MASN late Friday filed with the N.Y. Supreme Court new paperwork opposing a bid by the Nationals and MLB to send the long-running media rights dispute back to the league’s Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee. As it has in the past, the Orioles-controlled MASN argued such a return to the RSDC would violate basic principles of fairness and tie up judicial resources given the case is still being appealed by both sides. “If MLB’s and the Nationals’ attempt to compel a hasty rehearing stands, the result will be procedural chaos,” MASN’s filing reads in part. MLB recently notified MASN and the Nationals it intends to bring the matter back before the RSDC in early August, absent judicial intervention. MASN in the latest briefs also took sharp aim at MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. “Through his public pronouncements, the Commissioner has let it be known, in no uncertain terms, that the outcome of any rehearing is already predetermined and will favor the Nationals,” the RSN said. MASN additionally accused the Nationals of misunderstanding the original ’05 settlement between the Orioles and MLB that created the MASN partnership. “[The Nationals’] real quarrel is with the structure of the MASN partnership that they bought into which the Nationals receive a smaller share of MASN’s profits. The Nationals deliberately ignore that the Settlement Agreement’s purpose is to compensate the Orioles for the annual and recurring harms caused by the Nationals’ relocation into the Orioles’ exclusive television territory,” MASN said.
