NFL Super Suit

Josh Finkelman originally filed suit Jan. 8 in Newark, N.J., after purchasing a pair of tickets in an upper deck of MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford for $2,000 each from GotTheTicket.com. He’d already searched NFL, Ticketmaster, StubHub and other ticket broker websites, only finding available tickets for astronomical prices.

The face value of those upper-deck tickets was $500 each. The league distributes the vast majority of the 80,000 available seats to the teams, corporate sponsors, media and officials, and holds 25 percent for itself. The holds leave about 1 percent of the tickets for fans, according to the New York Times.

Those tickets go into a lottery that takes place in June, long before the football season starts or Super Bowl teams are decided. Finkelman admits he waited until the playoffs before starting his search and was forced into the secondary market where, one week before the game, average ticket prices ranged from $2,900 for nosebleeds to $962,000 for corporate suites. High ticket prices and low availability aren’t exactly new to the Super Bowl.

But what made Super XLVIII ripe for a lawsuit is that it was played in New Jersey, where consumer protection laws are especially expansive, in part thanks to a public row between Bruce Springsteen and Ticketmaster in 2009 over concert ticket resales.

According to New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, it’s illegal in that state for a person with access to tickets prior to public onsale to withhold more than 5 percent of all available seating to an event. It would, on its face, seem to require the NFL to put 95 percent of its Super Bowl tickets on sale to the public, rather than 1 percent.

The league argues that many tickets get in to the public’s hands through the team lotteries for season-ticket holders, according to the NYT. “The Super Bowl is one of the world’s most popular events and we would like for as many fans as possible to attend,” a spokesman for the NFL told the paper.

“We can never fulfill all the requests for tickets. The NFL’s Super Bowl ticket distribution process has been in existence for years and is well documented. We are confident it is in compliance with all applicable laws.” But the spokesman was not as effusive when asked specifically about the New Jersey law. “We strongly disagree with the plaintiff’s interpretation of the NJ Consumer Fraud Act and his claims,” Brian McCarthy emailed the Times.

The NFL is expected to file its response by March 14 to the amended complaint, which added Ben Hoch-Parker as a plaintiff.

The 5 percent limit on holds isn’t the only argument being made in the suit.

Finkelman and Hoch-Parker also claim NFL forces fans to buy tickets on the secondary market in violation of “unjust enrichment” laws.

They allege that profits from the secondary market end up in the NFL’s pockets because brokers enter into contracts to purchase blocks of regular-season tickets in exchange for Super Bowl seats.

“The secondary market buyers then enhance their profitability by packaging their Super Bowl tickets into expensive deals requiring the interested fan to purchase extras such as multi-night, minimum-stay hotel rooms, pregame parties and limousine service,” the suit says.

One example given by the NYT of such a VIP package was a single ticket, $18,989 deal.

The suit also points out that Congress granted the NFL tax-exempt status in 1989, and estimates that NFL stadium subsidies and “tax favors” ring up about $1 billion dollars annually for the league, among other tax-free income such as $4 billion in TV contracts.

While enjoying such tax advantages, the NFL doubled the face value of tickets and all but locks the public that helps subsidize the league out of the Super Bowl.

Once the NFL files its response to the complaint, it’s up to a judge to set the limits and definition of the affected class, stated in the complaint as “all persons who purchased tickets or who could not afford to purchase tickets to Super Bowl XLVIII at a ticket price that is higher than the face value of the ticket…”

Representing the stated class, Finkelman is a New Jersey resident and purchased a pair of tickets while Hoch-Parker lives in Eugene, Ore., and sought tickets but declined to buy at secondary market prices. The suit seeks “disgorgement,” interest, court and attorney costs, interest and treble damages.