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Packers' Financials Show Operating Profit Increase After Three-Year Decline

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 the 32 teams to publicly release its figures. The numbers came 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 (Daniel Kaplan, SportsBusiness Journal).

TRUMP CARD? In Green Bay, Richard Ryman notes the Packers' profits from operations "had fallen for three consecutive years," from $34.2M in '06-07 to $9.8M in '09-10, and NFL officials "attribute that to player costs increasing at a faster rate than revenue under the previous collective bargaining agreement." Player costs "actually decreased $2 million, to $158 million, in 2010-11," but Murphy attributed that to "having fewer player expenses in March, when the lockout began." Packers VP/Finance Paul Baniel said, "If we had a normal March, we would be on par with a year ago." Murphy said of the team's net income, "It appears the Super Bowl trumps the lockout" (GREEN BAY POST-GAZETTE, 7/27). But Murphy also said that the lockout "did hurt the team's effort to land corporate sponsors for the upcoming season," adding that team staff was "already on the phone talking to potential sponsors." He said, "We lost some sponsors simply because they could not make a commitment to activate programs not knowing whether or not we would have a full season." Baniel added, "Our local sponsorship is the softest area of revenue right now" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 7/26). 

END ZONE DRIVE: In Milwaukee, Don Walker reports the Packers' "stellar financial performance also gives team executives the confidence to move ahead with plans to expand the south end zone of Lambeau Field, perhaps as early as February." The team has said that it "might add as many as 7,500 seats in that area, which would make capacity at Lambeau just more than 80,000 seats." Packers VP/Administration & General Counsel Jason Wied said, "If anything, our performance last year supports the notion of looking really hard at development options going forward." Wied added that the "continued demand for tickets tells the Packers an expansion makes economic sense." The team also has "a new tool to move ahead with expansion" as a result of an NFL-wide stadium fund included in the new CBA "to help franchises build new stadiums or expand existing ones" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 7/27).

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