitrate before a tribunal controlled by MLB when MLB is seeking to reinstate the prior award the tribunal it controlled rendered,” the filing reads in part. The new filing says little about an attempted two-day mediation the sides conducted last month with prominent Boston-based mediator Eric Green. A footnote in MASN’s documents indicates the sessions were “unsuccessful.” MASN had delayed the filing of its opposition briefs during the mediation process, but with that now done, the RSN restarted its legal activity.
