Rooftop holdout asks judge to thwart Cubs' reprisal

April 8, 2004

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Will Opening Day at Wrigley Field trigger Round 2 of ''Rooftop Wars''? Not if a federal judge intercedes.

The only one of 13 rooftop clubs that is refusing to share its profits with the Cubs is asking U.S. District Judge James Holderman to prohibit the team from blocking the view of the park from Skybox on Waveland, a 120-seat venue at 1038 W. Waveland.

In an emergency motion scheduled for a 9 a.m. hearing today, rooftop attorneys accuse the Cubs of stalling a trial on the team's December 2002 copyright infringement lawsuit in an attempt to either shut down Skybox on Waveland or dictate a settlement on the Cubs' terms.

The rooftop club wants Holderman to start the trial Monday, which is Opening Day at Wrigley, and prohibit any rooftop obstruction until the trial has concluded.

''Having succeeded in delaying the trial indefinitely, the Cubs now intend to exploit that delay to destroy their opponent before the court can rule,'' the motion states.

''The Cubs apparently regard the judicial process as nothing but a means of coercion. Recognizing that the lawsuit is likely to fail and thus has no coercive power, the Cubs are now happy to put it off until after they can win outside the courtroom.''

The Cubs have asked Holderman to deny the emergency motion. They argue that the owners of Skybox on Waveland already have acknowledged in court filings leading up to the trial that the Cubs have an ''undisputed legal right'' to erect a barrier that blocks their view of games.

The Sun-Times reported last month that the Cubs have hired lighting and scenery experts to devise a way to block the view from Skybox on Waveland without interfering with the view from a dozen other rooftops now paying the Cubs 17 percent of their gross revenues.

Since then, the Cubs have erected a scaffold and tested snake-like obstructions that block the club's view of home plate.

In its emergency motion, Skybox on Waveland mentions yet another possibility: a ''spotlight or something similar'' that could be trained on the rooftop club to ''effectively blind owners, tenants and guests on the property from seeing into Wrigley Field.''

from: Sun Times