The NFL is going to court. And it’s not of the secret nor rigged nor kangaroo variety.
Jury selection begins today in L.A. in the massive antitrust lawsuit regarding the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package.
The entire Sunday Ticket package, from its inception in 1994, has presented plenty of obvious potential antitrust issues. The current case claims, via Reuters.com, that the NFL “used agreements with broadcast partners to keep a stranglehold over distribution, allowing DirecTV to charge artificially higher prices as the sole Sunday Ticket distributor for out-of-market games.”
The plaintiffs in the nationwide class action are “millions of home viewers and commercial subscribers like bars and restaurants.” At issue is as much as $7 billion in damages.
The NFL denies wrongdoing. It characterizes the potential damages as “speculative.”
Here’s what’s not speculative. A jury will be picked. The trial will start. High-profile figures like Commissioner Roger Goodell and/or Cowboys owner Jerry Jones could end up on the witness stand, being forced to submit to an authority other than their own.
Beyond the verdict, if any, against the league, the testimony and other evidence could expose much more about the way the NFL does business than the NFL would want. Of course, the NFL wants nothing to be exposed about the way it does business, which is why it steers as many legal claims as it can to its in-house justice system, where plaintiffs are systematically denied justice and transparency is nonexistent.
In the Sunday Ticket litigation, the plaintiffs will get a real shot at justice — and the rest of us might end up getting a good look behind The Shield.