MLB might be America’s pastime, and the Premier League has the biggest global reach of any sports league. But when it comes to making money, the NFL is the undisputed king, as it kicks off its 105th season next week.
The NFL’s financial might and trajectory is why private equity firms with more than $2 trillion in assets under management wanted a piece, which the league granted Tuesday when it approved passive stakes up to 10% from a select group of institutional funds.
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The NFL’s 32 teams generated an estimated $20.5 billion in revenue last year, 72% higher than MLB. The Premier League only has 20 teams, but its $8 billion for the 2022-23 season is more akin to the NHL than American football. NBA teams made roughly $12 billion during their most recent season.
All of these leagues earn money the same way, from gate receipts, sponsorships, concessions, merchandise, luxury suites and media contracts. But the scale of the revenue streams varies wildly in the different sports.
The average NFL franchise is worth $5.93 billion, 15% ahead of last year in Sportico’s NFL team valuations. The NFL’s salary cap—$225 million last year—is a boon to NFL owners, but the driving force of the league’s economics and its revenue is the leaguewide media deals.
The current crop of contracts is worth $12 billion a year on average, and owners are expected to opt out of the deals following the 2029 season after seeing how much ESPN, NBC and Amazon just committed to the NBA. NFL games represented 93 of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2023, but NBC and Amazon are now paying significantly more for their rights to NBA games than NFL games, while ESPN’s cost is similar for both leagues on a yearly basis.
NFL teams received $13 billion, or just over $400 million apiece, from leaguewide media, sponsorship, licensing and merchandise deals last year. In addition, teams got $25 million each as part of the NFL’s shared gate receipt system, which calls…
Source link : https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nfl-teams-owners-money-110000452.html
Author : Sportico
Publish date : 2024-08-29 11:00:00
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