[Elvis]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13290 ... ue-sharing

NFL teams each earn $226.4M from national revenue sharing

Darren Rovell, ESPN.com Sports Business reporter

NFL teams each received $226.4 million from the NFL as part of national revenue sharing from the 2014 fiscal year.

The amount was revealed on Monday when the Green Bay Packers reported their share of the pie. The total surpassed $7.2 billion and comes mostly from the league's television deals.

The national-revenue-sharing pot, split 32 ways, is up from slightly more than $6 billion last year, because the new TV deals with CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC/ESPN and NFL Network kicked in this past season. The national-revenue-sharing amount is up 120 percent, factoring for inflation, over the past 11 years.

In the 2010 fiscal year, the league split a little more than $3 billion among its 32 teams.

The Packers set records in total revenue and local revenue last year; their local revenue was $149.3 million, up 9.4 percent, mostly because of their newly expanded pro shop at Lambeau Field. The 21,500-square-foot store is the largest team store in the NFL.

Packers CEO Mark Murphy said the team was 18th in the league in average ticket prices. But with 7,000 more seats added in the past couple of years, the team has the second-biggest stadium in the league. That allowed the NFL's smallest host city to maintain its spot in the top 10 in league revenue (ninth).

The Packers are required to announce earnings because they are technically a public entity, although the franchise's 360,760 shareholders hold stock that they paid for that has no value and cannot be traded.

The Packers are making a big bet that there's a lot of business to do around the stadium. Over time, the team has bought 65 acres of land around Lambeau Field, with an accessed value of nearly $50 million, for a development that it now calls Titletown.

Murphy said the Packers expect to make money from leases in the coming years, but they expect most of the money to come in when the success of the revitalization leads to more people spending more time and money around Lambeau.

The Packers finished the 2014 fiscal year with $29.2 million in profit, but the team is spending money to invest in Lambeau, which is the second-oldest stadium in the league, having been built in 1957. Murphy said the team will spend roughly $55 million to renovate its suites, including giving fans the ability to open the windows.

"I think the fans really want to feel that they're connected with the game, so that will be the biggest improvement there," Murphy said.

If the current season-ticket holders or suite holders don't like what they see, there will be plenty of others waiting for their seats. The legendary Packers waiting list is now up to 115,000 names.

[Elvis]

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/blog ... ml?ana=twt

Rams’ revenue from the NFL revealed

The National Football League, as a private enterprise, does not release financial data. But thanks to one team — the publicly owned Green Bay Packers — we get to know the numbers anyway.

The Packers, the only pro sports team to be publicly held, released its financials Monday. According to the Milaukee Business Journal, the Packers received $226.4 million in national revenue sharing, up nearly 21 percent. Extrapolated to 32 teams, that equals roughly $7.2 billion, which is split evenly among all NFL teams.

That means the St. Louis Rams, no matter how the rest of the organization spent or made money, at least brought in $226.4 million in revenue last year just for being part of the league.

Rams officials declined to comment for this story. The Rams had estimated revenue of $250 million last year. Given the NFL’s revenue sharing figures, that figure should be bumped up.

NFL teams get a majority of their money from the league’s massive TV deals and sponsorships, which are split evenly by the teams. Stadium-related revenue — each team retains local ticket sales (60-40 home/away team split), stadium suite, club seating, food/concessions, and local broadcast and sponsorship revenue from naming rights and other properties — also equates to big bucks for owners

[Elvis]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/ ... um=twitter

Gordon: NFL teams don't need new stadiums to prosper

Stan Kroenke wants to move the Rams to greater Los Angeles, where his franchise value could quickly double or even triple.

Intrepid Dave Peacock is trying to keep the Rams through his relentless promotion of a new riverfront football stadium north of downtown.

But the Rams could move out to the old Chrysler plant site in Fenton and be just fine. They wouldn't have to build a stadium to stay afloat.

The team could just throw a field turf surface over the parking lot and play their games there.

Maybe the Rams could throw up some bleachers. Perhaps some of the cheerleaders could come out, too.

Public address announcer Andy Banker could show up with a megaphone. Never mind a marching band, the Rams could just summon a local quartet to play at halftime while the players rested under party tents.

The franchise would survive. While many NHL teams lose money (including the Blues), NFL teams have no such worry.

Their management challenge is to make a rich operation even richer.

Their business is idiot-proof. Franchise ownership is a license to print money. Even a team that loses year after year after year after year in a parity-minded league -- as the Rams have -- consistently comes out ahead.

Each team collects crazy money from the shared revenue pot. Thanks to publicly disclosures by the civic-owned Green Bay Packers, we know each team collected $226.4 million in national revenue sharing during the 2014 fiscal year.

The Rams franchise doesn't need a new stadium to remain viable. The NFL's shared revenue takes care of all of that.

The franchise doesn't need a new stadium to remain competitive. The salary cap/free agency system takes care of that, preventing the rich teams from spending a multiple of the "poor" teams on talent.

Last year Forbes ranked the Rams dead last in NFL team valuation ($930 million) in part due to relative low gate revenue ($45 million) and total revenue ($250 million).

Kroenke still spent heavily on players (coming in just under the salary cap) and his coaches. And the team still generated operating income of $16.2 million according to Forbes.

Strong local revenues are nice, of course. That money allows franchises to run a big operation and add the bells and whistles that attract top free agents.

(The Packers rake in nearly $150 million in local revenue despite middle-of-the-pack ticket prices. Lambeau Field expansion added 7,000 seats and the team operates a 21,500-square-foot team store, largest in the league. That franchise is an iconic brand.)

But local revenues are not necessary for survival because the NFL's shared revenue just keeps soaring.

ESPN reports the total number has climbed from $6 billion to $7.2 billion since last year, thanks to increased rights fees paid by the networks in new television deals. Adjusted for inflation, the shared revenue has climbed 120 percent during the past 11 years.

All of this is why public financing for new stadiums has become a much tougher sell, especially in markets (like St. Louis) confronting social and economic issues far greater than pro football retention.

Owners don't need the extra stadium revenue to stay in business. They want it so their profitable business can become more profitable. They can demand it because they can.

The stadium sell gets tougher still in St. Louis when the owner is a multi-billionaire capable of bankrolling the project all by himself. The sell becomes borderline impossible when that same multi-billionaire is aggressively forsaking St. Louis for Southern California.

So here we are. Training camp will start soon. Kroenke will keep pushing his move to Inglewood.

Peacock will keep selling his stadium concept to the league. The San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders will keep pushing the Carson, Calif., project and their rather unlikely partnership.

Maybe you will come out and support their team in this potential farewell season. Maybe you will turn your back on the team just as Kroenke turned his back on you.

Either way, huge revenues will keep pouring into the Rams' corporate coffers, covering the bills and leaving plenty left over.

[Elvis]

Some of Gordon's conclusions are ridiculous. The NFL is not idiot proof. It wouldn't be so profitable if they were idiots. And it's true you don't need a new stadium to prosper but if every team took that attitude the allure of the league would suffer, so would revenue. And there's even more to be made with state of the art stadiums, both for the league and for the individual owners.

But he's 100% right about the economics of the game: They've really changed. Shared revenue is the biggest percentage of total revenue it's ever been and it will only go up form here.

The Rams were estimating a total of $250 mil for 2014 including gate revenue of $45 mil yet shared revenue came in at $226 mil which is 90% of total expected revenue.

And then there's stadiums. With the insane popularity and profitability of the game, PSL's and naming rights, now, in bigger markets, privately funded stadiums make great financial sense. Hell, in the future, i can see cities demanding a piece of the stadium pie because of all the money they generate. Instead of trying to get out of funding stadiums they'll be trying to get in...

[Hacksaw]

"All of this is why public financing for new stadiums has become a much tougher sell, especially in markets (like St. Louis) confronting social and economic issues far greater than pro football retention.
The stadium sell gets tougher still in St. Louis when the owner is a multi-billionaire capable of bankrolling the project all by himself. The sell becomes borderline impossible when that same multi-billionaire is aggressively forsaking St. Louis for Southern California."

"Maybe you will come out and support their team in this potential farewell season. Maybe you will turn your back on the team just as Kroenke turned his back on you."

Tougher sell indeed. And if his back is turned on StL (which the locals believe to be the case more and more) he's either facing Canada, NY or LA. I've heard he has interest in LA so this is a good thing.

[OldSchool]

I read that Gordon article and put him in the same trash can as Bernie. Horrible work.

[OldSchool]

I found it funny reading on two other sites how the Blues are losing money. Two different St. Louis natives cited them having trouble with corporate sponsors. That sounds familiar where have I heard that before

[The Ripper]

The Blues slipped up and said that it would be good for them if the Rams left.

[Hacksaw]

The Blues slipped up and said that it would be good for them if the Rams left.

Where's the facepalm emoticon?

It seems like the powers that be (especially in the sports world) in StL need to sit down together one a month to make sure they are all on the same page. The now exposed dysfunction there is epic.

[Elvis]

http://thehockeywriters.com/inconceivab ... -a-profit/