User:The C of E/usflvnfl

United States Football League et al, v. National Football League et al, 704 F. Supp. 474 (S.D.N.Y. 1989) is a 1989 District Court for the Southern District of New York antitrust lawsuit brought by the United States Football League against the National Football League on the grounds that the NFL had created a monopoly on American football in the United States. The USFL were seeking damages of $1 The jury found in favor of the USFL and awarded damages of $1 which, under American antitrust law, was tripled to $3.

Background
The USFL started in 1982 as a summer alternative American football league to the established NFL. In 1986, at the behest of New Jersey Generals owner and future President of the United States Donald Trump and Chicago Blitz owner Eddie Einhorn, the league voted to become a winter league in direct competition with the NFL with only 2 dissenting votes. Though the USFL had a television contract with ESPN, the NFL held three national broadcast contracts which led to 5 USFL franchises folding because they were in the same markets as NFL teams. Trump proposed either merging the USFL with the NFL or opening an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL for allegedly having a monopoly on national television contracts which denied the USFL the chance to compete. The USFL sued the NFL for $567 million in damages which would have been tripled to $1.7 billion under the principle of treble damages in Federal antitrust law.

Judgement
During his summing up, the Judge directed the jury that they could award a nominal $1 in damages if they were unable to distinguish between USFL's management and NFL's monopolization tactics. After retiring for their verdict, the jury found in favor of the USFL but awarded only $1 in damages which was tripled to $3. One juror stated that the jury chose to only award $1 on the grounds that they believed that the judge could change the amount as he felt appropriate. The NFL also had to pay the USFL's legal fees of $6 million. The case was viewed as a Pyrrhic victory for the USFL as despite winning, they eventually went out of business as they had relied on winning this case in order to continue and as the media portrayed their court victory as a loss which resulted in sponsors pulling out. The NFL in accordance with the judgement, gave the USFL a check for $3.76 (including interest accrued).