Chicago Professional Sports, Ltd. Partnership & WGN v. National Basketball Association (Bulls II)
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
95 F.3d 593 (7th Cir. 1996)
After winning the right to broadcast up to 30 Bulls games in the earlier Bulls I decision, the Bulls' ownership (plaintiff) and WGN (plaintiff) sought to broadcast even more games (up to 41), while the NBA (defendant) wanted to impose a $138,000-per-game tax on superstation broadcasts; after a lengthy trial, the district court made the 30-game allowance permanent and found the NBA's proposed tax excessive, and both sides appealed, with the Bulls and WGN seeking more games and the NBA defending its right to limit games and collect its tax.
Whether a sports league's fee or output-limiting rule for broadcasting violates antitrust law absent a showing that the rule actually reduces output to the detriment of consumers, and whether such a claim requires a full Rule of Reason market-power analysis.