In a Wednesday conference call with national media, which followed a face-to-face meeting with local media, Packers CEO Mark Murphy explained that the team’s player costs are rising at twice the rate that revenue is increasing.
Murphy said that, since the current labor agreement was reached in 2006, player costs have risen at an average rate of 11.8 percent annually, with revenue increasing at only 5.5 percent per year.
As to the $22 million increase in player costs over the past year and a $10 million increase in revenue, Murphy attributed the increase to the “maturation of the roster” and the signing of several players, like receiver Greg Jennings.
Still, Murphy calls the current player compensation system a “non-sustainable model.”
As to the current year, during which the model includes no salary cap or salary floor, Murphy said that the Packers are “operating under a budget and trying to be disciplined.” Murphy later added that the team included “a little bit of growth” in this year’s player salary budget.
The potential problem for the league is that possibly too many teams are “operating under a budget and trying to be disciplined,” which could inevitably lead to a claim that multiple teams are colluding when it comes to player expenses.