Hamilton County Board Of Commissioners V. National Football League

Hamilton County Board of Commissioners v. National Football League 6th Circuit Court of Appeals 491 F.3d 310 (6th Cir. 2007) Key Search Terms: Antitrust, Competition, Statute of Limitations, Monopoly, Negotiation Facts Hamilton County filed suit against the Cincinnati Bengals, the National Football League, and it’s 31 other teams based on the anticompetitive and monopolistic behaviors. The Bengals claimed that they could not remain competitive unless given a new stadium, citing deficient seating in both capacity and luxury. The owner of the Bengals, Mike Brown, threatened to move the team out of Cincinnati if they did not get a new stadium. Brown then gave the county an ultimatum of a new stadium or the Bengal’s would move to a city that offered to build a new stadium. During negotiations, the county asked to see their financial information but the team refused. Despite never getting the financial info, they entered a lease agreement in May of 1997 to begin erecting the new stadium. Four years later, in May of 2001, the L.A. Times published an article which disclosed that the Bengals were 8th out of the 31 teams in profits. In May of 2003, County filed lawsuit with claims that Bengal’s/NFL violated §§ 1 and 2 of Sherman Act. Issue The issue is whether the county’s suit should be barred by the statute of limitations and whether the county could have brought a claim within the limitations period. Holding The 6th Circuit held that the statute of limitations had run because the source of the injury was the signing of the stadium lease, which occurred six years prior. Additionally, the county was aware of facts which it could have based an action on during the limitations period. These facts include: a previous unsuccessful case (St. Louis v. NFL, 154 F.3d 851), awareness of extortionary tactics used by the Bengals, council discussion of lawsuit prior to 2003, pending congressional legislation regarding monopoly powers, and newspaper reports of the monopoly power of NFL. The court of appeals reasoned that obtaining the Bengal’s financial information was irrelevant. Additionally, the 6th Circuit reasoned that the financial info of the Bengal’s was available via three sources of media which was sufficient notice. Summarized By: Erika Nelson