NFL Revenue-Sharing Committee Reaches Agreement On Plan

Goodell Unlikely To Have To Decide Revenue-Sharing Issue

The NFL committee assigned to create a system for needy teams to tap a new revenue-sharing pool has reached an agreement on the eve of today’s annual league meeting in Arizona, sources said. The committee has been struggling for months to arrive at a solution on how to distribute up to $900M over six years to low-revenue clubs. High-revenue clubs wanted more performance hurdles built into the system, while many teams in smaller markets complained they would be penalized for market size. The full ownership must still approve the committee’s recommendation, but it is very rare for the league to ignore a committee recommendation. If the committee’s recommendation does not get the 24 owner votes necessary to win approval, then Commissioner Roger Goodell would decide the issue. However, that appears unnecessary now (Daniel Kaplan, SportsBusiness Journal). In DC, Mark Maske cites a source as saying that the proposal “would have 17 to 18 teams receiving additional revenue sharing funds annually.” It is also possible “for a team to be both a payer and a receiver of funds in the same year.” The source said that it is “not certain the proposal will be approved but he thinks the chances of that are relatively good” (WASHINGTON POST, 3/26).

SEARCH FOR TOMORROW: The annual meeting begins today, though Google CEO Eric Schmidt was scheduled to make a presentation to owners on Sunday. It is unclear if Schmidt was just giving a big picture speech, or if it was about ways for his company and the league to cooperate. To date, the NFL has resisted overtures from Google’s recently-acquired YouTube to carry highlights (Daniel Kaplan, SBJ).