By Jeff Birren, Senior Writer.
The Chicago Cubs recently defeated a claim alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Chicago White Sox are now at bat. Two fans requiring accessible seating sued the team asserting the club discriminated against them and their purported class (Ralph Yaniz & Douglas McCormick v. Chicago White Sox, Ltd. (Case No. 1:23-cv-10714, N.D. Ill.)
Background
The team was originally called the White Stockings as a charter member of the American League in 1900. The team moved to Comiskey Park in 1910. It later picked up the moniker “Black Sox” when some of its players conspired to throw the 1919 World Series. The Sox stayed at Comiskey Park until it moved to a new stadium in 1991. That facility is currently called Guaranteed Rate Field. To the uninitiated, it sounds like the name of a drive-through loan operation. Guaranteed Rate meets some of the modern economic requirements. It has 103 suites, and the 1,822 club seats are serviced by an in-seat staff, along with an enclosed concourse with multiple televisions and other amenities. The stadium has 38 public restrooms, 12 escalators, and 15 elevators. The capacity is 40,615, including 400 wheelchair accessible seats. It is owned and operated by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and has been repeatedly renovated.
In 2022 the team was a mediocre 81-81. Things deteriorated in 2023. The team finished 61-101, 26 games back. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf said the season was “a nightmare. It’s still a nightmare… Disgusting. All the bad words you can think of… It was just awful.” He fired the president and general manager in August. Nevertheless, Forbes valued the team at $2.05 billion so it is a very valuable nightmare. However, to fans needing accessible seating, it remains a nightmare.
The Complaint’s Factual Allegations
Both Yaniz and McCormick are Sox fans, though no explanation is given to why that is so. Yaniz has muscular dystrophy and requires a wheelchair. McCormick has a mobility disability centered on his right side and uses a scooter for mobility. Both have “a disability” as defined in the ADA. Yaniz purchased a twenty-game season ticket plan for the 2022 season. In November 2022 he began to contemplate renewing his season tickets, initiating his nightmare.
He went to the team’s ticket website. However, it proclaimed that no accessible season ticket seats were available. A Sox executive told him that “he could not purchase season tickets for wheelchair seating online.” Nothing Yaniz did changed that result. Despite this treatment, Yaniz went to a game in April 2023. His only options for accessible seating were in the outfield bleachers or the most expensive seats behind home plate. He saw “large sections of the ballpark” with unused accessible seats that “were not listed for sale on the website” including “almost all the wheelchair seats along the first and third base line”. His inquiry led to an assurance from the Senior Director of Guest Services that she would investigate.
She later stated that the website was broken. During a subsequent call she told Yaniz’s counsel that “that few or no wheelchair accessible seats were made available for season ticket purchase because the wheelchair accessible seats had to be reserved for various types of ticket packages in addition to the season ticket packages.” Yaniz continued to “monitor the website” and attend games. He “observed that the overwhelming number of accessible seats” were “not occupied on game days.” Once the only available seats “were almost exclusively in the upper deck of the bleachers.”
In a videoconference, the Sox’ executive “repeated the explanation that the need to hold back wheelchair accessible seats for other types of ticket promotions and sale was the cause of the lack of availability for season tickets.” Yaniz, through counsel, continued to press the issue via email, but months later, and prior to filing the Complaint, “Yaniz nor his counsel have received a response to that email.”
After the Sox were eliminated from the playoff chase in August, Yaniz was able to find two accessible seats in Section 154. However, when he checked again, the website said no such tickets were available. He attended the game and saw the accessible seating section “was largely unoccupied.” Apparently, the White Sox “continued to hold back the vast majority of accessible seats from purchase.”
McCormick tells a stranger tale. Beginning in 2019 he was able to purchase season tickets in an accessible seating section and did so again in 2020. However, in 2021 the Sox informed him that the team “would not sell Mr. McCormick season tickets for the wheelchair” seating area. Instead, he was “to purchase season tickets for regular seats and trade them each game day at Guest Relations for accessible seats.” He did so, purchasing tickets in non-accessible seats in Section 154. Those seats do not have room to maneuver his scooter, nor have the shade and desired price point of the accessible seats in that section. Moreover, McCormick “cannot not exit that section unless everyone else in the section leaves first.”
The tale continues. At times, “Guest Relations … would not always offer to trade his seats for the accessible seats in the same section.” This happened when McCormick knew such seats were available. At other times he was told that accessible seats were unavailable, even though those seats “showed as available online.” When McCormick was not allowed to sit there, he would “often” pass “by the section and observed that there were available wheelchair accessible seats.”
When the Sox made the 2022 playoffs, McCormick was sold accessible outfield seats that did not have sightlines adjusted above the fans in front, and the team allowed other fans to stand behind the accessible seats. His saga goes continues for almost two more pages.
The Undeniable Legal Allegations
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. It begins at 42 U.S.C. 12101. The Act confers jurisdiction in the federal court. Venue is proper in Chicago because the acts at issue occurred in that district and the White Sox are subject to personal jurisdiction there. The Sox are a public accommodation as defined by the ADA, 42 U.S.C. 12181 as the statutory definition includes stadiums. There are no exemptions for professional sports teams nor stadiums that opened after the ADA was passed.
Guaranteed Rate must not provide fans with disabilities service or accommodation that is not equal to that afforded other individuals. This applies to the purchase of tickets during the same stages of ticket sales, through the same methods of distribution, including telephone or a website, and in the same types of sales outlets. Public accommodations must inform those with disabilities of the locations of all unsold tickets in accessible seating areas. The Act applies to the purchase of a series of events, (ADA-speak for season tickets), or for single game tickets. Accessible seats must be offered in all price categories available to the public. This is the law, and it applies to the White Sox. None of that is disputable.
Class Allegations
The Complaint is a class action filed “on behalf of all similarly situated individuals.” Two classes are alleged: One for those who wish to purchase season tickets and a subclass for those wishing to purchase single game tickets. The single cause of action asserts that the Defendant “provides an unequal benefit” to the plaintiffs in that they cannot purchase accessible seats online as can those “who do not require such seating.” The policy “discriminates” “by refusing to offer season tickets for wheelchair accessible seats on its website” and other methods of sale, and further “discriminates” by “refusing to offer all unsold wheelchair accessible seats”, whether on the website or by other methods, “during the same stages of ticket sale as are available” to those that do not require such seating. This happens when the team refuses “to offer all unsold accessible seats for sale for all areas of White Sox Park that have accessible seating.”
The “Relief Sought” can be summed up as: Stop discriminating in the manner and timing of accessible seats; stop withholding accessible seats; be enjoined from doing so, whether on a season ticket or single game basis; pay the litigation costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees; and award whatever else is “just and proper.” The Summons was issued and subsequently returned executed on October 5, 2023.
Short Analysis
It appears that the Sox are not selling accessible seats. Perhaps those seats are listed as accessible for purposes of superficially complying with the ADA’s requirements for the requisite number of accessible seats but in fact are withheld for group sales or other purposes. That practice, if it is occurring, is not in conformity with the ADA. Forcing patrons who require accessible seating to purchase non accessible season tickets and then exchange those seats for accessible seats on a game-by-game basis is at best bizarre, or worse. Discovery awaits.
However, some things even from this distance demonstrated inequality. A search of the Sox’s website revealed that the team has a main box office, and ticket sale booths at Gates 2, 3, 4 and 5. Unfortunately, for those requiring wheelchair accessible seating, tickets are only available “at the main box office and at Gates 3 and 5.” That is not equal.
The stadium has fifteen elevators. Patrons requiring wheelchairs “must use Gate 5” to access elevators. That is not equal. Inexcusably, during the last week of the season a stroll through the team’s website stated that those who wished to purchase wheelchair accessible seats could not use the team’s website for ticket sales, but, unlike all other customers, were required instead to call the team’s box office, creating another impediment for those with disabilities. Say it ain’t so, Jerry?
ConclusionIt is no wonder that Reinsdorf called the 2023 season a nightmare. He has also said that “North Siders always tended to look down on South Siders.” The facts as pled give North Siders good reason to do so. Yaniz will ensure that the “embarrassing” “nightmare” continues. This time “Black Sox” may refer to the front office as the Sox try to justify the unequal treatment of those with disabilities. Donald Fehr, former head of the MLB Player’s Association, once said that Reinsdorf was “clearly the most powerful [Major League Baseball] owner.” Perhaps he will use that power to force his team to obey the law of the land.
