Finkelman v. NFL — civil / standing — affirm/dismiss — Fuentes

The NFL allegedly makes only 1% of Super Bowl tickets available to the public. New Jersey has a statute (apparently intended to prevent event-organizers from favoring insiders over the public) making it illegal to withhold from the public more than 5% of available seating for an event. Two plaintiffs — one who bought above-face-price scalped Super Bowl tickets, one who balked — sued the NFL in federal court, alleging that its Super Bowl ticket sales violated the NJ law. Today, the Third Circuit held that both plaintiffs lacked standing to argue that the NFL violated the statute.

I feel sure this opinion will be cited heavily by future standing opponents in the circuit. I won’t claim to have my brain fully wrapped around the standing issue here, but the notion that the guy who bought scalped tickets lacks standing — a position even the NFL didn’t advance — strikes me as a mighty tough sell.

Joining Fuentes were Smith and Barry. Arguing counsel were Bruce Nagel for the plaintiffs and Jonathan Pressment for the NFL.