The Seattle Mariners ended a year of prudish zeal by dropping a lawsuit this afternoon to stop a Déjà Vu strip club from opening about 400 feet south of home plate. Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale says that the board of directors of the public authority that runs Safeco Field passed a resolution to settle the case.

"We're happy to have it resolved," says Hale. "We are pleased that the club owners were willing to work with us on some of these issues."

Déjà Vu owner Roger Forbes agreed to minimize the size and imagery of the sign on one side of the club, refrain from handing out sexually explicit fliers on sidewalks in front of the stadium, not use "barkers" to promote the club, and reduce amplified noise. Nonetheless, the settlement is a huge victory for the strip club.

"The strip club didn't agree to anything it wouldn't have done already," says Déjà Vu attorney Pete Buck. "For example, [club staff] only passes out very modest cards to people over 18, and it simply agreed to do nothing more extreme than that."

The Mariners had lost three times in municipal proceedings, once in King County Superior Court, and currently had a suit before the Washington State Court of Appeals. Buck says the club will open in 2010.

In filing the case, the stadium authority and the Mariners were doing more than attempting to block one Déjà Vu—but trying to rewrite city rules regarding locations strip clubs could open. If the team had won, it would establish rules that prevent adult cabarets from opening within 800 feet of any sport stadium. Attorneys for the team argued that, under law passed by the city in 2007 law, stadiums are places where kids congregate, on par with community centers and parks, and strip clubs aren't allowed. The Mariner's contended that strip clubs have “adverse impacts repugnant to a family entertainment environment." By settling, the Mariners concede that a strip club may legally open next to a stadium. Says Buck: "The Mariners have given up the fight that the ordinance is something more than it really is."