Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Baseball Owners on TV Money

The Supreme Court Monday rejected an appeal by major league baseball players seeking the legal right to millions of dollars in revenue from televised games.

The court, in a one-paragraph order, let stand a ruling last October by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit that major league baseball’s 26 team owners have a copyright on the telecasts.

The Major League Baseball Players Assn. said the players were entitled, based on state laws protecting the publicity rights of performers, to share in all TV revenue.

But the 7th Circuit Court said federal copyright law preempts those state laws.

It added that the dispute over TV revenue was best left to the bargaining table rather than the courts.

“The players . . . seek a judicial declaration that they possess a right . . . they could not procure in bargaining with the clubs,” the appeals court said.

Its ruling does not give the clubs “perpetual rights to the players’ performances. The players remain free to attain their objective by bargaining,” the appeals court said.

The team owners have agreed in the past to devote about one-third of the revenue from nationally televised broadcasts to the players’ pension fund. But those agreements did not include the millions generated by local telecasts and cable TV coverage.