Those with an appetite for learning how their NFL sausage gets made will find fascinating a couple of nuggets from this afternoon’s scratch ticket unveiling in Foxboro.
The $5 ticket (which features the Patriots Flying Elvis logo 11 times), is a sign of the economic times for both the league and states around the country.
First on the league front, franchises seeing revenue streams like advertising and naming rights dry up are forced to hustle to find new ones.
And with nearly 60 percent of all revenues going to the players (regardless of the economy), teams have to hustle to make sure the pile of revenue they make doesn’t shrink so drastically they can’t cover their own spending (coaches salaries, mortgages, electric bills, etc)
“If it wasn’t for the economic times, (the league allowing lottery deals might not have happened),” said Patriots Chairman Robert Kraft. “The fact that we know to get an extension to the labor agreement, we have to work every way we can to grow revenues.
“Look at spending by automobile companies and (beer companies), they’re just not spending,” Kraft added. “We have two bankrupt automotive companies. (Other) car companies are just not spending money. And beer companies aren’t spending the way they did.
“We have to go out and be resourceful and create new revenue or we’ll have a real problem in the labor area.”
The dirty detail for the 32 franchises is that, just because New England gets it off the ground in their market, the money doesn’t just pay the Patriots. Of the money the franchise earns from each $5 ticket, 60 percent goes into the pile that is to be paid out to ALL NFL players, not just the Patriots.
And therein lies the conflict between owners.
New England aggressively works its market and grows a new revenue stream that helps pay players in Cincinnati or Jacksonville, but are those franchises busting ass to work their markets too so that, league-wide, the total gross revenue generated remains the same or higher even in a down economy?
Getting the league to sign off on this form of gambling was aided by two factors, said Patriots vice chairman Jonathan Kraft.
“This is a game of chance that is not based on the performance of the team, the scores of games…It’s really just our logo, there’s no tie to how the team is performing on the field,” said Jonathan Kraft. “The league (decided it) would allow this if it was just tied to the logo and had no ties to the players, the games or the scores of games.”
The other push point, at least in Massachusetts, was that the state lottery money is a major cash cow for funding projects and services in the state’s 351 cities and towns.
“That can be a swing their way eventually. I just hate to be the team that they winned it against.”
What about selling toilet paper with a picture of Jerry Jones on it?
Yeah, if the economy didn’t stink, I guess they never would have sold the beer pong tables either. This is about sucking as much cash as possible from peoples wallets, and nothing more.
Let the Delaware sports betting ‘lottery’ in a tiny state get rolling and NFL will have a lot more gambling on individual games throughout many other cash hungry and more populous states to be worrying about.
So you choose 2 small market teams when 1 of those teams has signed a deal with their state….
Their name???????
The Cincinnati Bengals…….So I ask you are you SURE those teams are NOT attempting to grow their revenue as well as contributing to the NFL Pie???? Research it…..its on the web.
Mr. Florio,
I know you’re out there somewhere. Do you think its possible to conduct a survey to determine the percentage of users on this site who follow a specific team? Broken down statistics of people who follow, say, the Eagles, etc… I think the results would be shocking. Please consider this proposal.
Thanks,
Phil aka the Ass Man
Nowhere is the debate of pure capitalism vs. socialism more played out than in the NFL. You can learn a lot about the two by paying attention to the economic side of the NFL. It’s very interesting. I’m a capitalist at heart, but my Bills make me favor socialism (at least in the NFL).
New England aggressively works its market and grows a new revenue stream that helps pay players in Cincinnati or Jacksonville, but are those franchises busting ass to work their markets too so that, league-wide, the total gross revenue generated remains the same or higher even in a down economy?
Yes, Cincy is. In fact you posted it on your own site.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/07/21/bengals-browns-lottery-deals-approved/#comments
Jacksonville so thanks large market teams for increasing the player pool so they have to spend more. What a help. Thanks Mr. Kraft.
Don’t worry!
We’ll all be okay, folks!
We’re fine, the NFL is fine!
EVERYONE is fine, because everyone’s a winner!!
You see, when the League starts really going totally under, the federal government* can just step in and take it over, and THEY* can be the ones who assume all of its debts!!
*By “federal government” I mean the Obama administration
*By “THEY” I mean you and I and our kids and our grandkids and their kids and grandkids…
Problem solved!
Checking account empty?!?
No problem!–just order more checks!!
P.S. Good to see the Patriots know how to “spread the wealth”!!
Florio didn’t write the article, Curran did. If you guys are going to bitch about an article, at least address your complaints to the writer of the article, and not blame Florio for it.
I like Citizen Strange’s idea about the JJ toilet paper. I’d get a lot of mileage out of that….
@Filbertkiwi71,
And if you’re going to b!tch about people who b!tch about articles that YOU think THEY think were written by Florio (when they’re really by Curran), at least address your complaints to people who have actually b!tched at Florio as if he had written the article.
For example…
ASS-MAN said,
“Mr. Florio,
I know you’re out there somewhere.”
Or, in other words:
“Mr. Florio,
I know you didn’t write THIS story…but…”
He then went on to suggest a poll. Never said a negative thing about MoFlo. Never even suggested or implied anything negative.
And nowhere else on this thread did anyone even MENTION Florio’s name…
So next time:
Read first. THEN react.
Dewey Axewound,
THanks man, you beat me to it. That guy must be some sort of clown. You the man tho.
New England, seriously, ditch the flying elvis. If the Patriots had not been successful this decade they would have ditched that back a few years ago and brought back the old logo.
The number of beer ads and car ads does not directly affect the NFL revenue stream since that money is already determined by the existing TV contract not by how the network makes its money back after paying for the NFL contract. It might arguably affect the next TV contract but that’s then not now. Also there are other advertisers than beer and cars for the networks to pursue.
The lottery thing is just about making more money not just trying to maintain revenue in “tough economic times”. I don’t think the NFL’ s income is hurting despite the recession.