The NFL is fining more than 100 players and approximately two dozen team employees for selling their Super Bowl LIX tickets above face value, the league confirmed on Friday.
Chief NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told CNN on Friday that the players would be fined one-and-a-half times the amount of the face value of the ticket they sold. The team employees will be fined double the amount of the ticket’s face value.
The Associated Press was first to report on the fines.
In a memo of sent to the league’s top team executives, presidents and lawyers, NFL chief compliance officer Sabria Perel called the sales “widespread violations” of league policy.
“We are in the process of completing our investigation into this matter, but the investigation has revealed that club employees and players sold their tickets to a small number of ‘bundlers’ who were working with a ticket reseller to sell the Super Bowl tickets above face value,” Perel wrote in the memo.
“Upon completion of the investigation, non-player personnel determined to have participated in the scheme in violation of the Policy will be assessed substantial financial penalties and will lose the privilege to purchase NFL tickets. Those that worked to ‘bundle’ the tickets, or otherwise had a greater role, will face increased penalties. The Management Council is conducting a similar investigation, in coordination with the NFLPA, into players alleged to have been involved in reselling tickets, and players found to have done so will face similar disciplinary measures.”
League policy prohibits league or team employees, including players, from selling game tickets for above face value or more than the prices originally paid. The rule is a part of the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association.
All NFL players are allowed to purchase two tickets to the Super Bowl at face value.
The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 40-22, in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. This year’s game is scheduled to be held in Santa Clara, California, on Feburary 8.
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