Hopper
Banned
Yeah, that would be hard. Much easier to beat 100% off, I figure.
Elite fan club sues Jazz for $19 million
- Thread starter krebstaz
- Start date
Yeah, that would be hard. Much easier to beat 100% off, I figure.
To be honest I have no idea what to think of this lawsuit. I suspect it's going to turn on the terms of the agreement. If I was licensed in Utah I could look into the e-filings for whatever court it was filed in and pull a copy of the agreement, but I'm not.
green
Well-Known Member
Knowing nothing than the article, it will probably come down to if the ticket holders can prove that the Jazz knew the value of the seats, encouraged the value of the seats to go up, and if the ticket holders have been damaged because of the new rules. If they can prove this, they will have a winning case...I would assume...
I assume it comes down to whether or not the team promised the "elite" club exclusivity when it made the sales. If they didn't, they probably don't have a case.
Hopper
Banned
Seems to me they would have to prove more than that.
Hopper
Banned
Here's a follow-up story on this from the trib:
The 100 Club suit
You don’t see a lot of stories like the one in Saturday’s paper, with members of the 100 Club - - the biggest VIP season-ticket holders - - suing the Jazz and alleging $19 million in damages.
The suit stems from the Jazz’s decision in January to launch a transfer marketplace that allowed all season-ticket holders to sell the rights to their seats through a Jazz-operated exchange - - with the team taking a 30 percent cut of each sale.
That pretty much eliminated the exclusivity that 100 Club members had as far as selling, transferring or bequeathing their season tickets. Only 50 or 60 fans at EnergySolutions Arena used to have that ability. Now thousands and thousands do.
The members of the 100 Club involved in the suit note that a membership that came with four courtside seats sold for $800,000 as recently as October 2009. Through the ticket marketplace, rights to non-membership courtside seats have been sold for $20,000 each.
In addition, the suit notes that none of the nine 100 Club memberships on sale in January have sold since the launch of the marketplace.
Multiplying the loss of equity by the 220 seats controlled by 100 Club members leads to an estimate of $16 million in damages. The members also allege that they’ve been overbilled by Jazz subsidiaries for meals by $3 million total over the last six years.
The claim there is the Jazz bill members approximately $90 per meal served in the 100 Club when the fair market value of a comparable meal elsewhere would be $40. That $50 difference multiplies into $500,000 pretty quickly over a 43-game home schedule.
That’s the basics of the suit. There’s a strong sentiment in the document that the 100 Club members served as a way for the Jazz to raise capital in the 1980s and that they never would have received the current treatment under Larry Miller’s watch.
(Did you know, by the way, that membership is granted by an advisory board after reviewing three letters of recommendation and that members are entitled to an annual trip for two, as a group, to an exclusive resort or a road Jazz game?)
The suit also notes that after the 100 Club members voiced their issues, the Jazz attempted to unilaterally change the club’s operating rules. There were some especially interesting items in this part of the suit.
For one thing, the suit notes that the amended operating rules eliminate any equity or rights to compensation for members should the Jazz be sold or move, which prompted some speculation as to the Millers’ future intentions.
“While club members genuinely hope that it will never happen, the timing and substance of this proposal has caused members concern that [Jazz ownership] is actually planning to sell or move the team,” the suit says.
The new rules also eliminate the additional 20 percent discount on season tickets to which members formerly were entitled, which the suit claims would cost 100 Club members an additional $870,000 for tickets next season.
The current $1,000 membership transfer fee charged by the Jazz would be changed to the greater of $5,000 or 10 percent of the sale price. As noted in the suit, the sale of a membership for $500,000 now would incur a $50,000 transfer fee.
There’s obviously not a lot of sympathy for people who can afford six-figure club memberships, but imagine if you’d been a 100 Club member since the 1980s or 1990s and had been hoping to recover something from that decades-long investment in the Jazz.
--Ross Siler
It seems that one of their main complaints is that they cannot sell their membership status for more. I haven't noticed where it says what they paid to get that status to begin with.
The 100 Club suit
You don’t see a lot of stories like the one in Saturday’s paper, with members of the 100 Club - - the biggest VIP season-ticket holders - - suing the Jazz and alleging $19 million in damages.
The suit stems from the Jazz’s decision in January to launch a transfer marketplace that allowed all season-ticket holders to sell the rights to their seats through a Jazz-operated exchange - - with the team taking a 30 percent cut of each sale.
That pretty much eliminated the exclusivity that 100 Club members had as far as selling, transferring or bequeathing their season tickets. Only 50 or 60 fans at EnergySolutions Arena used to have that ability. Now thousands and thousands do.
The members of the 100 Club involved in the suit note that a membership that came with four courtside seats sold for $800,000 as recently as October 2009. Through the ticket marketplace, rights to non-membership courtside seats have been sold for $20,000 each.
In addition, the suit notes that none of the nine 100 Club memberships on sale in January have sold since the launch of the marketplace.
Multiplying the loss of equity by the 220 seats controlled by 100 Club members leads to an estimate of $16 million in damages. The members also allege that they’ve been overbilled by Jazz subsidiaries for meals by $3 million total over the last six years.
The claim there is the Jazz bill members approximately $90 per meal served in the 100 Club when the fair market value of a comparable meal elsewhere would be $40. That $50 difference multiplies into $500,000 pretty quickly over a 43-game home schedule.
That’s the basics of the suit. There’s a strong sentiment in the document that the 100 Club members served as a way for the Jazz to raise capital in the 1980s and that they never would have received the current treatment under Larry Miller’s watch.
(Did you know, by the way, that membership is granted by an advisory board after reviewing three letters of recommendation and that members are entitled to an annual trip for two, as a group, to an exclusive resort or a road Jazz game?)
The suit also notes that after the 100 Club members voiced their issues, the Jazz attempted to unilaterally change the club’s operating rules. There were some especially interesting items in this part of the suit.
For one thing, the suit notes that the amended operating rules eliminate any equity or rights to compensation for members should the Jazz be sold or move, which prompted some speculation as to the Millers’ future intentions.
“While club members genuinely hope that it will never happen, the timing and substance of this proposal has caused members concern that [Jazz ownership] is actually planning to sell or move the team,” the suit says.
The new rules also eliminate the additional 20 percent discount on season tickets to which members formerly were entitled, which the suit claims would cost 100 Club members an additional $870,000 for tickets next season.
The current $1,000 membership transfer fee charged by the Jazz would be changed to the greater of $5,000 or 10 percent of the sale price. As noted in the suit, the sale of a membership for $500,000 now would incur a $50,000 transfer fee.
There’s obviously not a lot of sympathy for people who can afford six-figure club memberships, but imagine if you’d been a 100 Club member since the 1980s or 1990s and had been hoping to recover something from that decades-long investment in the Jazz.
--Ross Siler
It seems that one of their main complaints is that they cannot sell their membership status for more. I haven't noticed where it says what they paid to get that status to begin with.
UGLI baby
Well-Known Member
Thats not what this is about.
Its about being able to sell "the rights" to the seats from season to season.
Its like the difference between selling someone your car compared to letting them drive it for a few days.
Hopper
Banned
It seems to me that one central question would be whether club members were given the right to dictate what seats were transferable. I would presume that a team is free to change it ticket sales policies at any time, absent some forfeiture or compromise of that right. This would be true even if the change in policy had the effect of diminishing benefits that some or all fans once enjoyed.
Hopper
Banned
According to the "Arena Digest" (whatever the hell that is, presumably some kinda specialized trade rag): "Now, it's not quite sure under what legal theory the Jazz 100 Club members are suing: telling a court you have a guaranteed right to a profit while scalping tickets may not fly on the legal front."
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