Judge considers damages against Eagle man who sold fraudulent Husker ticket packages

In some cases, consumers didn’t even get into Memorial Stadium, Assistant Nebraska Attorney General Justin McCully said at a hearing last week.

The AG’s office filed the complaint against Nfluence in September alleging the company had violated the Consumer Protect Act and the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act by misleading and causing financial harm to consumers from Nebraska and elsewhere.

Beginning in June 2022, Nfluence advertised and sold The Nebraska Game Day Experience, offering fans the opportunity to watch a Nebraska football game in a luxury suite with former University of Nebraska football players, with part of the proceeds benefitting nonprofits.

In March, Lancaster County District Judge Jodi Nelson found the unregistered association and Kenneth McCants, the man behind it, liable for misrepresenting what they were getting and who was benefitting.

At a hearing Thursday to determine how much the defendants should pay for the conduct, McCully offered the sworn testimonies of 10 consumers who spent between $1,000 and $3,000 believing they were buying a “once in a lifetime experience,” which included an opportunity to watch a Husker football game in a suite with a Husker football player and a “litany of perks.”

Instead, he said, some only received a general admission ticket and others nothing at all.

He said investigators determined there had been 63 purchases of The Nebraska Game Day Experience and that none of the proceeds went to benefit organizations as advertised.

“In every aspect, The Nebraska Game Day Experience failed to carry out what it promised. At best, it left consumers paying thousands of dollars for a general admission ticket or nothing at all,” McCully said. 

Instead, he said, all proceeds went into McCants’ personal bank account and was spent on things like online streaming subscriptions and a trip to Hawaii. 

He said this negatively affected not only the consumers but also the charities, among them the Sam Foltz Foundation and Team Jack Foundation.

McCully asked the judge to issue civil penalties of $252,000 on Nfluence and McCants or at a minimum order $87,000 returned to the consumers of the 63 purchases.

Ads said consumers would experience the game with four Husker hosts with perks that would make the game day unforgettable. 

“This was a situation in which consumers truly believed they were buying a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said.  “While it might have been unforgettable, it was for the wrong reasons.”

McCants, who appeared by video conference, offered no defense at the hearing. 

At a hearing in March, he told the judge: “I just want to put it behind me.”

Nelson took the matter under advisement.