Jets Sued For Manipulating PSL Prices
Plantiffs allege shenanigans in online auction
By JOSH ALPER
Updated 6:30 PM EST, Wed, May 27, 2009
Until New York's stadium building boom, it was easy to assume that people greeted new sports arenas with a certain happiness. There might be a neighborhood revitalized or people just liked having a new bauble to explore, but the general reaction had always been positive.
That would make "reactions to new stadiums" reason number 1,495,341 why New York is not like anywhere else. Citi Field and Yankee Stadium have gotten largely negative notices from baseball fans, and the Nets couldn't even break ground on their building in Brooklyn before they were greeted with hostile reactions from all corners. The Jets and Giants may be building their stadium in New Jersey, but that hasn't kept them from the fun.
To this point, many of the complaints have been justified. We may be getting close to the straw that breaks the camel's back, though. Three Jets fans are suing the team for promising to sell 2,000 "Coaches Club" tickets via online auction and then making only 620 available.
Plaintiffs claim the manipulation was egregious, in that the Jets advertised the auction by claiming, "rather than set a price, we'll let the marketplace decide." They claim that "Jets Chairman and CEO Robert W. (Woody) Johnson admitted after the auction that the defendants reduced the number of seats for sale from 2,000 because having too many available had hurt demand."
The plaintiffs also sued StubHub, an online ticket broker.
Plaintiffs William Poisson, John McHale, and Robert J. Walker demand punitive damages for false advertising, deceptive trade, conspiracy, misrepresentation and bad faith.
Now that Jets fans know they can sue for false advertising, misrepresentation and bad faith it should be about 20 minutes before a class action suit covering the last 40 years gets filed.
The Jets deserve some criticism for changing the rules in the middle of the game, but it is their game and they get to make the rules. That's crummy, perhaps, but it's hard to see how they aren't allowed to do it. It's even harder to comprehend how someone is entitled to damages because they were hoping to see the prices of tickets fall to a level that they considered a good buy.
Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: May 27, 2009 5:16 PM EST
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