Texas A&M donors' lawsuit against 12th Man Foundation over seating, parking dispute cleared for trial

A group of Texas A&M donors will finally get their day in court for a dispute against the 12th Man Foundation over parking and seating at Kyle Field. According to the Houston Chronicle, a judge in Brazos County last week denied a summary judgment motion from the 12th Man Foundation, which sought to dismiss the lawsuit.

The donors initially filed the lawsuit in 2017. It included 16 families who entered agreements with the foundation’s Permanently Endowed Scholarship Program during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. They allege that the foundation promised them “lifetime or 30-year benefits” for donations they made that ranged from $20,000-$50,000.

They claim that those benefits were “significantly diminished” after A&M made renovations to the stadium following the school’s move to the SEC in 2012. The lawsuit estimates they lost seating rights valued at $4.6 million. Three of the donors listed in the lawsuit have died since it was initially filed eight years ago.

Under the endowment agreements reached in the last century, donors were promised the “best available” tickets and parking spots for both home and away football games. That agreement gave them the option to upgrade seats at no additional cost if better ones were still unpurchased on the day of the game.

However, the foundation began using a new system of fundraising in 2007 to attract new donors. This new system allegedly decreased the previously agreed upon rights of the already established donors.

That resulted in a “reseating” plan in 2015 following $450 million stadium renovations. The new plan allegedly included a declaration that the donors’ seats no longer existed and they would need to make additional donations to retain them.

In total, there are 36 individuals in the lawsuit who say their endowment rights were violated. They accounted for 60 seats at Kyle Field, which now seats 102,733, and 18 parking spaces.

Brent Coon, the attorney representing the donors in the case, called the treatment of the donors “a shameful example of how big-time college sports, notably football, has caused (athletic booster organizations) like the one in this case to frankly abuse their older alumni who had been avid supporters for decades, selling their positions with the schools and their seating arrangements out to new ‘mega-donors.’

Coon added that with the recent denial of the 12 Man Foundation’s motion, he and his team are “well-positioned to take depositions of all the decision-makers within the foundation and also find out who bought our clients’ seat locations out from under them.” It’s unclear at the time of this writing when a date for the trial might be set.