Though the prospects of each NFL team forking over $440 million as part of the league losing the Sunday Ticket lawsuit looms large, there might be a quick way to pay for it.
One year’s salary.
Maybe not painless. But it’s quick.
Per Sportico’s Kurt Badenhausen, the NFL earned $13 billion in national revenue for 2023. That allowed them to dish out $404 million to the 32 NFL teams on top of all the money they make locally. Per his reporting:
“The tally is up 6% to 8% from the 2022 season, depending on the accounting used by the team.
The total represents national media rights, league sponsorships and shared revenue and royalties from the league’s various affiliates and subsidiaries, such as NFL Properties, NFL International and NFL Enterprises and adds up to roughly $13 billion.”
That number was an average, with some fluctuation between teams based on minor factors like tax deductions and national announcer revenue.
The league weathered the storm that was the COVID year, seeing the cap dramatically reduced while attendance was almost non-existent. In Pittsburgh that year, most games had zero fans while select ones permitted up to 5,000, largely made up of friends and family.
Striking deals with Amazon, Google/YouTube, and Netflix, revenue has boomed. It allowed the 2024 salary cap to come in even higher than the normally dead-on expectations, coming in at $255.4 million. Expectations are that the number will rise in 2025, a signal overall revenue will increase along with it. That means more money for each club.
Of course, that money could head right out the door if the NFL can’t appeal the Sunday Ticket verdict. Last month, a jury ruled the league violated antitrust laws with its Sunday Ticket package, charging high prices and forcing establishments and consumers to buy the entire league instead of select games. The league will appeal, tying it up in the courts for months or years, but if it holds, they’ll owe over $14 billion (antitrust penalties are tripled). That works out to each team owing $440 million, a hefty sum for any club but especially the comparatively “poorer” Steelers and Rooney family.
Badenhausen’s report included a graphic showing the yearly revenue teams have received. In 2012, it was *just* $180 million. Today, it’s more than twice that. Even during the COVID years, despite the cap contraction, revenues remained steady at $374 million in 2021 and 2022.
Without getting into the weeds of logistics that are, frankly, well over my head, teams like the Steelers probably can avoid forking over one big check that wipes out their salary. More likely, teams could pay in installments while the NFL fronts the bulk of the bill. However the league handles it, the ramifications aren’t likely to be felt by the players or the consumers except for Sunday Ticket being structured in a different fashion.
