The San Jose City Council voted Tuesday to sue Major League Baseball over the stalled proposal to move the Oakland A's to a new downtown ballpark, and the city has filed suit in federal court. The lawsuit challenges baseball's long-standing antitrust exemption.
From the San Jose Mercury News ...
The lawsuit argues MLB's decree that the San Francisco Giants have exclusive territorial rights to San Jose, which the defending World Series champions refuse to relinquish, constitutes unlawful restraint of trade.
"For years, MLB has unlawfully conspired to control the location and relocation of major league men's professional baseball clubs under the guise of an 'antitrust exemption' applied to the business of baseball," said the 44-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose. The suit, which accuses MLB of a "blatant conspiracy," is being handled at no city cost by the Burlingame law firm of Joseph W. Cotchett, which has handled some of the largest antitrust cases in the nation and represented the NFL in similar litigation.
The Merc article also has a good recap of the unsuccessful past attempts to break Major League Baseball's antitrust exemption.
The suit, which you can read below, claims San Jose has suffered losses in the millions of dollars related to direct spending and tax revenue.
The A's are not a part of the suit except technically as defendants, inasmuch as as they are one of 30 MLB teams.