The 400 fans who bought tickets to the Super Bowl that didn’t result in seats at the Super Bowl have been offered a triple refund and a ticket to next year’s game.
It remains to be seen whether and to what extent any of them want it.
Multiple websites already have popped up, with the apparent aim of gathering the affected fans and pursuing legal action. The sites, including SuperBowlSuit.com and SueSuperBowl.com, infringe on the league’s most protected trademark via the use of Lamar Hunt’s brainchild, which ironically could lead to litigation. That said, it’s unlikely the league will sue any of the 400 people who are taking steps to respond to the indignity of showing up for the biggest sporting event in the country and finding out for the first time that they’ve got only a ticket to ride to the Party Pass area.
Given that some tickets came from the Packers and that some came from the Steelers, lawyers assessing the possibility of filing suit should consider the consumer protection laws of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Texas, and New York, site of the league office. Though each ticket holder could file his or her own lawsuit, it’s likely that one or more will hire a lawyer and file a class action aimed at representing the interests of all 400 folks who were denied their seats.
In the end, there could be more than one class action, which will then require the court system to sort through the ensuing mess.
And don’t forget about the 850 who supposedly were given comparable or better accommodations. Under the consumer protection laws of one or more of the states in question, it may not matter whether comparable or better seats were provided. It’s possible that the laws could be interpreted to require that consumers get exactly what they paid for, and that anything else constitutes a violation of the law.
Stay tuned. This one could get interesting, soon.