Chicago Professional Sports Limited Partnership v. National Basketball Association

Descriptions :

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge. In the six years since they filed this antitrust suit, the Chicago Bulls have won four National Basketball Association titles and an equal number of legal victories. Suit and titles are connected. The Bulls want to broadcast more of their games over WGN television, a “superstation” carried on cable systems nationwide. The Bulls’ popularity makes WGN attractive to these cable systems; the large audience makes WGN attractive to the Bulls. Since 1991 the Bulls and WGN have been authorized by injunction to broadcast 25 or 30 games per year. We affirmed that injunction in 1992, and the district court proceeded to determine whether WGN could carry even more games—and whether the NBA could impose a “tax” on the games broadcast to a national audience, for which other superstations have paid a pretty penny to the league. After holding a nine-week trial and receiving 512 stipulations of fact, the district court made a 30-game allowance permanent and held the NBA’s fee excessive. Both sides appeal. The Bulls want to broadcast 41 games per year over WGN; the NBA contends that the antitrust laws allow it to fix a lower number (15 or 20) and to collect the tax it proposed. With apologies to both sides, we conclude that they must suffer through still more litigation.