The jury has quickly returned in the class action lawsuit filed against the NFL regarding Sunday Ticket, and it has delivered a hammer blow to the league.
Per Joe Reedy of the Associated Press, the jury has ordered the NFL to pay $96 million in damages to the lawsuit’s commercial class and a stunning $4.6 billion to the residential class.
The lawsuit was filed nearly a decade ago by a San Francisco sports bar and has had a tumultuous journey in the years since, being dismissed, reinstated, and eventually allowed to proceed and certified. The trial began earlier this month, with witnesses like Roger Goodell and Jerry Jones testifying.
In a statement, the NFL expressed disappointment in the verdict and said it would appeal.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket, and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment. We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and for the guidance and oversight from Judge Gutierrez throughout the trial.”
Last week, Gutierrez expressed some doubts about the plaintiffs’ case and said it “has gone in a direction it shouldn’t have gone.”
It’s a stunning verdict against the league and if it does hold on appeal, it could totally reshape the sports media landscape as we know it.
