The Packers’ operating profit jumped 22% to $12M in the year ending March 31, 2011, largely because the team did not have to spend on players during the last three weeks of March when the lockout began. Without that effect, the team said the figure likely would have stayed flat. The Packers’ financials became a political football during the labor strife, as the club is the only one of 32 teams to publicly release its figures. Now the numbers are coming out one day after the resolution of the more than four-month-old lockout.
Net income, fueled by a jump in investment gains, rose from $5.2M to $17.1M, while overall revenues rose to $282.6M from $258M. Packers President & CEO Mark Murphy, in a conference call with reporters, attributed the rise to strong sales at Lambeau Field during the team’s Super Bowl-winning run. While the team played on the road the entire postseason, Lambeau Field is open year-round and has retail shops. Expenses also increased to $270.5M from $248.2M, a rise Murphy partially ascribed to new coaches' contracts and travel expenses tied to four away playoff games.
Murphy said the team is ready, with the new CBA soon to be in place, to invest in the expansion of Lambeau Field. The team plans a new sound system, 7,000 more seats, two new video boards, and elevators to premium seats. He did not have an estimate for the capital costs. National revenues generated by the league and distributed to the teams meant $163M for the Packers, and local revenues were $119.3M, which jumped from $104M the year before. In addition to the retail sales at Lambeau, local revenues, which had stalled in recent years, were helped by ticket price increases.
