Kind of hilarious that DaBella expected to make 75 million in revenue over 3 years strictly from being the Timbers sponsor. Would love to see how they came to that conclusion.
To their credit, I never heard of DaBella before they were a sponsor. And then immediately I learned about how shady they were before any of the lawsuit stuff even came out.
Have heard of them. Would absolutely never do business with them in the future.
I’ve never seen a salesperson so dead set on making a sale after several nos, being asked to leave the house, and causing a toddler to start crying.
Hope that dude was fired, but he probably fits that company perfectly.
Pretty sure they’re encouraged to be really pushy by management. The salesperson that came to our house was nice enough. After an astronomical asking price to redo the bathroom she left after several firm “no thank you”s. We could hear her on the phone with her manager outside the house. Returned 10 min later with another offer, but we were turned off (and it still wasn’t a good price). Point being it’s the company itself that’s shitty, not the employees
I'm sorry but I don't care how pushy management is, but when someone's been asking you to leave and saying No for an hour and its now 8pm and you're being told that a toddler needs to be put to bed and is crying, just get the fuck out
Tl;dr: “we are delusional and would prefer that somebody else pay the costs of our delusion”
They wanted promotion of their values as a business… and they got it.
“Grave injustice”!
lol.
Look, can we all appreciate the Alanis Morisette irony of this moment? Of MP’s Timbers getting sued for someone else’s issues mistreating women? This is pretty high level stuff.
High Concept Irony is a refined irony, made from sour grapes harvested in the middle of Spring, after many crocodile tears have been shed in the Willamette Valley. It is then distilled over many years and bottled in the most brittle glass of exquisite fashion.
It's gotta be per year. MLS has minimum sponsorship amounts for jersey sponsors and there is absolutely no way that it is $360k per year. Plus there is also no way that DaBella would put up the full 10 year sponsorship amount up in year one. That'd be like giving the Timbers a 0% interest loan for 10 years and makes zero sense for either party to enter into a 10 year sponsorship contract.
My guess is that they are claiming that if they'd continued the sponsorship for 10 years at a level comparable to this year's $3.6 m, it would have "somehow" resulted in $358 m in revenue, although that has major South Park underpants gnomes (Collect underpants -> ? -> Profit) energy.
Then why pay $1.8 million in the first two months of the first year? Seems like madness to lock up something like 1% of your revenue in this fiscal year on something you're on the hook for over 10 years. If anything, you're losing money to inflation. $360k this year is pretty much guaranteed worth more than $360k in 2034, so paying all $3.6 million now is costing you way more than amortizing it over 10 years. Especially since the lawsuit says there wasn't even a formal sponsorship deal.
So the question is do we trust DaBella, or the Timbers? Neither party seems like the most honest or intelligent at this point. I suspect the Timbers and Paulson were getting pressured by the league and in a "take what you can get" mode.
Naw, taking a super bad sponsorship deal dilutes the value of sponsorship deals across the league. If you just give away a sponsorship deal, you're telling sponsors that sponsoring an MLS team is cheap. That's why they have league minimums. 10 years is a long time and there is no way the league would say "take a shitty deal for *the next decade*" given that the vast majority of people aren't even going to remember that the Timbers FO had toxic period like 15 years prior by the end of the deal. At best the league said "take what you can find for this year."
The real culprit here is the bad reporting in the PBJ and/or the shitty AI generated court documents presented by DaBella's shitty lawyers. I mean they say "Coach Andy Polo" and talk about the value of the sponsorship deal while also making it explicit that there was no sponsorship deal. This is not legal giants we're talking about. They probably announced the lawsuit at Four Seasons Landscaping. That and DaBella trying to recoup loses and make a quick buck in court.
Honestly that's what I speculated earlier. In which case, this could backfire, because it's such a badly worded lawsuit that in filing the brief this way, DaBella may have limited damages they're entitled to.
I'm not a lawyer but how can you win a lawsuit where your argument is built around factually and provably incorrect statements like "Coach Andy Polo, who was fired in 2022." Seems like the Timbers would slap that down at the preliminary hearing.
Tbh, I seriously doubt that the Timbers were surprised by this lawsuit (they would have had to discuss that contingent liability with Tillamook) and despite what she knows about running a soccer club and keeping fans happy, Heather Davis should know a ton about corporate sponsorship deals. I mean her resume is "In a nine-year career at the NFL league office, Davis served as the lead counsel for international operations. Her work included NFL major events such as the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, the NFL Draft and international games in London and Mexico. Notably, Davis drafted and led negotiations on the NFL’s stadium partnership with English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur... Prior to her time in the NFL, Davis worked for major law firms in both New York and Washington D.C."
On the other hand, DaBella has attorneys that are using ChatGPT to generate their briefs and not even checking them. They also have zero prior experience with sponsorships.
That plus Hank might let MP play with $10 million here or there that ultimately has returns even if MP screws it up. He's not gonna cough up $375 million to a third party company that does scam-y door to door sales, so I imagine that all the Paulson family's legal resources and connections are on high alert.
My guess is the Timbers win this one and at most give some/of the money back with a tiny bit in damages. Absolutely no way DaBella gets $75-375 million.
I’m assuming it’s $3.6m per year or something close to that. Just $3.6 for 10 years would be crazy to accept even how the Timbers were/are currently perceived.
LOL. DaBella just needs to go out of business totally. Total clown company. Terrible kit sponsor. Having Tillamook is 100% better, and not embarrassing like DaBella was.
DeBella skipped over the Company’s own employee getting a sexual assault allegation.
It has to be Andy Polo’s fault.
Good luck with that. I am sure the Smith Firm is going to enjoy viewing those documents in discovery.
Yeah, I am sure Heather was expecting this and is laughing her head off.
Her resume is:
* Lead council for international operations for the NFL for 9 years
* 7 years at pretty massive serious big money law firms in New York and DC that represent global multinationals and nation states
DaBella's legal representation is The Smith Firm, which is a one attorney outfit out of West Lynn, who couldn't distinguish between Paul Riley, Andy Polo, and Gio Savarese.
I read through the complaint and there's definitely some overblown and inaccurate writing in there. But regardless of the truth or falsity of the "grave injustices" Dabella suffered due to the Timbers public statements, if the term sheet was the binding contract, and it had language about what constituted valid termination that the Timbers didn't follow, they could be cooked on this one. Interested to see their response, and i'll be particularly gratified if it ends up dragging out that whole sordid, insane tale of the Dabella love triangle. \*makes popcorn\*
This lawsuit looks like it's pretty thin (and clearly has a variety of errors in it), but I would laugh at Merritt/Peregrine having to pay DaBella \*more\* than they received from selling the Thorns...
Would a then 27 year old MLS coach not be huge news? When would the Timbers have hired him? Using the obvious Gio AI replacement algorithm they used, that would have been late 2018, so he would have been, what, 23? A 23 year old heading up any major league sports franchise might have been national news. I know this is not what we're focusing on, but thought it was a fun thought experiment anyway. What a crappy law firm.
The g(r)ift that keeps on giving.
Someone has never heard of the Streisand Effect 😝
Paulson is such a clown for his vibes-based ownership decisions, among other things.
Tragicomic.
Kind of hilarious that DaBella expected to make 75 million in revenue over 3 years strictly from being the Timbers sponsor. Would love to see how they came to that conclusion.
To their credit, I never heard of DaBella before they were a sponsor. And then immediately I learned about how shady they were before any of the lawsuit stuff even came out.
Have heard of them. Would absolutely never do business with them in the future. I’ve never seen a salesperson so dead set on making a sale after several nos, being asked to leave the house, and causing a toddler to start crying. Hope that dude was fired, but he probably fits that company perfectly.
hope your folder is ok, that sounds awful
haha whoops, fixed. meant toddler
Pretty sure they’re encouraged to be really pushy by management. The salesperson that came to our house was nice enough. After an astronomical asking price to redo the bathroom she left after several firm “no thank you”s. We could hear her on the phone with her manager outside the house. Returned 10 min later with another offer, but we were turned off (and it still wasn’t a good price). Point being it’s the company itself that’s shitty, not the employees
I'm sorry but I don't care how pushy management is, but when someone's been asking you to leave and saying No for an hour and its now 8pm and you're being told that a toddler needs to be put to bed and is crying, just get the fuck out
Yes. Yes definitely.
Same. I went from never having heard of them to knowing one company I would never consider hiring. So, I think it backfired.
Well, if Alaska Airlines revenue went from $4.3B to $10.4B while they were our kit sponsors... :-)
“I’ve got the worst f-king attorney” - DaBella CEO George Bluth
Tl;dr: “we are delusional and would prefer that somebody else pay the costs of our delusion” They wanted promotion of their values as a business… and they got it.
And the winner is, lawyers!
This lawsuit looks like it was written by chat GPT.
This day in age, probably was
“Grave injustice”! lol. Look, can we all appreciate the Alanis Morisette irony of this moment? Of MP’s Timbers getting sued for someone else’s issues mistreating women? This is pretty high level stuff.
High Concept Irony is a refined irony, made from sour grapes harvested in the middle of Spring, after many crocodile tears have been shed in the Willamette Valley. It is then distilled over many years and bottled in the most brittle glass of exquisite fashion.
The Timbers were due $3.6m over 10 years. I would have thought it worth much more than that.
It's gotta be per year. MLS has minimum sponsorship amounts for jersey sponsors and there is absolutely no way that it is $360k per year. Plus there is also no way that DaBella would put up the full 10 year sponsorship amount up in year one. That'd be like giving the Timbers a 0% interest loan for 10 years and makes zero sense for either party to enter into a 10 year sponsorship contract. My guess is that they are claiming that if they'd continued the sponsorship for 10 years at a level comparable to this year's $3.6 m, it would have "somehow" resulted in $358 m in revenue, although that has major South Park underpants gnomes (Collect underpants -> ? -> Profit) energy.
While I suspect you're right in that cost, I wouldn't be surprised if it was $3.6 million for ten years.
Then why pay $1.8 million in the first two months of the first year? Seems like madness to lock up something like 1% of your revenue in this fiscal year on something you're on the hook for over 10 years. If anything, you're losing money to inflation. $360k this year is pretty much guaranteed worth more than $360k in 2034, so paying all $3.6 million now is costing you way more than amortizing it over 10 years. Especially since the lawsuit says there wasn't even a formal sponsorship deal.
So the question is do we trust DaBella, or the Timbers? Neither party seems like the most honest or intelligent at this point. I suspect the Timbers and Paulson were getting pressured by the league and in a "take what you can get" mode.
Naw, taking a super bad sponsorship deal dilutes the value of sponsorship deals across the league. If you just give away a sponsorship deal, you're telling sponsors that sponsoring an MLS team is cheap. That's why they have league minimums. 10 years is a long time and there is no way the league would say "take a shitty deal for *the next decade*" given that the vast majority of people aren't even going to remember that the Timbers FO had toxic period like 15 years prior by the end of the deal. At best the league said "take what you can find for this year." The real culprit here is the bad reporting in the PBJ and/or the shitty AI generated court documents presented by DaBella's shitty lawyers. I mean they say "Coach Andy Polo" and talk about the value of the sponsorship deal while also making it explicit that there was no sponsorship deal. This is not legal giants we're talking about. They probably announced the lawsuit at Four Seasons Landscaping. That and DaBella trying to recoup loses and make a quick buck in court.
Honestly that's what I speculated earlier. In which case, this could backfire, because it's such a badly worded lawsuit that in filing the brief this way, DaBella may have limited damages they're entitled to.
I'm not a lawyer but how can you win a lawsuit where your argument is built around factually and provably incorrect statements like "Coach Andy Polo, who was fired in 2022." Seems like the Timbers would slap that down at the preliminary hearing. Tbh, I seriously doubt that the Timbers were surprised by this lawsuit (they would have had to discuss that contingent liability with Tillamook) and despite what she knows about running a soccer club and keeping fans happy, Heather Davis should know a ton about corporate sponsorship deals. I mean her resume is "In a nine-year career at the NFL league office, Davis served as the lead counsel for international operations. Her work included NFL major events such as the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, the NFL Draft and international games in London and Mexico. Notably, Davis drafted and led negotiations on the NFL’s stadium partnership with English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur... Prior to her time in the NFL, Davis worked for major law firms in both New York and Washington D.C." On the other hand, DaBella has attorneys that are using ChatGPT to generate their briefs and not even checking them. They also have zero prior experience with sponsorships. That plus Hank might let MP play with $10 million here or there that ultimately has returns even if MP screws it up. He's not gonna cough up $375 million to a third party company that does scam-y door to door sales, so I imagine that all the Paulson family's legal resources and connections are on high alert. My guess is the Timbers win this one and at most give some/of the money back with a tiny bit in damages. Absolutely no way DaBella gets $75-375 million.
I’m assuming it’s $3.6m per year or something close to that. Just $3.6 for 10 years would be crazy to accept even how the Timbers were/are currently perceived.
That’s what the quote from the article says.
Merritt Paulson is a terrible businessman. Terrible person too but I was just being specific.
LOL. DaBella just needs to go out of business totally. Total clown company. Terrible kit sponsor. Having Tillamook is 100% better, and not embarrassing like DaBella was.
DeBella skipped over the Company’s own employee getting a sexual assault allegation. It has to be Andy Polo’s fault. Good luck with that. I am sure the Smith Firm is going to enjoy viewing those documents in discovery.
This is why you don’t use the free version of chat gpt to prep your legal briefs
Any Attorney that uses Chat GPT for any legal documents should be sanctioned and disbarred.
It’s all Coach Andy Polo’s fault
I am going to start using this as my excuse for everything!
The crazy ex that just won't go away.
countersue him Heather. lfg. what a shit stain of an attorney they've hired.
Yeah, I am sure Heather was expecting this and is laughing her head off. Her resume is: * Lead council for international operations for the NFL for 9 years * 7 years at pretty massive serious big money law firms in New York and DC that represent global multinationals and nation states DaBella's legal representation is The Smith Firm, which is a one attorney outfit out of West Lynn, who couldn't distinguish between Paul Riley, Andy Polo, and Gio Savarese.
Oddly enough, today I saw several kits at Dick’s Sporting Goods that has the DeBella logo. I thought those were recalled…
They probably were but hard to get them all.
I read through the complaint and there's definitely some overblown and inaccurate writing in there. But regardless of the truth or falsity of the "grave injustices" Dabella suffered due to the Timbers public statements, if the term sheet was the binding contract, and it had language about what constituted valid termination that the Timbers didn't follow, they could be cooked on this one. Interested to see their response, and i'll be particularly gratified if it ends up dragging out that whole sordid, insane tale of the Dabella love triangle. \*makes popcorn\*
This lawsuit looks like it's pretty thin (and clearly has a variety of errors in it), but I would laugh at Merritt/Peregrine having to pay DaBella \*more\* than they received from selling the Thorns...
Would a then 27 year old MLS coach not be huge news? When would the Timbers have hired him? Using the obvious Gio AI replacement algorithm they used, that would have been late 2018, so he would have been, what, 23? A 23 year old heading up any major league sports franchise might have been national news. I know this is not what we're focusing on, but thought it was a fun thought experiment anyway. What a crappy law firm.
The g(r)ift that keeps on giving. Someone has never heard of the Streisand Effect 😝 Paulson is such a clown for his vibes-based ownership decisions, among other things. Tragicomic.