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ARLINGTON, Texas, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Super Bowl XLV ticket holders angry at being denied seats at the big game brought a class-action lawsuit against the NFL, court documents indicated Wednesday. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas, accused the Super Bowl host Dallas Cowboys, owner Jerry Jones and the National Football League of fraud and breach of contract, The New York Times reported.
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About 400 fans were forced to watch the game on television at a stadium club when 1,200 temporary seats at Cowboys Stadium were declared unusable shortly before game time.
The suit asserts that 1,200 Cowboys season-ticket holders paid $1,200 and got temporary seats with obstructed views. It seeks $5 million in damages.
The fiasco resulted in an offer of free tickets for the next Super Bowl, free travel and $2,400 per ticket holder in restitution Tuesday from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, but disgruntled fans went ahead with a lawsuit seeking $5 million in damages.
The NFL's offers were "entirely insufficient," fan attorney Michael Avenatti told the Times. "People's out-of-pocket expenses far exceed what they've been offered."
The suit came as Arlington, Texas, Fire Chief Don Crowson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the contractor installing the temporary seats walked out just before the game.
Seating Solutions quit, leaving 1,200 temporary seats unsafe and unusable, Crowson said.
"Problems were found. They were told to correct them," he said.
Seating Solutions Vice President Scott Suprina told KDFW-TV, Dallas, bad weather kept workers from getting to the stadium for two days and time ran out.
Contractors were working on the stands in the end zones through Sunday afternoon until "a guy came up to me and said, 'We are done. We can't do any more. We're out of here,'" Crowson said. "I called the NFL and told them."
