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The winner of the Super Bowl Feb. 2 will raise the Vince Lombardi Trophy. A New Brunswick fan is suing the National Football League over its failure to make 95 percent of the tickets available to the public.

(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

A New Jersey football fan is suing the National Football League for violating state law by making only a small number of tickets to next month’s Super Bowl available for purchase by the general public.

Josh Finkelman of New Brunswick has filed a class action lawsuit in federal court alleging the NFL and its member teams violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act by splitting the estimated 80,000 tickets to Super Bowl XLVIII between the league, its 32 teams and the two host teams.

Only 1 percent of the tickets are made available to the general public through a national lottery, according to the claim. The league's policy forces fans to the secondary market, where they pay substantially more than face value.

The lawsuit seeks “treble damages and attorney’s fees… and any other damages deemed just and proper by the court.”

The lawsuit claims the league distributes its share to broadcast networks, media sponsors and “other league insiders” and that the individual teams offer their allotment of tickets to re-sellers rather than the general public.

“The resellers are promised access to these tickets from the franchise, via ticket contracts entered into years in advance, that provide for specific quantities of Super Bowl tickets before the tickets are even printed,” according to the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, Finkelman spent $4,000 for two tickets to the game, to be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on Feb. 2. The prices "was far in excess of the face value of the tickets," the lawsuit claims.



NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy had no immediate comment on the lawsuit. Attorney Bruce Nagel of Nagel Rice in Roseland did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

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