Attorneys for the New York Giants and Jets teams have asked the court to dismiss with prejudice the amended complaint from two fans upset that the franchises have New York in their name but actually play in MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
The teams reject as implausible and unsupported the plaintiffs’ claims of false advertising and deceptive practices for retaining New York names following their “well-publicized moves” to New Jersey decades ago.
The amended complaint “still fails to assert plausible claims and must be dismissed with prejudice,” according to the teams’ lawyers.
The original complaint by New Yorkers Abdiell Suero and Maggie Wilkins, filed in federal court in Manhattan, had requested that the teams be required to move their home games to New York and out of New Jersey.
However, the plaintiffs later maintained that since the teams have refused to move, they amended their complaint and now want the teams to remove New York from their names. The complaint alleges false advertising, deceptive practices, fraudulent misrepresentation and negligence.
But the teams say the amended complaint is no better than the original.
“The fraud claim merely recasts the allegations of the prior complaint’s ill-fated civil RICO claim. And the negligence claim is based on the alleged violation of a New Jersey statute from which defendants are expressly exempt,” the lawyers for the two NFL teams told the court.
Amended Class Action Wants NFL’s Giants, Jets to Drop ‘New York’ From Names
The teams argue that plaintiffs’ continuing complaints regarding the Giants’ and Jets’ retention of their New York names following their relocations to New Jersey in the 1970s and ’80s still offer no basis to support claims for false advertising and deceptive practices because under New York law, these claims are held to standards of “a reasonable consumer acting reasonably under the circumstances.”
“Since each club began playing their home games just seven miles west of midtown Manhattan decades ago, they have openly, consistently, and honestly provided first-class entertainment for and squarely within the New York metropolitan area. Defendants have never represented that the stadium is located anywhere other than New Jersey. Nor is the New York component of the teams’ names understood to identify the location of the teams’ stadium,” the teams said.
The complaint seeks $2 billion in damages and a promise by the teams that they will stop publishing what Suero and Wilkins call the “Ten Lies” about their franchises, MetLife Stadium where other teams play, and other offerings. They also want the court to make MetLife Stadium discontinue its “cash-only” windows at concessions which they say violates New Jersey law.
Photo: East Rutherford, NJ – Circa 2017: Metlife Stadium exterior day photo during parking lot tailgate before New York Jets football game sporting event
