EDITORIAL – When COVID-19 halted in-person attendance at sporting events, season ticket holders (STHs) were left wondering what was going to happen to all of the money that they had spent. MLS teams are providing either a refund or an option to apply any money already paid to the 2021 season. For Colorado Rapids season tickets, STHs wanting to have payments credited towards the 2021 season, no action was required.
2020 Colorado Rapids Season Tickets: Legal Implications of the Pandemic
The Colorado Rapids followed up on their March 13, 2020 announcement that postponed MLS games will be honored at rescheduled contests with an email to STHs on May 29, 2020. That email stated the club would be automatically suspending any remaining payments for Colorado Rapids season tickets starting in June, and that to roll over payments to the 2021 season from the 2020 season tickets no action would be required of STHs.
Email from @ColoradoRapids regarding season ticket payments pic.twitter.com/z6E0jChD2x
— Kevin R. Jensen (@LWOSkevinjensen) August 11, 2020
The email goes on to say that by electing to maintain this credit on your account for next season you will secure your seating location for next year and guarantee your current per game membership pricing for the 2021 season.
From a legal perspective, this is interesting in a couple of different ways. First, by sending this email out, the team is creating contracts with STHs on a mass scale with hardly any written legal paperwork.
“Wait, you’re telling me that I can receive an email, take absolutely no action, and I’ll be in a legally binding contract with a professional soccer team?”
I sure am.
Any legal contract in American law requires a few basic legal elements: an offer, acceptance of that offer, intent to enter into an agreement, and consideration.
Consideration is something of value in exchange for the promised product or service, such as a down-payment for a loan. An offer may invite or require acceptance by an oral or written response, or by performing, or refraining from performing, a specified act. An offer may also give the person accepting the offer the power to make a selection of terms in his acceptance.
In American law, a handshake is just as legally enforceable as a written contract in most cases. Granted, a handshake contract is harder to prove in court than a written contract. Even a simple advertisement in America can be a legally binding contract.
Legal Precedent for Advertisements as Enforceable Contracts
Take, for example, the famous English legal case Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co., which is taught in American law schools as an example of the English common law that American contract law is built upon.
Back in 1891, the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company placed an advertisement in a number of newspapers claiming that it’s product, “The Carbolic Smoke Ball” would prevent colds and influenza when used three times daily for two weeks. In addition, the company offered a 100£ reward to anyone who caught influenza using their product, stating that they deposited £1,000 in the bank to back this offer.
Lilli Carlil used the smoke ball as directed, caught the flu, and sued. Ms. Carlil ultimately won, with the Court of Appeal ruling that the 100£ reward was meant to be an express promise rather than a sales tactic.
Their reasoning?
That it was quite possible to make an offer to the world and demonstrated their intent referring to the £1,000 deposit, and that Ms. Carlil accepted the contract offer by performance on her part by following the guidelines of “The Carbolic Smoke Ball.”
An Email from the Club as a Legally Binding Contract
In this instance, the email from the Colorado Rapids constituted the “offer, which specified the manners of acceptance: Take no action and we’ll apply your credits for you, or contact us and we’ll refund you. It was specified in the offer that inaction will result in acceptance, and will create a legally binding contract between you and the Colorado Rapids. The consideration is the money already paid thus far for the 2020 season tickets. Of course intent to enter into an agreement would still have to be shown if the issue was pressed in court, which may cause issues if the email was never opened.
However, here’s where it gets interesting.
By the very terms of the offer that was extended, the only benefits you’ll receive from the offer is that “by electing to maintain this credit on your account for next season” you will “(S)ecure your seating location for next year” and “(G)uarantee your current per game membership for the 2021 season.”(emphasis added).
See the wiggle room?
If, let’s say, the 2021 season were to not allow in-person attendance as well, then most of what you’ve received on your end of the bargain is bupkis. However, there would then still the matter of the team not having given you anything for the money you’ve given them with nothing to show for it, which would open another whole can of legal worms.
