A group of disgruntled ticket holders have sued Major League Baseball (MLB), upset that they were denied refunds for the 2020 season.
On March 12, MLB cancelled the remainder of Spring Training and postponed the start of the baseball season by two weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MLB said the action was “being taken in the interests of the safety and well-being of our players, Clubs and our millions of loyal fans.”
Those “millions of loyal fans,” however, are unable to get refunds for tickets purchased prior to the start of the 2020 season. While the season has not been cancelled, it is certainly a possibility.
“Fans are justified in crying foul over the league’s ticket refund policy,” said Milberg Phillips Grossman LLP Partner Marc Grossman, whose firm is representing the plaintiffs. “There would be no Major League Baseball without the fans. This is a time for MLB and other organizations to do right by the people who love the game, and have supported them for years.”
According to USA Today, consumers have more than $1 billion tied up in tickets to MLB, NBA, and NHL games that may not be played this season. Even if play is resumed, top health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, have indicated that the only way professional sports will be played during the summer of 2020 is if no fans are in attendance. Furthermore, a recent Seton Hall poll found that just 13 percent of Americans would feel comfortable attending sporting events without a vaccine for the coronavirus.
The consumer class action lawsuit was filed in California on behalf of all persons and entities who purchased tickets for MLB games directly from teams, as well as all persons and entities who purchased tickets from ticket merchants such as Ticketmaster and StubHub. The complaint names as defendants Major League Baseball, each individual MLB club, and ticket resellers, such as StubHub and Ticketmaster.
Expert Weighs In
“The lawsuit comes as no surprise, given the defendants’ intransigence on refunding ticket payments,” said Jordan Kobritz, a non-practicing attorney and CPA, former Minor League Baseball team owner and current investor in MiLB teams. He is a Professor in the Sport Management Department at SUNY Cortland. “While the defendants will rely primarily on contract law and prior practice as defenses, these are unprecedented times that call for exceptions to standard practice.
“Initiating refunds will obviously come at a cost to the defendants, but those costs can be more easily borne by corporations and MLB teams than individuals and small companies that may be struggling financially. Even if the defendants dig in for a long legal battle and win, no sure thing, they will lose the PR battle. They have allowed this situation to drag on for too long already. Their best play is a quick settlement.”
