Eugene Cox, Otrina Cox, and M. Ray Baker, d/b/a EOC3 Associates sued the City of Atlanta, Mayor Bill Campbell, Chief of Police Beverly Harvard, Deputy Chief Bobby J. Rocker, and Major William Gordon in their individual and official capacities. The crux of their complaint was that the named defendants had “intentionally and wrongfully induced the Atlanta Braves not to enter into or continue a business relationship with Plaintiffs, causing them financial injury.” In a lengthy order, the trial court entered summary judgment against EOC3 on its sole claim of tortious interference with business relations.1 In reaching that resolution, the court listed multiple reasons for its decision. Eugene Cox, Otrina Cox, and M. Ray Baker collectively EOC3 filed this appeal. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. When viewed in the light most favorable to the non-movants, the evidence shows that prior to the 1997 baseball season, the Atlanta Braves played their home games at the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority hired off-duty officers of the Atlanta Police Department APD to provide security at the stadium and supplemented those officers with Braves’ security personnel. By long-standing practice, on-duty APD officers performed traffic control duties for Braves’ baseball games. When the 1996 Olympics concluded, the Olympic stadium was retrofitted for baseball and renamed Turner Field. By negotiating a new agreement, the Braves obtained control over the operation and management of the facility, including security inside Turner Field.
In January 1997, the Braves issued a Request for Proposals RFP for inside security services at Turner Field for the 1997 baseball season. The RFP expressed the Braves’ clear preference to engage a contractor “to provide off-duty uniformed Atlanta Police Department ‘APD’ officers for the performance of security and police-related duties in the interior, concourse, plazas and parking facilities at Turner Field.” The RFP explicitly stated that: Contractor will furnish the Atlanta Braves with uniformed APD police officers for the purpose of providing security, monitoring and patrolling, maintaining order and decorum, enforcing Atlanta Braves’ policies, and enforcing all applicable Federal, State, Fulton County and City of Atlanta laws, statutes, regulations and ordinances at the Stadium. Larry Bowman, the director of stadium operations and security for the Braves, testified that APD officers were preferred because Turner Field lies within the corporate limits of the City.
