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Super Bowl Ticket Suit
The National Football League could be facing a class-action suit by a New Jersey man who claims the league has violated the state’s Consumer Fraud Act and is pricing average fans out of tickets to the Super Bowl.
Josh Finkelman says he paid $4,000 to a ticket reseller for seats at this year’s Super Bowl at
But he also says he had no other choice, and alleges the league only releases 1 percent of tickets to the general public, according to court documents obtained by the New Jersey Star-Ledger.
“Upon information and belief, individual franchise teams do not make their allotments available to the general public, but instead offer them, in large part, to resellers, who grossly inflate the price and then repackage the tickets into costly packages,” the suit says. “The resellers are promised access to these tickets from the franchises, via ticket contracts entered into years in advance, that provide for specific quantities of Super Bowl tickets before the tickets are even printed.”
The NFL says three-quarters of Super Bowl tickets are split between teams, which sell the tickets at face value to fans that win lotteries.
The New Jersey law in question notes it is unlawful to withhold tickets for sale to the general public in “an amount exceeding 5 percent of all available seating for the event,” and Finkelman’s attorney, Bruce Nagel, told the Star-Ledger the NFL’s violation is “clear as day” in this case.
“The NFL just blew it,” he said. “They just didn’t get the fact that there’s law in New Jersey that prohibits what they are doing. I don’t think the NFL denies the fact that the Average Joe has no access to the tickets. … They hold a lottery where the general public gets 1 percent.”
The suit is reportedly seeking triple damages and is open to anyone who paid more than face value for Super Bowl tickets as well as fans who couldn’t afford tickets on the secondary market.