Sports trial’s final quarter

After seven weeks, lawyers for Texas businessman David McDavid and Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System are in the home stretch. McDavid’s side said he had the money and the documents ready to buy the Hawks, Thrashers and Philips Arena operating rights from Turner Broadcasting in 2003 —-but the company shared that information with a group of eight investors, several of whom had ties to founder Ted Turner. Turner Broadcasting’s attorneys say there was no agreement, verbal or written, with McDavid, and the offer from the other investor group, known as the Atlanta Spirit, was better.

McDavid has sued Turner Broadcasting for $450 million, saying he was cheated out of the teams. The defense will wrap up its testimony on Monday, and the jury verdict could come in early December.

Two basic story lines have emerged from the case: whether Turner Broadcasting showed favoritism to the Spirit investors and how poor the financial condition of the Hawks and Thrashers is.

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE TRIAL

> Mounting losses

The Atlanta Spirit thought it could make the Hawks and Thrashers profitable after a year of ownership, according to investment banker John Moag. But Rutherford Seydel, one of the Spirit investors and Ted Turner’s son-in-law, testified that bailing the teams out is “all we’ve done” since 2004. The group has made more than $60 million in capital contributions. Projections from Turner Broadcasting said the Hawks and Thrashers were projected to lose about $250 million from 2002 through 2005.

> Firm denials

Turner Broadcasting executives, including CEO Phil Kent, said unresolved issues prevented the company from reaching an agreement with McDavid. “We had never reached a final agreement. We still had some open issues,” Kent testified. “We had nothing.”

> Meeting at Ted’s

The most notable mention of Ted Turner’s name came when Moag testified about how, when he was representing the Spirit investors, he met with at least four of them at Ted’s Montana Grill downtown. He said they then “went upstairs to Rutherford’s father-in-law’s apartment and talked through the deal.”

WHAT’S STILL A MYSTERY

> No-show

Why Ted Turner did not appear in court. McDavid’s lawyers have called the deal with the Spirit an “inside job,” yet they did not name Ted Turner as a witness. Nor did attorneys for the company that bear his name have him directly rebut the claim that he had any involvement in the deal.

> Unnamed source

Seydel testified that an “individual” contacted him in early 2003 about buying the Hawks only. We do not know who that person is.

> Complete picture

The exact amount of money the Hawks and Thrashers have lost is unclear. Although the owners have had to pour funds into the teams on a consistent basis, it is unknown where the money has gone and what the teams’ bottom line is. It is also unclear how much each owner’s stake has changed after repeated rounds of emergency investment. (The size of their stakes in the teams is related to how much they put in them.)

WHAT’S NEXT

The jury is expected to begin deliberations in early December. If it finds in favor of McDavid, there may be another phase of the trial, this one to decide how much McDavid would receive in punitive damages. Each side could appeal the jury’s decision.