I bolded a couple key points in the article.
Green Bay Packers earningsPackers earnings show NFL on solid financial footing despite pandemic
By Daniel Kaplan Jul 21, 2020
The financial losses during the COVID-19 pandemic for most sports teams and leagues are staggering, with much of the industry’s business model centered around fans coming through the turnstiles. Jerry Reinsdorf, who owns the Chicago White Sox and Bulls, has said his losses could get into the nine figures. The NBA has said it could lose over $1 billion.
Then there is the NFL, which, despite all the chatter about the league and players needing to hammer out a revenue agreement, not only has had the luxury of time but of money too. On a Zoom call to announce his team’s earnings, Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy said the national TV and sponsorship check the team gets from the mothership at 345 Park Avenue — league headquarters — is enough by itself to cover player expenses.
“And so if you say we play an entire season without any fans, roughly, we would still have two-thirds of our revenue,” Murphy said.
While the other 31 teams don’t release earnings, each club gets the same national revenue payment from the league. So the $296 million in national revenues the Packers got in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020 means the 32 teams split $9.47 billion before a single ticket was sold. And that number will go higher this year because of annual increases in media contracts.
“Guess you know the big thing to mention there is the first time over $500 million,” Murphy said of the Packers’ overall revenues. “And obviously the national revenue grew at a very healthy pace. I think that’s a tribute to the continuing popularity of the NFL, and shows, and most of that is related to our broadcast agreements that (have) built-in increases in those. And as we look to the future, we feel very, very good about those continuing to grow at that pace.”
Murphy expressed optimism the season would occur, though he is less certain about fans in the stands at Lambeau Field. If fans are allowed, only about 15 percent of the famed venue’s 81,441 seats will get sold (he used a range between 10,000 and 12,000 fans). As many teams have, the Packers are sending a letter today to season ticket holders asking whether they wish to opt-in or out of their ducats this season.
“And this, it’s going to be challenging enough just to put games on and keep our players healthy, our coaches, our staff,” Murphy said. “And then you add in bringing fans into the equation. So we’re going to look at it, maybe by quarters (of the season) or game by game, in terms of determining whether and how many fans to have in the stadium.”
The Packers, like all NFL teams, are going to suffer a significant revenue decline. In the fiscal year ending March 31, the team took in $210.9 million of local revenue, a good portion of which will disappear. That’s why the league and NFLPA are engaged in talks about what to do.
If they do nothing, and hypothetically that is an option, the salary cap gets readjusted next year and according to the union, could decline to $120 million from $198.2 million this season. Nobody wants that, as it would wreak havoc with assembling rosters, and of course near-term player pay.
The NFLPA has proposed spreading the reduction out over the last nine years of the CBA, from 2022 to 2030, Murphy said, so no hit this year or next.
“We don’t think it should be spread out that far,” Murphy said. “Hopefully we can reach a compromise.”
As for the Packers’ earnings themselves, the results rebounded from a year earlier, when they were weighted down by free agent bonuses and a league concussion settlement payment. So the team gets to boast about its net profit rising 9,610.4 percent from $724,000 to $70.3 million.
The Packers, despite playing in the smallest NFL market, rank ninth in the league in revenues (meaning more than a quarter of NFL teams each rake in over half a billion dollars annually.)
The Packers are the only NFL team without an owner (Murphy is the owner representative at league meetings) and the only publicly owned team. A board of directors reports to the team’s 361,169 shareholders representing 5,009,562 shares. While the Packers don’t have the deep pockets of an owner, they have what amounts to a rainy day fund, which is at $411 million.
“[A] lot of uncertainty as every business and every organization has, we do feel, though, that the organization is well-positioned to weather this pandemic,” Murphy said.
The surge in coronavirus cases across the country is concerning, he said, but he’s confident the league can manage.
“You know, I think, quite honestly … when you see the numbers across the country, and particularly in certain states, it does give you some pause,” he said. “But I do, I feel confident in the steps that we’ve taken as a league, the protocols that we’re putting in place. I think our testing is going to be … the most comprehensive of any sport. So I think I feel confident that we’ll get the season in, and whether fans are in the stands, that’s an area where I have a real question.”
Though Murphy is optimistic about the season, he was wearing a polo shirt with the logo of the Ryder Cup Whistling Straits. The 2020 Ryder Cup, originally scheduled to be held this September in Whistling Straits an hour south of Green Bay, has been postponed until 2021.
Hopefully for the NFL, that’s not an omen.
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