Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Class Says NY Jets Reneged on Season Ticket Promises

A Connecticut man filed a class action Friday claiming the New York Jets are selling seats that were set aside for purchasers of personal seat licenses to the general public, making the licenses he bought to get season tickets worthless.

HACKENSACK, N.J. (CN) – A Connecticut man filed a class action Friday claiming the New York Jets are selling seats that were set aside for purchasers of personal seat licenses to the general public, making the licenses he bought to get season tickets worthless.

Lead plaintiff James Gengo filed the lawsuit in Bergen County Superior Court, naming New York Jets LLC and Jets Stadium Development as defendants. Gengo is represented by Jeffrey Herrmann with Cohn Lifland in Saddle Brook, N.J.

The suit seeks to represent a class of purchasers that bought one or more personal seat licenses, or PSLs, from the Jets for 200-level tickets inside MetLife Stadium, which has over 5,000 seats of that variety.

The PSLs helped both the Jets and the New York Giants finance their shared stadium in East Rutherford, although the practice spawned a lawsuit against both teams claiming they violated antitrust laws by forcing fans to buy licenses if they wanted season tickets in the new digs.

Gengo says in his complaint that he purchased PSLs for two 200-level seats from the Jets back in 2010, forking over a total of $8,000. He claims the PSL agreement he and other proposed class members entered with the team gave them the exclusive obligation to purchase preseason and season tickets for 200-level seats for all Jets home football games at MetLife Stadium, with the option of buying any playoff games.

The marketing materials from the team said that “PSLs are good for as long as the Jets play in the new building in its current configuration,” according to the complaint. The agreement also grants buyers of PSLs the right to transfer or sell them to another party if they wish to do so.

However, Gengo claims that in January, the Jets informed him for the first time that season tickets for seats located in his section would be offered for sale to the public without the requirement of purchasing a PSL.

That decision by the team, Gengo says, is “an unconscionable commercial practice that denies plaintiff and the class of the fundamental benefit underlying the PSL transaction.”

Gengo alleges the Jets required the purchase of a PSL as a precondition to buying season tickets for about two-thirds of the seats in the stadium, including all 200-level seats. The lawsuit claims that the team is currently advertising the 200-level seats for sale on their website.

The Jets did not immediately respond Friday to an email request for comment.

The proposed class seeks damages for claims of breach of contract and violations of the Consumer Fraud Act and New Jersey’s Truth-in-Consumer Contract, Warranty and Notice Act.

Categories / Consumers, Sports

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...