U.S. federal judge allows lawsuit against NFL over Super Bowl seating problem to proceed – NFL News
A US federal judge has dismissed a request from National Football League (NFL) office to reject a lawsuit filed by football fans who have been affected due to seating problems in the last year's Super Bowl competition.
NFL office had pleaded before the US District Jude Barbara Lynn for throwing out of the said lawsuit. The judge however in her 10-page order on Wednesday rejected the League's plea and allowed the lawsuit to proceed.
The seating problem had emerged during the Super Bowl competition between the current champion Green Bay Packers and runner-up the Pittsburgh Steelers. As an alternate arrangement to meet shortage of about 1250 seats at the Arlington
stadium in Texas a temporary seating facility was made available to ticket holders.
However those temporary seats were declared unsafe for sitting just few moments before start of the game. Consequently, as many as 475 ticket holders were reported to have been forced to watch the game while standing from different
room locations. Rest of the ticket holders have been relocated to other positions.
This prompted the football fans to file a lawsuit against the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys and Jerry Jones. The suit has alleged these parties of breaching contract, fraud and deceptive practices.
Some reports have mentioned that the fans have sought $5 million in compensation. It is expected that nearly 1000 fans will join the suit.
"Unfortunately, not all of the ticket-holders to Super Bowl XLV got what they bargained for or what was promised to them," the lawsuit stated.
The US judge on Wednesday ruled in her order that if the plaintiffs win, they would be allowed to be compensated for amount more than offered by the NFL.
The number of affected fans is not certain yet. However those 475 who did not get seats at all and watched the match game while standing were definite eligible for compensation.
Many fans in the meantime have complained of missing a considerable part of the game during the relocation problem. Many of the affected fans said that they did not have prior knowledge that they would be watching the game from
temporary seating arrangements.
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