N.Y. Jets Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Change in Seat Licenses

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The New York Jets were hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the team rendered “Personal Seat Licenses” or PSLs valueless when they started selling season ticket packages without them.

Lead plaintiff James Gengo alleges in his class action lawsuit that he and others were forced to pay the PSL fee for the right to buy tickets, but then defendant Jets Stadium Development LLC offered similar seats without the requirement to buy a PSL.

Personal Seat Licenses for the Jets’ stadium are steep, alleges the plaintiff, with Gengo taking out a loan to purchase the $4,000 per seat fee.

“Plaintiff asserts that defendants’ decision, announced in January 2018, to begin selling 200-­level season tickets to non­-PSL holders is, among other things, an unconscionable commercial practice that denies plaintiff and the class of the fundamental benefit underlying the PSL transaction,” alleges the New York Jets class action lawsuit.

According to the class action lawsuit, in January the Jets announced that mezzanine level seats, where the plaintiff had paid thousands of dollars for the privilege of purchasing seats, would be offered for purchase without the PSL fee. Although the announcement contends that PSL holders will be offered exclusive access to stadium events as well as notified of promotions, the plaintiff says that removing the fee deprives him and other potential Class Members of the exclusive access to mezzanine level seats they thought they were purchasing.

Gengo alleges the he and others who paid the PSL did so under the belief that they had to pay the fee to access seats in various sections of the Met Life Stadium where the Jets play. The plaintiff says that he and others should be able to purchase seats without the fee because they are now being offered to others without the fee.

According to the N.Y. Jets class action lawsuit, non-PSL holders will now be able to access the same seats as PSL holders for a substantially lower price. In fact, according to the Jets class action, the price of Jets’ tickets has been falling, from $130 per seat per game in 2017 to $95 in 2018 in the mezzanine level seats.

Calling the PSLs “entirely or substantially worthless” due to the sale of seats to non-PSL holders, the New York Jets class action lawsuit alleges that the Jets’ move violates the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing as well as New Jersey fraud and consumer protection laws.

The plaintiff seeks to represent other PSL holders, estimated to be approximately 1,000 individuals. The plaintiff is seeking damages, as well as a recision of the PSL agreements.

Gengo is represented by Jeffrey W. Herrmann, Kelly M. Purcaro and Alex A. Pisarevsky of Cohn Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf LLP.

The New York Jets PSL Class Action Lawsuit is Gengo v. Jets Stadium Development LLC, et al., Case No. 1955-­18, in the Superior Court of the State of New Jersey, County of Bergen.