The NFL and Cowboys yesterday in separate legal filings asked a federal Texas court to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them for failing to provide seats to the Super Bowl last year. The lawsuit was filed by Super Bowl ticketholders whose seats were not ready in time for the game. The Cowboys claimed in their response to the lawsuit that because the NFL sold the tickets, and not the team, they could not be liable for breach of contract or the fraud alleged by the lawsuit. The Cowboys were given 5% of Super Bowl tickets, but the filing said the plaintiffs could not prove they bought the ducats from the team. The NFL in its response said it was unaware in the days leading up to the game last Feb. 6 that the temporary seats these fans were due to sit in would not be ready, and pointed out that many e-mails and meetings that took place in the week before the game on the subject the league was not a party to. "The whole notion that the NFL never intended to provide the promised seating, or intended to defraud its ticketholders in any respect, is utterly implausible,” the league said. “The NFL had nothing to gain by tricking ticketholders, which weighs against any inference of fraud.” Thousands of ticketholders were affected when Seating Solutions, the vendor hired by the Cowboys to build the seats, could not install the temporary seats.
