A Jersey guy hopes to sack the NFL over its Super Bowl ticket policy, accusing the league of greedily gouging its biggest fans for seats to its biggest game.
Football fan Josh Finkelman, in a lawsuit filed in Newark Federal Court, charged the league with breaking New Jersey law by releasing just 1% of the seats in MetLife Stadium to the public.
Finkelman, 28, of New Brunswick, N.J., further accused the NFL of inflating the face value price of seats to increase its already staggering bottom line.
“The NFL generates nearly $10 billion in revenues,” said Bruce Nagel, the Roseland, N.J.-based attorney for Finkelman.
“And then, for the biggest sporting event of the year, they totally ignore their fan base and only release 1% of the tickets.”
Finkelman filed the class-action suit on behalf of anyone forced to pay more than face value for the Feb. 2 Super Bowl, or anyone who wanted to buy seats — and couldn’t afford them.
Finkelman, a fan of the Houston Texans, decided that he wanted to head up the New Jersey Turnpike for the first-ever cold weather Super Bowl.
He visited NFL.com for tickets, and was quickly rerouted to a resale site where one seat was selling for $4,000. After checking around on other sites, he finally found two seats for $2,000 apiece.
Finkelman, who attended the Packers-Steelers Super Bowl in Dallas three years ago, was outraged.
“I believe they need to release the seats at face value,” he said Tuesday. “We’re the ones who support the team, who buy the jerseys. We should be able to go at a fair price.
“Instead, they’re giving the seats to rich sponsors.”
According to the suit, 25% of the tickets are kept by the NFL “for distribution to companies, broadcast networks, media sponsors, the host committee and other league insiders.”
The lawsuit further charges the NFL violates the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, which prohibits the withholding of more than 5% of the available tickets for any event.
“Our lawyers will review the complaint and respond accordingly,” the NFL said in a statement.
The league also noted that nearly 75% of the tickets are distributed to the NFL’s teams, which sell the seats at face value to their fans.
Finkelman said he wasn’t expecting any decision before this year’s kickoff — but expressed hope that the league would call a ticketing audible.
“I’m hoping the NFL will change the policy,” he said.
