Qwest logos on stadium illegal, lawsuit contends

By Bob Young
Seattle Times staff reporter

MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES The Qwest logos on Qwest Field don't conform to city regulations, a lawsuit contends.

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The suit alleges that the signs are larger than city regulations allow. It says the signs are also illegal because they do not advertise a business that occupies the stadium or products sold in the stadium — now called Qwest Field.

Under city rules, new roof or wall signs can advertise only products sold in the building or those sold by a business that occupies the building. They cannot advertise products or companies that are "off premises."

The suit was filed by attorney Knoll Lowney representing a nonprofit group called Save Our Skyline. Lowney alleges that two roof signs are the largest in Seattle.

"The city cannot allow Qwest to pollute our skyline with illegal corporate advertisements," he said. "If these signs are allowed to remain, we can expect a proliferation of unregulated corporate advertisements on our skyline.

"People don't want Seattle to look like Tokyo or Times Square. But that's the future if this interpretation of the sign ordinance is allowed to stand."

Lowney said the city initially denied a permit for the Qwest logos on the grounds that they would constitute off-premise advertising. But then, at the direction of city employees, Qwest got a permit to build a 110-square-foot booth at the stadium to sell its products, in an effort to make the logos legal on-premise advertising, the lawsuit says. Lowney called that move a "transparent sham," arguing that the signs are far bigger than the company's booth.

Qwest, a Denver-based telecommunications company, bought naming rights to the football stadium in June, paying $75 million in a 15-year deal.

"Qwest bought the right to name the stadium but they didn't buy an exemption to our sign ordinance and laws," Lowney said. A Qwest spokeswoman declined to comment, as did an executive at Tube Art Displays, the company that applied for the permits and put up the signs. The mayor's office also declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the city department that granted the permits, deferring to City Attorney Tom Carr.

Carr said he expected his office to defend the permits in court.

Carr said the size of the business inside the stadium was not likely to sway his view of the signs' legality.
 
"If you sell products inside, then you can advertise on the building. If we're trying to treat all business the same, you don't want government regulating the size of business," he said.

The crux of Lowney's suit is about the disproportion between the sign and the booth, Carr added, saying that is not a matter for the city to judge.

"If a mom-and-pop store wants a big sign, do we say, 'no' because their sales don't justify it"? he said.

The city was not challenged in court when it permitted similarly large signs at Safeco Field and KeyArena, Carr said.

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com