Disney settles sports complex case

The amount was not disclosed, but it was thought to be a fraction of the $240-million a jury had awarded.

©Associated Press
September 26, 2002

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- The Walt Disney Co. has reached a settlement with two businessmen awarded $240-million by a jury that decided the company stole their idea for its Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World.

The settlement amount and terms of the agreement were not revealed in the court papers filed last week. Disney attorneys and the businessmen refused to comment on the case this week. The agreement, thought to be a fraction of the amount awarded to All Pro Sports Camps Inc., ends Disney's appeal of an August 2000 verdict.

Edward Russell, board chairman of the Palm Harbor-based All Pro Sports Camps, said he could not discuss the case publicly.

"I really can't say anything at the moment," said Russell, an architect from Buffalo, N.Y. "We have an agreement of confidentiality with Disney."

Disney spokesman Bill Warren said, "We have settled the All Pro case. The terms of the settlement are confidential."

Robert Jarvis, a professor specializing in travel industry issues at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, said the settlement amount was likely much less than the jury award.

"I was stunned by the number $240-million at the trial and would have said any settlement would be no more than 10 percent of that," said Jarvis, adding that appellate judges won't have the same empathy of a jury in a case like this.

Lawyers for the two sides filed a joint voluntary dismissal of the case with the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach last week. Appellate judges approved the motion Tuesday.

Russell and Nicholas Stracick, founders of All Pro Sports Camps, met with Disney executives in the late 1980s and pitched a sports complex idea they called Sports Island. They showed Disney a model they built and gave copies of their business plan and drawings.

Disney rejected the idea at the time, according to testimony, but within a few years it began crafting its own version of a sports facility that would become Wide World of Sports, which opened in 1997.

In the past, Disney has denied the allegations and said its own planners came up with the idea.

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