Steinbrenner Sued Over Idea for YES Network

But did not the Empire merely use the Death Star design first devised as schematics for the Confederacy of Independent Systems?

A former president of Madison Square Garden says it was his idea to create what became the Yankees-run YES Network, and on Friday he sued George Steinbrenner, the team’s principal owner, in federal court for fraud and breach of contract. He is seeking at least $23 million in damages.

Bob Gutkowski, who as MSG Network president negotiated a 12-year, $493.5 million deal in 1988 with the Yankees, said as plaintiff in the lawsuit that he had several meetings with Steinbrenner, starting in 1996, to discuss the Yankees’ network idea, and made a presentation in 1998 to Steinbrenner and other Yankees executives that laid out how to build a network.

Speaking on behalf of Steinbrenner, Randy Levine, the Yankees’ president, said he would have no comment until he read the lawsuit.

Gutkowski, who rose to the presidency of Madison Square Garden before being ousted after its acquisition by ITT and Cablevision, was running a sports marketing company, the Marquee Group, during his discussions in the 1990s with Steinbrenner.

According to Gutkowski, Steinbrenner was not certain by 1998 if he would go ahead with the network, even as the MSG deal was winding down and the team had to assess its TV future.

In his court papers, Gutkowski said that Steinbrenner told him that he would “be the one to build it and either run it or be significantly involved in it” and that he would be “compensated for his idea and efforts.”