It appears that Tunney has been pro-RTO's, and certainly anti-Cubs, throughout this process. Given that, it would have been a bad idea to go to the nuclear option with the RTO's prior to getting everything through the City Council, at least. That happened last Summer (and even that hasn't stopped Tunney from dicking it up, remember). So, pursuing the non-litigation route up through last Summer was justifiable. I think it is reasonable to argue that this "[expletive] you, we're doing it anyway" to the RTO's should have come last fall. However, we've since heard that the whole thing is being held up by 1 or 2 RTO's while the rest are onboard with the Cubs. So, as of last fall there probably was some legitimate hope that things could actually be resolved through negotiation.