WASHINGTON — This week, the Washington Nationals face off against the Braves on the field, but did you know they have an ongoing battle with the Baltimore Orioles in court?
The Nationals and Orioles are I-95 rivals, and rivals in the courtroom. It’s a dispute that goes back to 2005.
Back then Major League Baseball wanted to move the Montreal Expos to Washington, D.C. At the time, the DMV was considered part of the Baltimore Orioles media market.
“There was a deal struck to get the Nats into the Orioles territory,” sports law expert Ellen Zavian said.
The deal included creating a regional sports network to broadcast both teams’ games:the Mid Atlantic Sports Network, or MASN. This deal was complicated.
We talked to two legal experts for an explanation — Ellen Zavian and Maria Glover. The details of the contract between the Orioles and Nationals are not public information. However, some portions have come out over the years.
Part of the deal explained that the television rights fees from MASN would be split evenly. Television rights fees make millions of dollars for professional sports teams.
Zavian explained the two sides would negotiate a fair rights fee payout. However, any profits from MASN that went beyond the rights fees would be given out in a different, uneven manner.
“From the profits, the percentages are divided among the two teams, with the Orioles getting the majority,” Zavian said.
The breakdown of those profits would change, giving the Nationals a higher percentage each year. However, the Nationals would never get more than 33% of the profits. It would always favor the Orioles.
This deal between the two teams first had issues when the MASN rights fee payments came out.
According to Zavian, the Nats felt the Orioles shorted them millions of dollars.
The Nationals lawyers took their complaint to an arbitration panel which agreed: it ruled the Orioles owed the Nationals much more.
“The Orioles argued [a higher payout] would wipe out any profits,” Zavian explained.
To the Orioles, if there is no profit after rights fees are paid out-then the Baltimore Franchise gets no benefit from their 2005 deal, our experts said.
The Orioles appealed that ruling. Since 2016, the two have battled in courtrooms across the country with no resolution. The money a panel told the Orioles they must pay the Nationals sits in an account to the tune of more than $200 million.
The Nationals’ lawyers have argued losing out on the millions has hurt the franchise. Even going as far as to claim it hurt the team’s ability to sign free agents.
The Orioles’ lawyers continue to argue that arbitration ruling wipes out any potential benefits they were promised when MLB moved the Expos into their territory in 2005.
So where is this all now?
Currently, the New York Court of Appeals is deciding who should make the decision on this dispute. Should it be a court or another arbitration panel. So far it looks like no end in sight for the baseball beltway battles of the barristers.