The operators of the South Beach Hotel and the Crest Hotel, however, deny that they signed a contract to reserve 54 rooms between the two hotels for four nights during the week of the Super Bowl, as the league claimed Friday in its filing for a dispute resolution with the American Arbitration Association.

The hotels subsequently filed a lawsuit Friday in Miami-Dade circuit court seeking to stay the arbitration proceedings. They claim they were unaware any contract existed until the NFL contacted them in October about the rooms, and are asking the court to throw out the disputed contract, according to the lawsuit.

A message left after hours Tuesday for the lawyer representing the hotels was not immediately returned, nor were a message and e-mail left for the Miami lawyer representing the NFL.

A spokesman for the South Florida Super Bowl committee referred a call seeking comment to the NFL. A league spokesman did not immediately return a message left at his office after hours.