The Lawsuit

So...

What is The Lawsuit?

Why is it so important? and,

Why is it something owners, and possibly the Players' Association, can bargain over?

It threatens to shake the core of how the ESFL, and, even further, USSL-USA is run. Which makes it important... but how so?

With the aid of what can be best imagined as legal aid, non-profit, activist watchdog societies - or, more accurately, at their begging and eventual persuasion, James Rasbey, Jr., best known as the owner/operator of the Independence Walkers ESFL operation, filed an "antitrust" claim against the New York Sharks ESFL operation - and, by association, its 100% owner, Michael Barnett.

Antitrust suits - and this is the first, ever, since the rule-set was passed by ESFL owners in 1994 and approved by the USSL (for ESFL jurisdiction only) the same year, follow a procedural pattern, as follows:

1. Submission of Grievances

2. Solidification of Claims

3. Culling and prima facie evaluation of claims

4. Debate on the merits of Claims +verdict

5. Ramification Stage (if necessary): Remedial and Pecuniary debate + verdict

We're currently between stages two and three.

Rasbey signed his name to a sprawling, 325-page document presumably written by young, American ESFL/USSL activists. "Activist" can effectively be read as "anti-Barnett" in this climate. The document details a series of deals and transactions since the passage of antitrust regulations in 1994, involving the late Sharks owner/operator David Hanover and, of course, Barnett. Notable components include:

1. The circumstances surrounding the Sharks and Seacooks move back to Long Island in 1998. The affidavit claims Hanover illegal conspired with then-Long Island Amazin' owner-operator Michael Harrington, Sr., in order to get the Seacooks to release from their San Diego stadium lease. Hanover then moved to purchase the Cincinnati Sharks and relocate them to the Flat Grounds. The Seacooks were left homeless by the caving of the Hanover-Flat Grounds deal and thus were forced to sign an above-"market" lease deal with Harrington, in order to use Sprint PCS Field in Smithown, NY.

--> Perhaps the most curious aspect of the whole affidavit for those keenly interested in the circumstances that led to the Shark-Seacook relocations in 1998. To begin with, it has been generally accepted that after their less-than-amicable split was finalized in 1989, Harrington, Sr. and Hanover did not speak directly until their public meetings as aged men in 2002. To review, Hall of Fame player Hanover and real estate magnate Harrington teamed up in 1955 to purchase the Long Island Amazin', and co-owned and operated the franchise and related exploits until 1988, when disagreements over the team's future led to a settlement: Hanover refused to help finance the construction of Sprint PCS Field, and relinquished ownership rights to the team effective January 1, 1989, but he also retained exclusive property rights to the monstrous Flat Grounds.

--> For ten years speculation was constant about Hanover leveraging to purchase a team and bring them to the Flat Grounds: Long Island had had just one football team since the Sharks moved to Cincinnati in 1949. Sharks USBL operations, however, had relocated to New York in 1977, long fueling speculation that the football team would follow... but it seemingly never did.

--> Thus the Sharks were identified as Hanover's most logical target. Hanover wooed Mark Bangston in February 1998 into interest in a complicated leasing compact that would relocate the Seacooks to New York, give Hanover a minority ownership stake in the team and revenue flow, and control over football operations. Of course the deal fell through just three days after Bangston let his lease with the City of San Diego lapse, and Hanover moved quickly to purchase the Cincinnati/New York Sharks for a total of $57 million to call them all his own. Bengston was forced into an expensive leasing deal with Harrington that is cited by Seacook apologists as the reason for the organization's failures in their first decade back on the Island.

--> The affidavit filed, and Claim #13 of the sixty-seven that currently exist, claim these happenings were part of a conspiratorial effort by Hanover and Harrington to drive down the ultimate price of the Sharks and decrease Bengston's leverage in the Seacook relocation. By "playing" Bengston, Hanover was able to draw him into a situation where he was forced to let the San Diego lease lapse, providing him no leverage in negotiation with Harrington. And by making Cincinnati ownership, which was desperate to sell, believe that they were competing against Bengston for Hanover's dollars, Hanover saved some cash in the ordeal.

--> Claim #13 goes on to state that evidence will be presented that Hanover was negotiating simultaneously with both Bengston and the Cincinnati group, and that negotiations with the Cincinnati group were ongoing when the failed leasing deal with Bengston was in the drafting stage with counsel for both sides.

--> Related Claim #14 states that evidence will be provided to the effect that Hanover threatened to lock the USBL-operation NY Sharks out of the Flat Grounds for the 37 home games they were scheduled to play there in 1998 if his asking price was not met.

Bengston sold the team in 2004. Neither he nor the Cincinnati ownership group from the 1990s ever alleged anything of the sort in the press either at the time or in the time since.