HOUSTON – It's a major legal battle over a channel most of Houston can't even watch. The owner of the Houston Astros is suing NBC Universal, Comcast and former Astros owner Drayton McLane.
Astros owner Jim Crane met with the media Friday to address the state court lawsuit he filed Thursday. Crane is suing on grounds of fraud, misrepresentation, and conspiracy; but he says the lawsuit will not affect the team.
"Our TV deal has been a bust to date," Crane said.
Claiming the club has lost tens, or perhaps, hundreds of millions of dollars, Crane maintains the lawsuit was part of his search for a solution. However Comcast said in a statement, "It appears that Mr. Crane is suffering from an extreme case of buyer's remorse, and aiming to blame the network's challenges on anything but his own actions."
Crane commented, "We do not have buyer's remorse. We're very happy we own the team and we'll continue to be happy and we'll work our way through this."
Regardless of the outcome, Crane said the Astros are still moving forward in their effort to ramp up the team's payroll.
"We've set a considerable amount of money aside this year to spend on free agents. If (GM Jeff Luhnow) can spend it effectively, we will spend the money and we will stick with the plan we have the year after that, which is to spend more," Crane said.
His goal is for fans to be able to watch the Astros on TV.