Post by Moses on Oct 30, 2005 9:36:25 GMT -5
THE WARFIELD SUES CLEAR CHANNEL
From http://www.sfbg.com:
Warfield Owner Sues Clear Channel Firm
Lawsuit says naming-rights deal with SF Weekly tarnishes The Warfield brand
By Matthew Hirsch
Claiming the SF Weekly name has devalued its historic concert venue, the owner of The Warfield filed a lawsuit Oct. 13 to have the name removed.
The suit stems from a deal struck in June that gave SF Weekly, owned by the Phoenix-based New Times chain, naming rights to The Warfield and made SF Weekly the exclusive advertiser for Bill Graham Presents, a promotion company owned by San Antonio-based Clear Channel that rents and operates The Warfield. The agreement cut the locally owned Bay Guardian out of a big chunk of the lucrative concert advertising market.
According to the lawsuit, BGP had no right to rename the theater and failed to get permission from Warfield Theater LLC, which owns the trademarked name and the building. In fact, Warfield owner David Addington told us he only learned of the deal when a reporter called for comment.
The Warfield Theater, represented by the law firm Gonzalez and Leigh, is seeking to get back profits earned under the SF Weekly Warfield name, plus punitive damages and an injunction barring use of the term "SF Weekly Warfield" to describe The Warfield Theater.
The 12-page legal complaint airs out a whole stinking pile of dirty laundry. It says a BGP [Clear Channel Co] staffer threatened to "f**k up" the Warfield if BGP's lease is not extended past 2008. It also says BGP has tried to wipe out The Warfield name altogether, referring to the concert venue on ticket stubs and on its Web site as the "SF Weekly Theater."
"BGP has acted with malice and intentionally seeks to damage The Warfield Theater name and [the owner's] relationships with its future tenants," the lawsuit alleges.
BGP and its sister firm AKG Inc., also named in the suit, are poised to lose control of The Warfield in 2008 when AEG Live, the nation's second-largest concert promoter, takes over the lease. BGP has run The Warfield continuously since 1978.
The lease agreement with AEG Live (which is owned by Philip Anschutz, who last year bought the San Francisco Examiner) was already in place when Addington bought The Warfield Theater in April, he told us. But when Addington related this fact to BGP executives during a lunchtime meeting in May, he says, they gave him a blunt ultimatum. That's when, according to the lawsuit, BGP president Lee Smith allegedly told Addington, "If we don't get the follow-up lease, we'll f**k that place up."
Smith did not return our calls for this story.
"It looks like they're keen on naming rights only when they're about to lose the space," Addington told the Bay Guardian, noting that BGP hasn't been renaming other concert venues it operates.
Addington told us that the plan to put SF Weekly's name on the theater came only after he refused to extend the lease. On July 27, BGP announced the agreement, good for three years, and soon after it hung two large signs on The Warfield marquee – again without consent from The Warfield Theater. One is an ad for Budweiser. The other bears the SF Weekly logo.
Then, on Aug. 22, an attorney for AKG Inc., the BGP affiliate, sent Addington a letter saying the company would change the theater's name once more, this time calling it the "SF Weekly Theater." This may have been done to stop infringing on The Warfield's trademark name, but attorneys for The Warfield say it fails to remedy what's already happened.
"We believe it's [still] a violation of The Warfield Theater's right to name its own theater," Rita Hao, a partner at Gonzalez and Leigh, told us.
The deal with New Times was reportedly a lucrative one for BGP, believed to be in the high six figures (see "SF Weekly Cuts Deal with Clear Channel," 6/29/05). But given that local music fans generally respond negatively to explicit corporate branding, Hao said she questions what's in it for The Warfield.
Hao said, "If this is such a great deal, why aren't they renaming The Fillmore or other venues they operate?"
PS The Bay Guardian is suing New Times for predatory pricing, charging that SF Weekly and East Bay Express are selling ads below cost in an effort to drive the Bay Guardian out of business.
[Published on 10/27/2005]