City of San Jose v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball

The City of San Jose steps.up to the plate to challenge the baseball industry’s 92-year old exemption from the antitrust laws. It joins the long line of litigants that have sought to overturn one of federal law’s most enduring anomalies.

I. Background

Major League Baseball’s (MLB) constitution requires that each of the league’s 30 member clubs play their home games within a designated operating territory. For the Oakland Athletics, that territory is comprised of two California counties: Alameda and Contra Costa. Faced with dwindling attendance and revenue, the Athletics want to move to San Jose, which they consider a more profitable venue. But there’s a snag: San Jose falls within the exclusive operating territory of the San Francisco Giants, and relocation to another franchise’s territory is prohibited unless approved by at least three-quarters of MLB’s clubs.

MLB has not rushed to grant this approval. In 2009, MLB established a “special Relocation Committee” to investigate the implications of the move for the league, but four years later the committee was “still at work,” with no resolution in sight. In the meantime, the Athletics moved forward with their plan to…