The Los Angeles Chargers could be heading to the team vault to take out a massive lump sum of cash due to a recent ruling in court.
As reported by ESPN, the league was on the wrong end of a decision in the 'Sunday Ticket' case as an 8-person jury decided that the league violated antitrust laws. That leaves it staring at a $14.39 billion payment in penalties.
The league made its intentions known that it plans to appeal the decision in the following statement that was released following the proceedings:
"We are disappointed with the jury's verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.
We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge [Philip] Gutierrez throughout the trial."
The NFL Sunday Ticket settlement is around $4,000 to 5,000 a customer per report 💵💲
— NFL Rumors (@nflrums) June 29, 2024
Chargers could be left with a nearly $450 billion bill
Post-trial motions will be heard in late July but if the verdict is not set aside, the league will have to file an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court. Should the league lose that appeal, the 32 teams in the league would split the $14.39 billion fee and that rounds out to about $449.6 million per team.
That would likely lead to drastic changes within the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which is currently part of YouTube TV but was held by DirecTV from 1994-2022.
