on Mr. Angelos in the courtroom war, who has used it as a weapon in his defense โ or is it an attack? โ on his MLB partners in the nastiest lawsuit most business journalists have ever seen in sports.
Thatโs really the dirty little secret of all of this โwarโ between Peter G. Angelos and MASN with the other 29 MLB owners over all of this money.
Theyโve spent the last five years dancing over the legitimate and โfairโ rights fees for the Nationals. Essentially, theyโre arguing about money that Angelos completely controls because all of the money is going to MASN.
Itโs always portrayed as โAngelos vs. the Nationals.โ
But no one ever discusses or writes about what it would mean for the Orioles revenue spigot.
If Angelos didnโt own MASN, heโd be the one suing MASN.
If Fox or ESPN or Comcast was hoarding revenue designed for his baseball team, heโd be raising holy hell and suing everyone in sight.
All of this takes place while all of the money sits and flows monthly into Angelosโ MASN bank account. And every time he tells the courts that the Nationals should get less money, heโs also telling Orioles fans that their baseball team should remain a โsmall marketโ team while he pockets more than $50 million per year in straight profit from MASN that doesnโt go anywhere near the baseball team(s).
As youโve read, the whole premise of MASN was to generate more revenues for the Orioles to spend on baseball players. That story was told repeatedly by Angelos to PressBox, The Examiner and The Sun in 2006 and 2007 โ before he realized just how much money this network would throw off and his ability to keep it away from the franchises.
Heโs been dancing for five years.
The baseball teams arenโt seeing the money. Thatโs very clear.
But this is just another lie in a world of lies spinning around Peter G. Angelos and his tenure as the owner of the Baltimore Orioles.
Angelos has tangled his partners up in the courts over the past three years after Bud Selig chastised them and chided them over and over again in the media to make a fair deal. Itโs actually in the Major League Baseball ownership partnership โ in writing and in spirit โ to not sue other members of their antitrust country club. Of course, Angelos has flaunted this arrangement and run them all into courts to try to get โhisโ money.
It all comes down to this: MASN is generating more than $203 million in revenue this year.
How much of it is โfairโ for the Nationals and Orioles to expect from a network that has no other properties or significance beyond showing ESPN News most of the time when itโs not showing insignificant rerun baseball games as โMASN Classicโ programming?
And who gets to decide whatโs โfair market valueโ for either teamโs TV rights?
In Chapter 3 weโll explore in greater details the roots of this mess and the sticky circumstances that found the Montreal Expos landing in Washington, D.C. a decade ago