Don't Go Back To Rockville: Day Two

It only took two days for all the bodies to hit the floor in the Atlanta Spirit, LLC versus itself court case in Maryland.

There was finger-pointing, name-calling, and all that other fun stuff that has made this look more like kids throwing sand in each other's faces rather than adults who claim to care about ownership in sports franchises.

Kristi E. Swartz of the AJC tells us today that Steve Belkin doesn't trust the other owners... and for that revelation, we are all shocked...

"Rob Remar, an attorney representing the seven other partners, asked why Belkin moved so quickly to file a lawsuit, which he did four hours after they received an appraisal from CitiGroup.

“I had objected first, I had become the objecting party. At that time I did not trust any of the actions by any of the defendants,” Belkin said.

So, a phone call was out of the question, Remar asked.

“We wanted to get the help of the court to make sure this valuation process was completed,” Belkin replied.

Remar continued to press Belkin on why he filed a lawsuit.

“You said you wanted to get the help of the court. Did you ever go to the court to say, “Judge can you get us a declaration?”

Belkin deferred that question to his lawyers.
Remar asked the question again.

“My understanding is that we asked for the court’s help to stop the defendants from interfering,” Belkin said. “I didn’t believe anything that the defendants said.”"

Belkin's appraisal of all the property and naming rights is in the neighborhood of US$500-million. The 2005 appraisal came in at US$288.4-million.

Those numbers are why Belkin objected to the appraisals in the first place and filed the lawsuit against his former partners...
More after Day 3 tomorrow...