The city of Dayton, Downtown Dayton Partnership, Chicago-area investors Tom Dickson and Sherrie Myers and the new downtown baseball investors, Hank and Ken Stickney of Mandalay Sports Entertainment, are named as defendants.
Dayton City Manager Valerie Lemmie said in a written statement: "We will be
reviewing the legal documents to determine the appropriate course of action.
However, we are confident that our position is correct and we will continue
our efforts to bring minor league baseball to downtown Dayton."
City spokesman Tom Biedenharn added, "We feel confident we can withstand
any kind of legal challenge that they've got."
Maureen Pero, president of the Downtown Dayton Partnership, said the
lawsuit "is clearly frivolous."
Pero called it "a desperate attempt to block the community's efforts to
bring minor league baseball to downtown Dayton."
The lawsuit, filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court late Thursday,
claims Myers publicly announced she was withdrawing from the project, so the
Trotwood group spent time and money putting together a deal at Hara Arena.
Rich Ehrenreich, vice president of Sports Spectrum Inc., said his
investors have put $750,000 in cash into the Trotwood deal so far. He declined
to comment further, referring calls to attorney Anne Frayne. Frayne could not
be reached Friday.
Dayton last year agreed to work exclusively with Myers and build a $22.7
million stadium on East First Street just east of downtown.
Myers got minor league approvals to move the Rockford (Ill.) Cubbies to
Dayton for the 1999 season. But she failed to get Major League Baseball
approval and said at a November news conference that she would withdraw from
the project and sue Major League Baseball.
But Myers, who never formally withdrew her application, announced this week
she would sell her company to Mandalay Sports Entertainment, a
California-based sports group. Mandalay now will seek Major League approval to
move a team downtown.
The lawsuit claims the Trotwood group relied on Myers' public statement and
began working on its own deal. The same November day Myers announced her
withdrawal, the Cincinnati Reds announced it would give Sports Spectrum until
late January to get the necessary league approvals to move a team to the Miami
Valley.
Sports Spectrum negotiated with Dayton but ended up striking a deal with
Trotwood and Hara Arena to build an $11.4 million stadium there.
The lawsuit claims Myers, Dickson and city and partnership officials took
actions to block Sports Spectrum. The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and $51
million in damages.
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* CONTACT Laura Bischoff at 225-2446 or e-mail her at
laura_bischoff@coxohio.com