Mike Petke’s lawsuit against Real Salt Lake for breach of contract and defamation — among other causes of action — brought to light allegations of improper conduct by the team in the aftermath of his suspension. Now the team has adopted a legal strategy that could prevent even more potentially embarrassing information from seeing the light of day.



On October 7th, Real Salt Lake filed a motion to dismiss Petke’s complaint and move his case to arbitration. Generally speaking, businesses prefer to resolve legal disputes via arbitration as it does not involve a jury, which may make decisions based on emotion. Additionally, arbitration is less expensive for all parties, less time consuming and — crucially — not typically a public process.



RSL’s motion, which was not filed under seal, reveals that both the team and the league are very concerned about the potential negative publicity a trial could bring on both. In the motion,...