How much could a Sunday Ticket lawsuit cost the Detroit Lions?

The NFL has found itself in legal trouble over the way it manages its popular Sunday Ticket subscription service.

Specifically, an eight-person jury recently found that the league violated antitrust laws by selling Sunday Ticket exclusively on DirecTV, and at an unnecessarily high price.

The jury reached this conclusion based on the premise that offering the service to only one provider at an inflated price limited the number of subscribers, and cited CBS and Fox’s concerns about maintaining local viewership. The jury also found that this subscription model allowed the NFL, a multibillion-dollar industry, to enrich itself.

Next, the NFL is currently on the hook for a staggering $4.8 billion in damages, with $4.696 billion set to go to the residential class and another roughly $97 million set to go to the commercial class (i.e. bars, hotels, and restaurants). Furthermore, under antitrust law, that $4.696 billion amount is tripled, making it $14.088 billion in damages.

What does all of this mean for the Lions and the other 32 NFL franchises? According to ProFootballTalk, this means each team will have to pay $440.25 million in compensation – almost $200 million more than this year’s salary cap ($255.4 million per team).

“We are disappointed with today’s jury verdict in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which includes all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in participating team markets and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by a variety of additional options including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan-friendly distribution model across all of sports and entertainment,” the league said in its ruling.

“We will certainly challenge this decision because we believe the class action claims in this case are without merit and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service, as well as Judge (Philip) Gutierrez’s guidance and supervision throughout the trial.”

The NFL is currently appealing the decision.