Northwestern’s motion to dismiss the wrongful termination lawsuit brought by former coach Pat Fitzgerald was denied today, Fitz seeking $130MM.

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How on Earth can they not play at the Bears stadium??
 

Although the exact configuration is still being designed, the structure will be a temporary enhancement to the existing Lanny and Sharon Martin athletics facility and part of Chap and Ethel Hutcheson Field. Capacity for the temporary facility will be considerably less than either the old Ryan Field or the new Ryan Field
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Past performance indicates Dr. Gragg has design, contracts, implementation well in hand for Aug 31.
 

MplsGopher said:
How on Earth can they not play at the Bears stadium??
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They don't want to fork out the $$. I can't imagine the Big Ten is going to allow some of these games to happen, like tOSU and Wisconsin.

The place holds 2,000 people and even expanding the seating might get to about 10,000.
 




1983 said:
We would be lucky to land him. He will be back to redeem himself and make some noise with a big program
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If he makes adjustments and gets better. He ran a shitty program at the end.
9-25 his last 34 big ten games.

Not convinced his model works very well in the free transfer era
 

MaxyJR1 said:
They don't want to fork out the $$. I can't imagine the Big Ten is going to allow some of these games to happen, like tOSU and Wisconsin.

The place holds 2,000 people and even expanding the seating might get to about 10,000.
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I’m not sure the big ten has any authority over home games though. So to get them to move it it might have to be involving financial incentives to move it
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Northwestern should settle ASAP.

I can't imagine going in front of a jury and arguing:

Well we had all the information and decided no action was needed. Then a week later when players talked to ESPN we decided this guy was the only person we should fire over all this abuse ...

Northwestern administration will not look credible at all.

Northwestern should settle, then fire their athletic department staff, maybe the university president too (word has it he had the report).
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I get what you’re saying but Northwestern didn’t accuse him of any wrongdoing

So im not sure how he ends with more than his buyout + legal fees


I think best case for Fitzgerald is 68 million plus legal fees. I see why he is fighting for that though.


I think they’ll end up settling in the 40-50 million range before it makes it to court.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
seeking $130-million in Compensatory damages. If they win in court, you can bet they'll want a lot more in Punitive damages and they've also indicated that they will seek money for Emotional Damages.

unless Northwestern's lawyers are 150% sure they can't lose, they might want to settle this one out of court.
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They probably want to settle even if they are 100% sure they’ll win in court.
My money is on an undisclosed settlement for about half the buyout plus legal fees.
But we will never read the number
 



LesBolstad said:
Reminds me of Oakland A's playing in a 14k minor league stadium Sutter Health Park in Sacramento next couple seasons before moving to Vegas. I'm shocked MLB is allowing this

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14,000 for a baseball game is different than a 10,000 P5 football stadium. A's are averaging 6,200 through 10 home games.

They should be in a minor league stadium in Vegas for the next two years
 



Has anyone seen and update on this at all since the spring?
 




LesBolstad said:
Fitz hit the lottery. Gets out prior to new B10 schools that will make it even harder to be competitive and will be paid likely 50-70 million in settlement
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I could save the school a lot of legal fees by settling in the above range- Fitz would take 60M today
 

Some guy said:
I get what you’re saying but Northwestern didn’t accuse him of any wrongdoing

So im not sure how he ends with more than his buyout + legal fees


I think best case for Fitzgerald is 68 million plus legal fees. I see why he is fighting for that though.


I think they’ll end up settling in the 40-50 million range before it makes it to court.
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I'm not disagreeing with where this will end up, but if NW ends up paying out anything close to the $40 million, someone's head should roll. They could have avoided this entirely by just firing him without cause and paying the remainder of his contract which was $42 million.

They have now probably spent $3-4 million in legal fees, they are fighting with their former coach/alum in court, and they are playing a dangerous game of chicken with the case brought by the former players.
 

LesBolstad said:
I could save the school a lot of legal fees by settling in the above range- Fitz would take 60M today
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The schools themselves could’ve paid 68 million just to buyout the contract
Bob_Loblaw said:
I'm not disagreeing with where this will end up, but if NW ends up paying out anything close to the $40 million, someone's head should roll. They could have avoided this entirely by just firing him without cause and paying the remainder of his contract which was $42 million.

They have now probably spent $3-4 million in legal fees, they are fighting with their former coach/alum in court, and they are playing a dangerous game of chicken with the case brought by the former players.
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the remainder of his contract was 68 million
 

Some guy said:
The schools themselves could’ve paid 68 million just to buyout the contract

the remainder of his contract was 68 million
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I may have this incorrect, but I thought the remainder of the contract was $68 million but he could have been fired without cause and been owed $42 million. It was almost like the remaining $26 million was like a "non-guaranteed" contract in sports. I could be wrong.
 

Gregg was demoted. Schill is still there. Fitzgerald attempted to move up the trial date (from April) but was denied. I’d guess he still wants to coach sooner rather than later.

It will be real interesting to see if he settles before then or goes for the $132M in total damages. Decent chance at the latter?

The players have no case, probably, but what is the cost of litigation.
 

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