Having exhausted two appeals to the city—both challenges thrown out this month—the Seattle Mariners today filed two melodramatic lawsuits in King County Superior Court to block a Déjà Vu strip club from opening a half-bock south of Safeco Field.

“The strip club would be operated by Roger Forbes and his Déjà Vu cadre,” the Safeco Field stadium authority writes in one of the petitions, “which are notorious in the Puget Sound area for activities including prostitution, public nudity, and other adverse impacts repugnant to a family entertainment environment.” The petition continues, “[T]he city’s decision omits any analysis of the significant adverse impacts of this proposal on the surrounding family-oriented sensitive issues.” If the strip club is allowed, the petition says, “that adult business will damage the properties, patrons, use, and enjoyment of Safeco Field.”

“It’s the same arguments they’ve lost twice before,” says Peter Buck, an attorney representing Déjà Vu.

The lawsuit goes on to argue that the strip club's permit was issued based on faulty evidence and an erroneous interpretation of the land-use code. In its previous decisions, the city determined that, as a “spectator sports facility,” Safeco Field was not among the city's child-sensitive spaces that require an 800-foot buffer from strip clubs. The Mariners had argued that Safeco Field is a child-oriented park and community center, and should be protected from strip clubs.

However, when the city council passed legislation on where new new adult cabarets may be located, it found that the strip clubs are not linked to adverse impacts on the vicinity. According to a 2006 study of crime associated with Seattle strip clubs conducted by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, "Crime does not tend to accompany, concentrate around, or be aggravated by the adult businesses."

“I don’t think we saw an issue with stadium. No one raised it, nor did the stadium raise any concerns at the time,” former City Council Member Peter Steinbrueck, who sponsored the city’s strip club legislation, said last month.

Two cases were filed: one by the Mariners and another, very similar, by the public facilities district that manages Safeco Field. “The fact that they filed two different actions could suggest that they are hoping to shop for a friendly judge—two different judges assigned to the same case,” says Buck. “But they wont have much luck, because we will move to consolidate it to one court, and it’s a guaranteed we’ll prevail.”