Quote:
Originally Posted by Saul Good
Their fees were based on an intact conference. I would think the damages would be less for Mizzou, as the conference was already badly damages from the losses of aTm, Nebraska, and Colorado.
My guess is that $6 million is the ceiling, and the lawyers negotiate down from there. As many times as Neinas has said the conference will be fine without Mizzou, that could come back to bite him when trying to claim damages.
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A damages claim is less relevant when discussing a liquidated damages provision. At that point, all he has to do is establish 'damage' in general, then fall back on the liquidated damages provision.
It's sufficient to form a cause of action, if nothing else. And the way the value of one of these is generally calculated is you take the best case scenario $$ figure and multiply it by the odds of winning then subtract legal fees. So if you're the IIX and you think you have about a 50/50 shot at winning a $24 million lawsuit, then the 'value' of the suit is placed at right around $12 million (minus fees) and that's where you start your negotiations from.
Now the IIX has done some stuff in the interim to make the damages more calculable (i.e. the payoffs from NE and CO), but that again just speaks to the odds of winning. MU may be able to argue that the damages can be clearly calculated, thus making the liquidated damages clause punitive in nature and thus unenforceable. But even then, MU's 'best case' scenario is the $6-9 million the other schools have paid out + legal costs.
MU doesn't really have a hell of a lot of leverage here. The suit is probably worth right around $9 million when you get right down to it. Is it 'fair' to make MU pay more than CU when they leave? No, not really, but fair's got nothing to do with it. MU needs to continuing playing nice until the final figures are agreed upon then get out with as little financial damage as possible.
Every booster dollar not spent on exit fees or legal fees is a booster dollar that can go to facilities. Let's keep an eye on that when discussing this stuff.