

Nationals owner Mark Lerner (AP)

Under the disputed ruling made June 30 by a Major League Baseball arbitration panel, the Nationals would earn just shy of $300 million in rights fees from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network for the 2012-2016 “reset” period, according to court documents filed with the New York Supreme Court as supporting evidence by MASN and the Orioles in late September.

The wide differences in rights fees — and the calculations behind them — are at the heart of the long-standing dispute that is now in the courts. The filing, which was posted on the New York court’s website, sheds new details on the differences between the two franchises over the television rights issue.

The ruling would force MASN to pay the Nationals the following amount per year, including payments that would be made in arrears:

2012: $53,170,018

2013: $56,253,879

2014: $59,347,843

2015: $62,611,974

2016: $66,744,364

The total comes to $298.12 million. From 2005 through 2011, the Nationals made $155 million in rights fees from MASN.

For 2012, the Nationals requested to be paid $109 million in rights fees, and MASN wanted to pay $34 million. For the five-year reset period, the Nationals and Orioles were nearly $500 million apart, according to the ruling.

The Orioles are currently challenging the ruling in court and, on Sept. 23, filed an amended petition, with supporting evidence, asking a New York judge to dismiss the MLB panel’s decision. In August, a New York judge awarded the Orioles a preliminary injunction preventing the Nationals from taking further action against the Orioles. The Nationals and MLB have until Oct. 20 to sort through the evidence and file a cross petition. All sides are scheduled to meet before Judge Lawrence Marks for a hearing Dec. 15.

MLB’s arbitration panel — composed of New York Mets COO Jeff Wilpon, Pittsburgh Pirates President Frank Coonelly and Tampa Bay Rays Owner Stuart Sternberg — said it arrived at its ruling though an analysis of MASN’s revenue and comparable television contracts.

The ruling revealed that MASN took in $163 million in total revenue for 2012. Based purely on revenue derived from MLB content, the panel determined, MASN would maintain a 5 percent operating margin and pay a combined $106,340,036 in rights fees to the Nationals and Orioles. The panel simply divided the number in half to determine the 2012 figure.

In their argument, the Nationals relied on expert Chris Bevilacqua, who cited recent contracts in other markets to justify the Nationals’ ask. The Orioles relied on figures from Bortz Media, which MLB had used in the past to determine rights fees.

The panel called both estimates “deficient in material respects.” The ruling said the Nationals failed in their argument to cite reliable statistics, with Bevilacqua using dubious terms such as “I am not at liberty to disclose the specifics” with regards to a Texas Rangers television rights fee contract.

“The Nationals ask the Committee to assume that they are comparable simply because their expert says so without providing an empirical basis for his opinion,” the ruling states.

The panel similarly scolded the Orioles for leaning on the “Bortz methodology” while disregarding market size when making comparisons. The Orioles, for example, tried to draw a distinction between the Washington market and the Miami-Tampa Bay market.

“Like the Nationals’ analysis, we find its comparable analysis to be results-oriented rather than realistic,” the ruling states.

The MLB panel chastised both the Orioles and the Nationals for their inability to find common ground and for placing their own interest above a cooperative effort.

“In the end, our valuation of the Nationals’ 2012-2016 rights is straightforward and confirmed by detailed analyses of MASN and comparable contracts,” the ruling states. “Why, then, are MASN’s bid and the Nationals’ ask one-half billion dollars apart over the five-year period? The parties spilled considerable ink editorializing about their apparently mutual dissatisfaction with the Agreement.

“Looking ahead to the next Negotiation Period in 2016, the Nationals and Orioles would be better served finding more substantial common ground before invoking [the need for arbitration]. The Agreement, after all, describes MASN as a commercially cooperative venture.”

The Orioles have alleged that the ruling should be thrown out on the grounds that it is corrupt and would bankrupt MASN. They have argued that MLB offered the Nationals a sweetheart deal in order to sell them the team for $450 million in 2006, a year after the MLB-owned Expos moved to Washington from Montreal.

The Orioles and MASN also have alleged a conflict of interest between the Nationals and MLB, based on their using the same law firm.