Daily Record

A Baltimore’s judge’s ruling has ended a five-year legal battle between two of the city’s high-profile businessmen over an unlikely issue: billboards.

In a decision handed down last month by Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Evelyn Omega Cannon, lawyers for 14 downtown businesspeople led by Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos lost their challenge to a 2003 city law allowing for the construction and display of advertising billboards on the side of the 1st Mariner Arena. The building is home to the Baltimore Blast, a professional soccer team owned by banker Edwin F. Hale.

“It’s a battle between the owner of the Blast and the owner of the Orioles, both of whom happen to be strong-willed individuals,” said City Solicitor George A. Nilson. “You have to ask yourself whether or not this isn’t a sidebar contest between the sports owners in this city — who gets to have the biggest sign, who sells more advertising.”

The roots of the dispute go back to March 2000, when the city placed a moratorium on new general outdoor advertising displays. Three years later, the city amended the ordinance to allow ads on large billboards on the outside of city-owned 1st Mariner, as long as an equal number of billboards were taken down in other parts of the city.