Opinion ID: 471004
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Directness of the Injury (Coliseum)

Text: 35 Appellants contend that the injury suffered by the Coliseum was connected too remotely and indirectly to the NFL's antitrust violation to be compensable under 15 U.S.C. Sec. 15. We find this argument to be without merit. 36 We determined in Raiders I that the claims of the Raiders and the L.A. Coliseum ... present somewhat different market considerations. 726 F.2d at 1393. Upholding the jury's liability verdict in favor of both parties, we found sufficient evidentiary support for the jury's finding that the NFL's territorial restraints in this case not only impaired competition between NFL football team franchises, but also restrained competition in the stadia market between rival stadia (such as the Oakland Coliseum and the L.A. Coliseum) that seek to secure NFL tenants. Id. at 1393-94. 37 Clearly, the Coliseum suffered direct harm as the result of the NFL's antitrust restraints in that latter market. Unlike the alleged injury found to be too indirect by the Court in Associated General Contractors, the Coliseum's injury was not filtered through several somewhat vaguely defined links. 459 U.S. at 540, 103 S.Ct. at 910. The Coliseum was a competitor in a market in which competition was restrained directly and foreseeably, if not also intentionally. This stadium, which previously had sought to acquire the Minnesota Vikings team as a tenant, was engaged in a bidding struggle with its Oakland counterpart for the tenancy of the Raiders, and was injured when the NFL's application of its territorial restrictions foreclosed further undistorted negotiations. 38 We are confident that our 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. 39 The district court was correct in denying appellants' motion to dismiss the Coliseum's damages claim for lack of standing.