Lawsuit Over Disney Sports Attraction Goes to Jury

Jurors began deliberating Thursday in a $1.5-billion civil lawsuit, filed in Florida circuit court in Orlando, that accuses Walt Disney Co. of stealing the idea for a sports-theme attraction.

The plaintiffs, Nicholas Stracick, a former baseball umpire and Buffalo, N.Y., businessman, and architect Edward Russell of Fonthill, Canada, claimed they met with Disney executives in 1987 and left behind plans and a model of the sports complex that included a multipurpose sports center, motels and restaurants.

Ten years later, Disney opened Wide World of Sports, a sports complex with striking similarities but some significant differences. Disney has argued that its attraction, at Walt Disney World near Orlando, was created in-house by Disney’s own designers.

Disney’s park has a baseball field designed for major league baseball--it is the spring training home for the Atlanta Braves--and other facilities for sports ranging from football to badminton, all included in plans drawn up by All Pro Sports Camps Inc., Stracick and Russell’s company.

In closing arguments Wednesday, plaintiffs attorney Willie Gary acknowledged differences between the park envisioned by his clients and the one opened by Disney but said, “They stole the concept.”

Disney attorney David Evans countered by showing the jury several existing sports complexes, including Olympic training centers, that have much in common with both Disney’s complex and the one designed by All Pro Sports.

He said it was “absolutely preposterous to think that the idea to build sports complexes is owned by any one company.”