Court: Bucs not entitled to damages from BP for oil spill

NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court has ruled that the Bucs are not entitled to damages from BP for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

At issue were the accounting practices the team used to argue that the 2010 spill caused the team's revenues to fall. The Bucs had sought $19.5 million in damages.

On Friday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court’s decision against the team.

The court found that the Bucs' revenue in May-June 2010 was not significantly lower than its revenue during that same span a year later. To qualify for damages, it had needed to show that its revenues rebounded by at least 10 percent in 2011.

The team’s stadium is about 360 miles southeast of the site of the spill.

“Though the court never comes out and says it,” Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio writes, “the message is that the court believes the Buccaneers tried to manipulate the compensation system."

The Bucs had no comment on the matter, according to PFT.

“We have a long-established policy of refraining from publicly commenting on legal matters,” Bucs spokesman Nelson Luis told PFT via text message.