Analysis Details Revenue Disparity Among NFL Teams

Analysis Shows Growing Revenue Disparity Between Large- And Small-Market NFL Teams

Teams in top-third NFL markets, such as Boston, DC, Dallas, Philadelphia, Chicago and N.Y., “generate revenues on average” of $256M, while teams in the smallest markets — Cincinnati, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Jacksonville and Buffalo — average revenues of about $177M, according to Mark Curnutte of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. Teams in the “middle third, such as Baltimore, Tampa and Seattle, have average revenues of roughly” $199M. Bengals President Mike Brown noted that about a decade ago, the “revenue gap between NFL teams in big and small cities was less than” $10M. Brown: “The new stadiums have produced a discrepancy between the top-revenue and bottom-revenue (teams). That has put the teams in the large markets in prime position. They are doing very well. But the teams in the smaller markets, they are struggling because their cap costs have gone up while their revenues have not kept pace.” Curnutte noted the average per-team revenue is $211M, and under the CBA, “each team is responsible for paying 57.5[%] of its revenues toward player costs.” The Bengals pay about 68% of revenues on players, while big-market teams are paying an average of 47%. For the Redskins, the NFL’s top-revenue team, which has broken the $300M mark, “that percentage is even smaller” (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 2/25). Brown added, “We can play under the rules as they are today. If the trend continues will we be able to do that four years from now? ... I can tell you that many teams will not be” (BENGALS.com, 2/25).

TAGLIABUE: SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL’s Dan Kaplan cites a source as saying that former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has “declined to be the one who could make the decision on how revenue-sharing money is distributed.” The league last year created a committee to “decide how teams would qualify” to draw from a supplemental revenue-sharing pool, and team owners “agreed that if they could not agree on a course of action, the commissioner would decide.” Even though Roger Goodell replaced Tagliabue, some owners believed that Tagliabue “should see through to resolution the economic issues he shepherded and that he no longer needs to worry about the politics of the owners.” But Falcons Owner Arthur Blank said earlier this month, “The current commissioner needs to put his signature on a solution” (SBJ, 2/26 issue). In a separate piece, Kaplan reports Tagliabue in his last fiscal year as commissioner earned more than $10.3M, up 8% over his pay in the prior 12-month period (SBJ, 2/26 issue).