Should the NFL settle the Sunday Ticket case?

It’s been eight days since Judge Philip Gutierrez did the NFL a $14.1 billion favor by throwing out the jury’s verdict in the Sunday Ticket antitrust case. With an appeal inevitable, should the NFL try to settle the case?

Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal raised that issue in his weekly newsletter, with quotes from Jodi Balsam, a professor at Brooklyn Law School and a former in-house lawyer with the NFL.

Opines Balsam: “The NFL is at a point of maximum settlement leverage. But the plaintiffs are not without leverage, because there’s a really good chance the Ninth Circuit will undo what the District Court judge did. But there’s still significant questions about what, on remand, they could achieve financially. To me, at this point it makes total sense to engage in settlement talks.”

As we explained last week, the outcome at the Ninth Circuit is and will be a crapshoot, until the parties know which three judges will handle the case. If at least two were appointed by Republican presidents, advantage NFL. If at least two were appointed by Democratic president, advantage plaintiffs.

Again, that’s not a political opinion. That’s a political fact.

Is a settlement possible? Sure. Because it’s a class action, any deal would have to be approved by the court. Along the way, the members of the class would have an opportunity to oppose the deal. (Recently, a judge rejected a proposed $353 million settlement of a class action brought against the UFC by fighters.)

So what would the number be? If the appeal is essentially an all-or-nothing gamble (a middle ground for the Ninth Circuit could be to send the case back for a new trial on damages, since the finding of an antitrust violation was essentially upheld by Gutierrez), is it half of $14.1 billion?

There’s a number the plaintiffs wouldn’t be able to refuse to take. There’s a number the NFL wouldn’t be able to refuse to pay. If those numbers overlap, the case would, or should, settle.

That said, there’s another wrinkle…

Source link : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nfl-settle-sunday-ticket-case-205112672.html

Author : ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-08-09 20:51:12

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