Super Bowl 2014: NJ Man Sues NFL Over Ticket Prices

January 9, 2014

Super Bowl 2014 VIDEO: First Look Event Update #2

The potential of another polar vortex swirling in during the NFL’s first cold-weather Super Bowl in decades isn’t the only potential problem facing the NFL and Commish Roger Goodell. Now, due to their ludicrous ticket prices set for the Super Bowl, they could be facing a hefty lawsuit — and the plaintiff is actually making a decent case from the initial looks of it.

Forget the fact that one company is literally offering a Super Bowl package worth $2 million, with ticket prices ranging between $2,000 (for upper deck) and $10,000 a pop for Super Bowl XLVIII, the average — or even upper middle class — fan can’t even attend the most popular event in American sports. One New Jersey man hopes to change that immediately after discovering a law he thinks the NFL has been breaking.

[ABC News]

Are the Super Bowl’s sky-high ticket prices unfair to the public? That’s what Josh Finkelman, from New Brunswick, N.J., thinks, so he decided to sue the National Football League in what he hopes will be certified as a class-action lawsuit.

Finkelman, who works in warehousing, sued this week in federal court in Newark, N.J., accusing the NFL of unjust enrichment and violating New Jersey consumer fraud law, which prohibits withholding more than 5 percent of seating from the public for any event to be sold at other than face value.

In his lawsuit, Finkelman, 28, and his attorneys argue that just 1 percent, or 775 of 77,500 tickets, are available to the public at face value for this year’s Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The capacity for MetLife Stadium is 82,500, according to the stadium website.

The NFL had to settle for $765 million on a lawsuit vs former players in regards to concussions in August of last year, so we all know “the shield” has its flaws and has made mistakes in the past.

Boy, wouldn’t it be nice for at least some of us ‘average Joes’ to attend the Super Bowl? Me, I’ll be happy as a clam in my 72 degree living room with all-you-can consume nachos and beer.

Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him @JHelmuth or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.

Photo Credit: Getty

Josh is originally from the small berg of Arthur, Ill, proudly the Amish capital of the state. It also has one hell of a pumpkin patch.

Josh has enjoyed dipping his toes into a variety of careers since graduating from the University of Alabama, the most rewarding thus far having served as a youth director in southern California for four years, and his broadcasting career which has garnered two Emmy awards and three Edward R. Murrow Awards.

Josh enjoys loud rock music, Tom Hanks movies, dogs that like to cuddle and long runs. He is also always in search for America's greatest cheeseburger. Follow him here if you would like to be friends!