theathleticuk
GREEN BAY, Wis.
The Green Bay Packers received $453.2 million from the NFL in the most recent fiscal year as part of the leagues national revenue-sharing model, team president Ed Policy told reporters Friday.
Extrapolated to 32 teams, which share revenue equally, the league brought in more than $14.5 billion, the majority of which came from broadcast deals.
This revenue-sharing system allows the Packers, who reside in what is by far the leagues smallest market, to remain financially competitive.
As the NFLs only publicly owned franchise, the Packers are the only team required to make their finances public every year.
Advertisement Its unique to my position that somebody in this role has to sit in front of you and talk about our finances, Policy said, running his first financials meeting with reporters since taking over for Mark Murphy last summer.
I think its a good thing.
I think its good for our shareholders to have this kind of transparency and to see how we operate.
The Packers received $20.6 million more in national revenue from the NFL than in the prior fiscal year ($432.6 million).
Their local revenue of $299.8 million was a $13.4 million increase from the previous fiscal year despite having one fewer home game thanks to ticketing, local sponsorships, pro shop sales and other avenues.
Policy said the Packers rank in the top half of the league in local revenue.
The organization saw an operations deficit of $1.1 million due to what Policy called an enormous increase in player costs, stemming from the structure and timing of player contracts.
In other words, payments such as Micah Parsons signing bonus contributed to that loss.
So too did accounting for the acceleration of previously paid compensation to players who were either traded or released throughout the course of the year.
Players falling into that category included Jaire Alexander, Kenny Clark, Rashan Gary, Elgton Jenkins and Nate Hobbs.
Kenny Clark had, I think, two years left on his contract, Policy said of the defensive tackle who was traded to the Dallas Cowboys as part of the deal for Parsons.
This is not cash out of our pocket that had been paid the year before when Kenny signed his contract but then whatever he has remaining on his contract that has not already been amortized (paying off a debt over time, as teams do in spreading out the cap hit on signing bonuses over multiple years) gets accelerated into that year.
We had a number of those last year with some pretty substantial contracts.
Advertisement The Packers net income stood at $132.5 million, however, because of a non-operating income of $133.6 million, which rose $131.7 million from the prior fiscal year.
That increase stemmed from the Packers share of the leagues acquisition of a 10-percent stake in ESPN in exchange for NFL Network, Policy said, in addition to sound investments in the teams corporate reserve fund.
The latter is a unique financial resource for the Packers, the only team without a deep-pocketed owner or ability to sell minority interests to private equity.
Policy said the Packers have about $701 million in their corporate reserve fund after contributing between $15 million and $18 million this past fiscal year.
(Other teams can raise more than $701 million in mere months by selling small stakes of their franchise, and it has taken the Packers more than 30 years to reach that figure.) Other teams have access to this ATM machine that we just dont have, Policy said.
Policy noted that the only capped expenses are player contracts, but the Packers face the challenge of keeping up with 31 other teams financially when it comes to coaching staff salaries, facility upgrades and other expenses in the ongoing NFL arms race.
Two critical points, Policy said.
No.
1, the Packers are in great financial shape.
And then No.
2, were gonna continue to invest whatever it takes to field a championship-caliber team.
But as weve been talking about ..
the NFL is more competitive than ever, both on and off the field.
Its getting more expensive to run an NFL team.
..
Candidly, I think we have to be more aggressive in terms of revenue generation going forward.
As we all know, other NFL teams have access to some resources and some capital we dont have access to.
Theyve always had a billionaire owner, and weve managed to compete pretty well against them on that basis.
Advertisement The Packers recently sold the naming rights to the turf field at the entertainment district adjacent to Lambeau Field and will explore selling the naming rights to other assets, such as the practice facility across the street from the stadium.
That includes Ray Nitschke Field, Clarke Hinkle Field and the Don Hutson Center, three assets without corporate attachments that are named after Packers legends.
Policy emphasized that the Packers are not exploring selling the naming rights to Lambeau Field.
Policy also said the Packers will focus on bringing more major events to Lambeau Field to generate revenue.
This year, popular country artist Luke Combs played two concerts there in May, and Wisconsin will face Notre Dame at Lambeau Field on Sept.
6.