Vegas Man Sues NFL, TM - Pollstar News

John E. Williams III, a Las Vegas-based manager and agent, is suing the NFL, the Seattle Seahawks and Ticketmaster for $50 million, claiming the parties engaged in “economic discrimination” by limiting ticket sales for a Seattle Seahawks playoff game to the team’s immediate market area.

His claim, filed April 15 in U.S. District Court in Clark County, Nev., alleges the team imposed an illegal ticket policy that limited credit-card sales to selected markets with a presumably pro-Seahawks bent for the January National Football Conference championship game.

“They’re always boasting up there about their 12th player and everything else,” Williams said. “But by allowing the NFL to decide who can or cannot attend the games, you make it an unfair game. Seattle fixed it.”

While the NFL has no specific policy regarding team ticket sales, the suit says, it does use a selective process for Super Bowl tickets and makes rules for all NFL teams, which in turn handle their own ticket sales.

Ticketmaster is included in the suit because it is the owner of secondary ticketing on resale sites including NFL Ticket Exchange, and participates in “economic discrimination and violation of public accommodation by restricting the sales to the states as directed by the team, such as the Seahawks, in this matter,” according to the suit.

Williams alleges that tickets purchased by credit card to the Seahawks-49ers playoff were limited to those with billing addresses in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii; and to the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.

The regional restriction violates laws of public accommodation applicable to any publicly funded enterprise that “opens its doors to the public.” The Seattle stadium was funded and constructed with the help of bonds and other tax monies, and the NFL was granted tax-exempt status by Congress in 1989, according to the complaint.

The suit seeks punitive damages of $50 million, court and legal fees, and a statement of a clear policy regarding the use of public stadium tickets sales.

Williams filed the suit in pro per, meaning without an attorney, but tells Pollstar he is in contact with “several” interested in representing his suit.

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