And now we know what’s coming. Precourt Sports Ventures and Major League Soccer have tipped their hand, requesting leave to file a Motion to Dismiss which exceeds the page limits allowed by local rules. We can thank the local rules for getting this preview of the argument from the defendants, as briefs that will exceed 15 pages require prior permission from the Court, as well as a justification for the request.

So we can look forward to about a 25 page brief from the defendants. Which honestly seems pretty short; we’ll see if they stick to that. (Edit: Although a request as to the exact number of pages leads me to think that they’ve already finished their brief, or have progressed to the point where they know how many pages the brief will be). The Court is HIGHLY likely to grant this request; in my experience, your reasoning has to be pretty flimsy not to have these requests granted. Given the novel issues at play here (a unique statute that has never been tested), the Court doesn’t have any reason to deny the motion, really. Of more interest of course is the reasoning from PSV/MLS regarding the basis for the motion.

Honestly, I thought there would be more novel issues at play here, but PSV/MLS says “at least five independent reasons,” so we could be looking at more (and why would they want to tip their hand any more than necessary). What this also means is that we won’t be seeing a formal “answer” to the complaint at this time, where PSV/MLS respond to the specific allegations raised in the amended complaint filed by the City/State. If the Motion to Dismiss is granted (and affirmed if appealed), we never will.

A short update (doesn’t warrant a new post): It appears that MLS is bringing in some New York attorneys to fight this matter. This type of thing happens quite frequently in cases where you have “out-of-state” defendants.