Opinion ID: 195406
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Directness of the Injury

Text: 35 Sullivan argues that SMC suffered direct harm as a result of the NFL's restraints on the stadia market. He maintains that Los Angeles Coliseum supports this claim, and compares SMC's status to that of the Coliseum. 36 In Los Angeles Coliseum, the Coliseum had been engaged in a bidding struggle with a rival stadium for the tenancy of the Oakland Raiders when the NFL's invocation of its restrictive relocation rule foreclosed further negotiations, thus depriving the Coliseum of expected revenue for leasing the facility to the Raiders for their games. 791 F.2d at 1365. The Ninth Circuit concluded that the NFL's illegal territorial restraints directly and foreseeably restrained competition in the stadia market, in which the Coliseum participated, and that the harm it suffered was a direct result of the NFL's illegal territorial restraints. Id. 37 In an attempt to limit the reach of this holding, the court stated that it was confident that [this] ruling will not be misinterpreted as being a broad endorsement of antitrust standing for all parties who might have contracted with the Raiders had they not been restrained in their relocation plans. Football stadia constitute a special market distinguished from those comprised by, say, hotels, laundering establishments, or limousine services, by their indispensable and intimate connection with professional football and football teams. An injury such as that suffered by the Coliseum in the present case cannot be characterized fairly as an indirect 'ripple effect.'  Id. at 1365. 38 Sullivan seems to argue that since SMC, like the Coliseum, is a participant in the market for football stadia, it enjoys similar distinguished status by virtue of its indispensable and intimate connection with professional football and football teams, and should be able likewise to recover. The injury to SMC, and its relation to the rule at issue in this case, are, however, clearly distinguishable. 39 The rule at issue in Los Angeles Coliseum affected where a team could be located. In precluding a team from relocating in a particular area, the rule necessarily restrained competition in the related market for football stadia. Once the NFL invoked its rule to block the Raiders from moving into the Rams' territory, the Coliseum (and, indeed, all other stadia in that location) was barred from competing with other stadia for the Raiders' tenancy. 40 The rule at issue in this case had no similar direct effect on SMC, nor on the market in which it was a participant. Plaintiff claims that the NFL rule restricting public ownership of NFL teams was the but for cause of the loss of his stadium, injuring SMC as follows: the NFL rejected William Sullivan's plan to sell 49% of his stock to an investment bank, which, in turn, would sell the stock to the public; as a result, SMC did not get refinancing; SMC therefore could not pay its debts, nor complete renovations; SMC could not get an extension on its lease (which was contingent on the sale of Patriots' stock), and was forced to file for bankruptcy. We think that any injury suffered by SMC as a result of the NFL rule was indirect, and a consequence of the direct injury inflicted on the Patriots' owner. 41 In addition, the fact that William Sullivan, the party most directly harmed by the alleged violation, has pursued (and indeed, obtained a verdict in) his own antitrust action diminishes another possible rationale for allowing Sullivan to proceed in this case. See Associated General Contractors, 459 U.S. at 542, 103 S.Ct. at 910 (existence of an identifiable class of persons whose self-interest likely to motivate them to vindicate the public interest in antitrust enforcement diminishes the justification for allowing a more remote party to sue). 12