Judge denies rooftop owners' request to stop installation of Wrigley outfield signs
Posted: 02/19/2015, 10:22am |
BY MITCH DUDEK AND KIM JANSSEN
A view of the rooftops as seen from inside Wrigley Field. | Getty Images
In a win for the Cubs, a federal court judge on Thursday refused to grant a request by the owners of a pair of Wrigley Field rooftops to stop the team’s installation of outfield signs that would block their valuable view.
U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall ruled that the “vague possibility” rooftop owners could be injured by the Cubs installation of the signs isn’t enough to issue a restraining order against the team.
The judge said that rooftop owners had not provided bottom-line documentation showing that ballpark construction had resulted in a “complete lack of income that would cause their businesses to collapse.”
Construction at Wrigley, which was being carried out Thursday morning by hard-hatted laborers as the judge delivered her ruling, will continue, said Dennis Culloton, spokesman for the Ricketts family, which owns the Cubs.
“We’re obviously very pleased with the ruling and grateful that the judge is showing such concerns for opening day,” Culloton said.
Workers will continue to erect the infrastructure that will support the new signs, including the heavily contested video board the Cubs
want to erect near the right field foul pole that rooftop owners complain would obstruct their view, Culloton said.
“The exact date for when the signs are going to go up has a lot to do with how much they can get done in these weather conditions, but we
are moving aggressively to get everything done as soon as possible,” Culloton said.
Culloton didn’t know if the approximately 2,500-square-foot sign slated for right field had been delivered to the ball park yet.
During a four-hour hearing on Wednesday, lawyers for the two rooftop businesses, Skybox and the Lakeview Baseball Club, reiterated their arguments that the Cubs’ plans violate both a 2004 revenue-sharing agreement they signed with the rooftop owners, and federal anti-trust laws.
They argued to the judge that if she didn’t issue a temporary restraining order banning the Cubs from installing the signs until a fuller hearing of the issue next month, the rooftop businesses will not be able to sell tickets to corporate clients who plan events months in advance, and that they therefore will not survive.
“Without the views they have nothing to sell,” attorney Thomas Lombardo said.
But lawyers for the Cubs repeated their arguments that the Cubs have the right to install the signs, and that the rooftops could continue to argue their case in court while the signs are installed.
Cubs attorney Andrew Kassof denied the Cubs were attempting to create an illegal monopoly over rooftop pricing, telling the judge that the “the point is to renovate Wrigley Field to generate revenues to make a better product, get better players on the field and win a World Series.”
