Photo Courtesy of NFL
Roger Goodell’s job of running the high-powered NFL offense looks a lot more secure this week.
The controversial league commissioner, who’s presided over the “Deflategate” cheating issues and a string of domestic abuse scandals, hit the jackpot for his bosses – the team owners – in 2014, helping boost team revenue to $7.3 billion.
That’s up by $1.3 billion, a 21% increase over the year prior, according to a Bloomberg report on new financial records released by the publicly held Green Bay Packers on Monday. Goodell has said he intends to hit $25 billion by 2027.
The report revealed that the Packers, along with the league’s other teams, will receive an extra $38.7 million this year thanks to TV licensing revenue pouring in from all quarters.
Broadcast networks CBS, Fox and NBC all paid huge increases to the league to keep their ratings buoyant.
The league also derives revenue from NFL Network, NFL.com, sponsorships and merchandise sales. Its other partners include DirecTV and Verizon, and other online outlets such as Yahoo! are kicking off NFL coverage.
The 32 teams share equally in the league revenue, with each team receiving $226.4 million.
The Packers are owned by hundreds of thousands of shareholders, who don’t trade the shares or take dividends. They can sell them only back to the team.
The league office has said it will shed its nonprofit status, but it will make little difference to its tax filings, since its revenue flows mainly to its teams’ members.