Closing arguments are underway in the Sunday Ticket trial. And the plaintiffs have shown to the jury an interesting document.
Via Joe Reedy of the Associated Press, the lawyers have displayed “a 2017 memo from the NFL showing the league was exploring putting out of market games on cable if they decided to get rid of Sunday Ticket.”
This shows that, when it comes to the league’s supposed desire to give fans choices, the league has plenty of options. It doesn’t have to sell out-of-market games as one all-or-nothing package, with no ability to get the out-of-market games one team at a time, one weekend at a time, or even one game at a time.
Regardless of whether the NFL wins or loses the current case, consumers and media are waking up to the fact that they don’t have broader flexibility when it comes to out-of-market games, because the NFL doesn’t want them to have it. Will that knowledge and the discussion flowing from it be enough to get the NFL to change its ways?
It’ll be far more likely to happen if Big Shield loses big. It could still happen even if the league wins.