Nationals-Orioles TV hearing reset for March 31
NEW YORK (AP) An appeals court hearing in the long-running television dispute between the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals has been rescheduled for March 31.
The Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court in Manhattan had been scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday, but the hearing was postponed because of snow.
New York Supreme Court Justice Lawrence K. Marks in November 2015 threw out an arbitration decision that said the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which is controlled by the Orioles, owes the Nationals about $298 million for the team's 2012-16 television rights.
MASN was established in March 2005 after the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington and became the Nationals, moving into what had been Baltimore's exclusive broadcast territory since 1972. The Orioles were given a supermajority partnership interest in MASN, and when the parties couldn't agree on a rights fee for 2012-16, they appeared in April 2012 before baseball's three-man Revenue Sharing Definitions Committee, as required in the MASN agreement.
The RSDC issued its decision in 2014, and MASN and the Orioles sued, claiming the arbitration was improper because the law firm Proskauer Rose, which represented the Nationals, at times worked for MLB and the teams of all three arbitrators.
Marks issued a stay last July preventing the RSDC from holding a rehearing, pending determination of the appeal.
