For 93.75% of NFL teams, their season is over. Those 80,000-seat stadiums will be mostly empty until Taylor Swift’s tour visits. Group facilities, however, are another story. It will be buzzing with activity between now and September, as the NFL franchise looks to improve.
Once the free dealer opens, the money machine will spray harder and faster than ever in the NFL. The NFL’s salary cap will increase dramatically in 2023, from $208.2 million to an all-time record high of $224 million, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero.
The NFL reworks its media rights agreements in 2021, and new terms begin for the 2023 season. While television rights are constantly changing in many other North American sports with Diamond Sports Group – the company that owns Bally sports stations – seems to structure a bankruptcy agreementThe NFL is bringing in money like “Push it to the limit” playing in the background.
The 17th game the NFL adds in 2021 is another big step toward Roger Goodell’s goal of the league generating $25 billion in revenue. However, for all the wear and tear of this longer season that has just seen the San Francisco 49ers have to play a quarterback in the knockouts, who is incapable of throwing the ball down the field, approx. $22 million increase in space cap would appear like overtime pay as opposed to true revenue share.
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The 2011 lockout
Back in 2011, before franchise valuations went on a space shuttle launch, NBA and NFL ownership were on a mission. They wanted to flip the way that revenue was split back in their favor. At that time, players were taking home close to 60 percent of revenue in both sports. The owners locked the players out in both leagues prior to the start of the season that year.
The NFL lockout did not last into the regular season, and how much did the owners shift the revenue split back in their favor? When the NFL and NFLPA signed their newest agreement in 2020, the players getting 48.5 percent was an “ increase,” with an additional game added to the schedule.
So yes, contracts for stars will continue to set new records. In addition, the minimum wage will increase slightly and some mid-level veterans will get to play longer with more respectable pay.
But we just saw a player almost die on the football field a few weeks ago. Damar Hamlin played two NFL seasons and didn’t make a million dollars in either season. Arrive eligible for any post-career health care or pension eligibility, NFL players must play for a minimum of three years. During the 2020 CBA negotiations, lifetime health care was someone who doesn’t start.
It’s great that Hamlin can walk and talk, but what will his financial future look like? None of us know what kind of care he will need in the future. Doctors in The New York Times story about urgent work made to save his life said he is looking at it weekly and monthly for recovery, not recovery. They also said nothing about his return to the football field.
The NFL has done what many industries have done since the 1980s, which is a much larger share of the profits. They do this according to the whole theory of “the high tide lifts all the boats”. If the company is worth more and makes more money, then the employees are better off in the long run.
Some NFL workers are sure to have a better life this spring as the music of the day at NFL facilities will be contract negotiations. Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are about to set a new record, while a new batch of fixed-wage rookies will take over the jobs of other veteran players.
There’s going to be a lot of money in the pot in 2023. Fans will be well informed as to where that over $20 million is going in the coming months. But the cap is going up because the NFL is making more than $20 million per team. Remember to think about it when the quarterbacks get new contracts and also when the SoFi stadium is sold out when Taylor Swift arrives in town.
