What 'Sunday Ticket' Lawsuit Could Cost Detroit Lions

Examining what the 'Sunday Ticket' antitrust violation could cost the NFL.

Detroit Lions fans Christopher Guiao, 47, of Sterling Heights, left in mask, and Reiner Calderero, 41, of Warren in mask, try to get a photo with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday, April 26, 2024 for the second day of the NFL draft in Detroit. / Mandi Wright / USA TODAY NETWORK

The NFL is in some hot water legally over its handling of its popular Sunday subscription service, "Sunday Ticket.”

Specifically, a jury of eight recently found that the league broke antitrust laws by selling Sunday Ticket only on DirecTV, plus at an unnecessarily high price.

The jury came to this conclusion by surmising that offering the service on only one provider and with an inflated price limited the number of subscribers and appealed to CBS's and Fox's concerns regarding preserving local ratings. Plus, the jury concluded this subscription model enabled the NFL – a multi-billion dollar industry – to get richer. 

Subsequently, the NFL is currently on the hook for a staggering $4.8 billion in damages, with $4.696 billion set to go to the residential class and another approximate $97 million headed to the commercial class (i.e. bars, hotels and restaurants). Additionally, under antitrust law, that $4.696 billion figure gets tripled, equating to $14.088 billion in damages.

So, what does all this mean for the Lions and the rest of the NFL's 32 franchises? Per ProFootballTalk, it means that each team will have to pay $440.25 million in damages – nearly $200M more than this year’s salary cap ($255.4M per team). 

"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," the league said of the ruling.

“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 is presently appealing the decision.