It went from being largely ignored to becoming the biggest story in sports – even though many media outlets continue to downplay or ignore it.
The NFL was ordered to pay $4.696 billion in the Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. That under federal antitrust law becomes $14.088 billion.
The litigation is far from over. There will be several appeals. The magnitude of the verdict makes it certain that the case will go to the U.S. Supreme Court, whichever side holds the L after the first phase of the appeals process.
The next key date will be 32 days from now. Wednesday, July 31. That’s when Judge Philip Gutierrez will conduct a hearing on the NFL’s request for judgment as a matter of law. Based on your comments from earlier this month in a public hearing, it is possible that he will take the entire verdict, crumple it into a ball and throw it in the trash.
It would be an incredible development. More than $14 billion changing hands in the blink of an eye.
He has the power to do this, even if it seems counterintuitive to many. Could this really happen? The NFL looks confident.
It remains to be seen whether Judge Gutierrez will do so. It would have been much less visible if he had done this before the verdict was handed down, rather than after.
As noted previously, it did not decide on the movement before the verdict is handed down. He could have been hoping the jury would rule in favor of the NFL. Now that the jury has spoken, it will be much more difficult for the judge to remove him.
It would make more sense to approve the verdict and let the NFL present its arguments to the appeals court. Or perhaps to the Supreme Court, where the NFL could benefit from the 6-3 pro-business imbalance.
Regardless of where the case ends up, July 31 is the next important day in the litigation. The result will not only be the $14.088 billion prize pool, but also the question of whether the NFL and/or YouTube TV will feel compelled to make significant changes to the pricing and structure of the Sunday Ticket.
And yes, consumers should hope these changes are made. Regardless of whether the verdict is valid, we’ve learned that the NFL deliberately overcharged for Sunday Ticket and limited it to an all-or-nothing option so we can just shrug our shoulders and watch the games available on Fox or CBS in our local markets .
Even if we prefer to watch a different game.
