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The NFL’s $20B “Sunday Ticket” Gamble

After a decade of twists and turns, the league is facing down a 10-figure lawsuit that could also allow teams to cut their own deals with streamers, reshaping the business forever. Can the NFL afford to take that risk?

nfl Minnesota Vikings v Kansas City Chiefs
If the plaintiffs win, and a judge decides that injunctive relief is necessary to address NFL teams colluding with each other, the league’s ongoing “Sunday Ticket” deal with YouTubeTV could be canceled. Photo: David Eulitt/Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
June 5, 2024

Years ago, when I was a young and broke New Yorker, I would nurse a single beer at a bar for a good three hours to watch a Los Angeles Rams game. Yes, I could have subscribed to the “Sunday Ticket” package, then distributed through DirecTV, and watched the game at home, but that cost a couple hundred bucks. What I really wanted was a way to sign up for just Rams games—the other 31 teams be damned. Still, when “Sunday Ticket” subscribers sued in 2015, alleging that the NFL’s refusal to offer that very product amounted to a conspiracy, it sounded a little bonkers… even to me.