NFL Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over Super Bowl Ticket Prices

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A class action lawsuit filed in New Jersey federal court alleges the National Football League (NFL) violates state law by selling only 1 percent of Super Bowl tickets to the public.

Josh Finkelman filed the class action lawsuit on Monday, claiming that the NFL is in violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, which prohibits companies from withholding any more than 5 percent of the available tickets from sale to the general public for any event. Finkelman alleges that this practice forced him to purchase a Super Bowl ticket at an inflated price from a secondary market.

“Every year, the National Football League prints tens of thousands of Super Bowl tickets, yet it only allocates a meager 1 percent of these tickets for release to the general public through a lottery system, forcing all other fans into a secondary market for the tickets where they must pay substantially more than the ticket’s face value to attend one of the most popular and iconic sporting events of the year,” Finkelman says in his class action lawsuit. He says the remaining 99 percent of the tickets are reserved for teams, the media, sponsors and other league insiders.

“The profits from these secondary market sales are returned to the NFL and its franchisees in lucrative contracts with secondary ticket buyers who must purchase large blocks of tickets to regular season games of a franchise team in order to secure a small allotment of Super Bowl tickets,” the Super Bowl ticket class action lawsuit says. “The secondary market buyer then enhances their profitability by packaging their tickets into expensive deals requiring the interested fan to purchase extras such as multi-night minimum stay hotel rooms, pre-game parties and limousine services.”

Finkelman cites one Super Bowl package that sold for nearly $19,000, exclusive of airfare.

“These packages further manipulate the market price of the tickets, thereby giving the purchaser no choice but to pay grossly inflated prices for the tickets,” the class action lawsuit says.

Finkelman also points to data provided by the NFL that indicates $600 tickets to last year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans sold for $3,000, while premium club seats sold for as much as $6,400.

Super Bowl XLVIII will be held on Feb. 2, 2014 at the Metlife Stadium in New Jersey. Finkelman filed the Super Bowl ticket class action lawsuit on behalf of all persons who have already purchased tickets, who intend to purchase tickets, and those who cannot afford to purchase tickets to Super Bowl XLVIII at the inflated ticket prices.

According to the class action lawsuit, New Jersey sought to discourage the practice of charging excessive premiums for ticket prices in 2001. The law eventually became part of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.

The class action lawsuit seeks damages and compensation from the NFL, including interest, disgorgement, costs of suit, treble damages and attorneys’ fees as permitted under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, and any other damages the court deems appropriate.

Finkelman is represented by Bruce H. Nagel and Diane E. Sammons of Nagel Rice LLP.

The Super Bowl Ticket Class Action Lawsuit is Josh Finkelman v. National Football League, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

UPDATE: On July 25, 2016, the NFL is challenging a football fan’s revised complaint, arguing that the proposed class action lawsuit should be dismissed because the plaintiff’s expert’s opinions cannot support consumer fraud claims that the league failed to make enough 2014 Super Bowl tickets.

UPDATE 2: On Oct. 12, 2016, a federal judge dismissed the most recent class action filed by a football fan that claimed the NFL violated New Jersey law by not making enough tickets for Super Bowl XLVIII available to the public.

UPDATE 3: On Dec. 15, 2017, in a precedential opinion, a Third Circuit reversed a lower court’s decision to dismiss a class action lawsuit alleging that by failing to print enough tickets for the 2014 Super Bowl, the National Football League falsely inflated prices in violation of New Jersey State law.

UPDATE 4: On Jan. 9, 2019, New Jersey Supreme Court justices handed down a decision in an NFL class action lawsuit that the 2014 Super Bowl ticket public lottery was not a state statutory violation.