Federal Judge Denies Class Action Status For Super Bowl Ticketholders

A Texas federal court judge yesterday declined to certify a class of aggrieved ticketholders from Super Bowl XLV in '11, dealing a significant setback to their case. The game at Cowboys Stadium featured the seating fiasco in which thousands of temporary seats were not available. The NFL has settled individually with many ticketholders, but the current lawsuit still could have represented thousands. While ticketholders that have not settled could still individually proceed on their own with lawsuits against the NFL, they will apparently not do so together.

Judge Barbara Lynn found the ticketholders were too individualized, with too many different potential damages to be considered a class. Ticketholders were lumped into four groups – those who did not get in to see the game live, those who were delayed getting to their seats, those who got in but missed parts of the game being moved to new seats and those who received replacement seats with obstructed views.