News broke yesterday on ESPN and several other outlets that a Miami-based attorney and Heat fan was filing a class action lawsuit against the San Antonio Spurs for violating Florida's deceptive and fair trade practices law.
Kiko Martinez, a friend of Project Spurs and writer for the San Antonio Current interviewed the fan, Larry McGuinness about his reasons for the lawsuit and why he waited two months to file the lawsuit after the early season game.
This game was almost two months ago. Why are you filing this lawsuit now?Well, I thought somebody would’ve done it before I did. I was surprised nobody had done anything about it. It was stuck in the back of my mind. It was something that needed to be done at least from a fan’s perspective. [NBA] Commissioner [David] Stern did what he needed to do, which he was entitled to, but this is more about the fans.
As we talked about on our special edition of the Sports Roundtable on News4WOAI and on Project Spurs, the NBA and David Stern apologized to the fans and fined the Spurs a quarter of a million dollars. But while Stern made the fans the reason for his decision to fine, there has been no record of any of the money fined going back to fans, who may have ponied up a bit more for a big game against the Spurs. The NBA had every opportunity to use any portion of the $250,000 to distribute ticket vouchers, upgrade future seats and make good on what paying fans could have lost out on.
Now, McGuinness is hoping to recoup some of those losses for himself and other fellow fans.
What kind of compensation are you looking for from the Spurs? Do you just want the difference between what you paid for your two tickets and what you would’ve paid if the Heat were playing, say, the Charlotte Bobcats?That would be one component. Another would be for those folks who are out a bit more. For example, I just talked to someone who flew down from South Carolina with nine of his family members, specifically to see this game because they were huge Spurs fans. Needless to say, he and his family were very disappointed. They didn’t see the stars they had come so far to see.
Martinez asked McGuinness if he was worried about other fans suing NBA teams who choose to rest their stars if his case is won to which he replied that his issue wasn't with resting players, but resting an entire starting lineup without notifying someone.
Read the full interview over at the Current for McGuinness' thoughts on the game and suing a team he "loves watching."