A lending business headed by the chairman and founder of South Windsor’s TicketNetwork has sought to stake its claim in a growing legal battle over personal seat licenses between season-ticket holders and the Los Angeles Rams, which moved from St. Louis to LA this year.
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A lending business headed by the chairman and founder of South Windsor's TicketNetwork has sought to stake its claim in a growing legal battle over personal seat licenses between season-ticket holders and the Los Angeles Rams, which moved from St. Louis to LA this year.
Personal seat licenses, or PSLs, are contracts purchased by fans, businesses and others that give the owners the right to buy season tickets, which can be sold for a markup on the secondary market.
Since February, aggrieved owners of Rams PSLs have filed several class action lawsuits against the team, three of which were consolidated in a Missouri federal court earlier this month.
The PSL holders are upset their licenses haven't transferred to the Rams' new home venue in Los Angeles and argue that the team owes them compensation. Attorneys for the Rams have disagreed in court filings, pointing to contract language that limits the license rights specifically to the St. Louis stadium.
Now, South Windsor's RCN Capital, founded in 2010 by Donald Vaccaro to provide loans and other financing to realty projects and ticket brokers, has also filed suit alleging similar claims against the Rams. Unlike some of the previous suits, however, RCN's also names the NFL and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, as defendants.
RCN is seeking to recover costs related to its ownership of more than $283,000 worth of PSLs at the Rams' former St. Louis home, which was recently renamed The Dome at America's Center. RCN acquired the seat licenses in March 2015 from several defaulting borrowers who had used the PSLs as collateral, according to court documents.
RCN's lawsuit, filed July 28 in Connecticut Superior Court and moved to federal court in New Haven in late August, claims that its PSLs cover nearly 100 premium seats at the St. Louis stadium, including some on the 50-yard line.
The company alleged that the licenses were supposed to provide ticket-purchasing rights through 2024 and that the Rams have since sold licenses for similarly situated seats in Los Angeles to other buyers.
“RCN Capital has financed tens of millions in PSLs and other ticketing agreements and has never seen a team or event producer shrug their responsibility as in this case,” Jeff Tesch, RCN's managing director, said in a statement. “The Rams made an agreement to provide the tickets to their games and the NFL interfered with that contractual relationship. We intend to force the Rams to fairly compensate for the assets that we believe we were defrauded on.”
Diane Westwood Wilson, a New York City attorney with international law firm Dentons, who is representing the Rams, the league and related defendants, declined comment for this story. Dentons is also involved in the Missouri class actions against the Rams.
Wilson wrote in a recent court filing that RCN had not paid the Rams a required transfer fee for the PSLs when it acquired them and that the company hadn't purchased any season tickets allotted by the contract. Wilson said RCN's complaint contains “wholly baseless, nonsensical statements” and “implausible claims” against the NFL and Goodell.
“RCN Capital has contorted what is at most a breach of contract action against the Rams into a harassing 16-count action … ” she wrote.
While some PSLs are owned by hardcore wealthier fans, other buyers treat the licenses as investments.
Many NFL teams have used PSLs over the past 21 years to help finance the construction of new stadiums. The Rams were the first team to do so when they moved from California to St. Louis in 1995, raising $74 million, according to TheStreet.com
PSLs in a sense are a way to bet on a particular team. The license values rise and fall on the secondary market depending on a number of factors, mainly perceived demand for seats, which is driven by team performance or other developments.
A 2012 analysis by Forbes, using data from STR Marketplace, an online platform for buying and selling PSLs, found that PSL price trends varied by team, but that in general the licenses had become riskier investments due to teams setting higher face-value prices.
