The NFL will face a $6 billion class action lawsuit over claims it limited televised games and hiked the cost of “NFL Sunday Ticket.” 

DirecTV has rights to “Sunday Ticket” until the end of the 2022-23 season, and the plaintiffs’ attorneys are seeking damages for those who purchased “Sunday Ticket” from the provider since 2011.

The case will have two plaintiffs classes — individual “Sunday Ticket” residential subscribers and commercial establishments.

• There are reportedly at least 2.4 million members in the residential class.
• The commercial class has around 48,000 members. 

Lawyers for the NFL and its teams claim the plaintiffs’ lawyers failed to meet the legal requirements needed to form classes.

“We are reviewing the judge’s order,” an NFL spokesperson said. “We continue to believe that the plaintiffs’ claims have no merit and will vigorously defend our position in this matter.”

A trial is set to begin in February 2024.

Sunday Switch

In December, the NFL confirmed Google as the next distributor of “Sunday Ticket” in a deal reportedly worth an annual average of $2 billion. YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels will have exclusive rights to the packs in the U.S. starting with the 2023 season.

Despite the “new home for Sunday Ticket, the entire class is likely to continue to be subjected to defendants’ anticompetitive restraints on telecasts,” the judge’s ruling said.

The Southeastern Conference announced that it distributed $721.8 million to its 14 schools in 2021-22 from a pot of $802 million in total revenue.

Despite the flashy figures, it’s a slight decrease from the previous years’ distributions: In 2020-21, the conference allocated $764.4 million, for an average of $54.6 million per school.

• The conference office dispersed $698.5 million, which included not only media rights and CFP revenue but also championship earnings.
• Of this revenue, each school received an average of $49.9 million.
• Roughly $23.3 million was sent as a reimbursement for bowl game and College Football Playoff travel expenses.

The revenue decline isn’t cause for alarm, as it’s related to a signing bonus from the SEC’s new $3 billion TV contract with ESPN, which awarded each school $4 million directly, according to USA Today. 

Loan repayments, higher event costs, and funding held in escrow for Ole Miss also contributed.

Battle With the Big Ten

The SEC is one of the richest and most successful conferences in all of college sports — and, only the Big Ten can compete with it from a revenue standpoint. 

In 2022, the Big Ten signed the biggest conference-wide media deal in history: a mid-$7 billion contract with NBC, CBS, and Fox that will significantly increase its revenue.

The Big Ten already ranked second last year with an average distribution in the mid-$40 million range.

British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe is tapping some of the world’s largest banks to back his bid for Manchester United.

Bloomberg reports that Ratcliffe is working with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan as he prepares for some exceptionally well-heeled competition. Ratcliffe has a net worth of around $16.1 billion.

• The banks are ready to issue bonds and loans to back Ratcliffe’s bid.
• They would cover Manchester United’s debt of around $800 million.
• The team’s owners, the Glazer family, were initially seeking around $7.3 billion for the Premier League club. A price of $5.5 billion is believed to be more realistic.

Bids are due by Feb. 17. The sale is being handled by merchant bank Raine, which also managed last year’s sale of Chelsea.

Qatar Cuts In

A group of investors from 2022 World Cup host Qatar are reportedly preparing a bid intended to top all others by a wide margin.

The group is separate from the state-owned Qatar Sports Investments, which owns Paris Saint-Germain. QSI has looked into making a play for Manchester United, Liverpool, or Tottenham Hotspur, according to Bloomberg. 

Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group had been exploring a sale, but may opt instead to sell a stake in FSG to raise more than $1 billion.

The proposed European Super League has presented a completely new vision in its latest attempt at a comeback.

A22 Sports Management — the company leading the charge to revive the offshoot soccer league, which was announced and then quickly abandoned in April 2021 — has released its plans to rival the UEFA Champions League.

• The competition would feature no permanent members and would have open qualification based on domestic performance.
• “Feedback suggests a European football league that is open, based solely on sporting merit, multidivisional with 60-80 clubs and a minimum of 14 guaranteed European matches per club,” A22 said in a statement.
• A22 reportedly spoke with nearly 50 European clubs in establishing its new guidelines.

“The vast majority of them share the assessment that the very foundation of European football is under threat,” A22 CEO Bernd Reichart said in a video on Twitter. “It is time for change.”

Stern Opposition

Reichart’s video alludes to an upcoming decision from the European Court of Justice regarding FIFA and UEFA’s alleged monopoly on European soccer.

However, in December, a CJEU advocate general published an opinion siding with FIFA and UEFA — indicating the rest of the court may follow suit when the decision comes down sometime this year.

Many European soccer entities still heavily oppose the ESL in any form — including La Liga president Javier Tebas, who posted a scathing rebuke on Twitter.