Written by: Vince Zipperer
Since 1920, the National Football League has been a prominent influence over the people of the United States. With 5 teams forming the initial establishment of the NFL, the Arizona Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and the New York Giants set up the first framework to a money-making machine. Now a 32-team league, the NFL has a net worth of $91.4 billion as a total of all of the teams, making it more valuable than Chick-Fil-A, Tesla, and Under Armour combined.
An ever expanding business, the NFL has been steadily growing since its startup in 1920. As shown below, the Dallas Cowboys, the NFL’s most valuable franchise, at $5.5 billion, has grown absurdly since 1989.
The graph by Forbes shows the dramatic increase in growth since 2000, with the average net worth of each franchise less than $1 billion, growing to $2.86 billion in 2019. This is more than 100% growth in a span of less than 20 years. This massive growth is largely due to television deals and an uptick in advertising. Dealing with 4 major television stations; ESPN, CBS, Fox, and NBC, the National Football League rakes in almost $5 billion from T.V. deals annually.Aside from the National Football League itself, football drives the U.S. economy in multiple other ways. First, is the world of Fantasy Football. Thousands of Americans participate in fantasy football leagues all across the country. With numerous ways to play; ranging from “freemium” sites to daily contests, sites such as ESPN, Yahoo, CBS Sports, DraftKings, and FanDuel benefit from the league and players through a website. Most free sites make their money off of advertising, but “freemium” sites allow consumers to enter leagues for free, but can pay a premium to upgrade to a more customized, consumer friendly option. Beyond the free sites, DraftKings and FanDuel charge entrance fees for weekly cash prizes, and amass enough profit for a seperate industry: fantasy football.
After ticket sales, television deals, concessions, and fantasy leagues, the National Football League gives an unexpected boost to grocery sales around the country. The Super Bowl, an annual game to crown one champion, provides a major boost for all grocers in the snack industries, coming in second to sales at Thanksgiving time. This makes Super Bowl Sunday more profitable for grocers than Christmas, Fourth of July, and Easter. After that, during the NFL’s 20+ week schedule, the price of chicken is driven up, along with the price of beef. The football season creates an increase in demand for chicken wings and beef, driving the price of both products up.
Clearly, the National Football League is an essential part of the American Economy. With effects reaching down to the price of chicken and beef, the NFL influences not just the economy, but the culture of the people of the United States. So, when you are taking in your favorite player or team on gameday, take some time to truly appreciate the economic influence that player or team has on your everyday life.
Works Cited
Gaines, Cork. “Jerry Jones Paid a Record $140 Million for the Dallas Cowboys - the Team Is Now Worth $4.8 Billion.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 26 Sept. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/jerry-jones-dallas-cowboys-purchase-price-2016-9.Kaplan, Daniel, and 2018 October 29. “NFL's TV Deals Hedge against Work Stoppage.” Sports Business Daily, www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2018/10/29/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/NFL-TV-deals.aspx. Pymnts. “NFL Football Spending Drives The US Economy.”
PYMNTS.com, PYMNTS 60 60 PYMNTS.com, 8 Sept. 2017, www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2017/nfl-football-ecommerce/.
good article zip
ReplyDeleteGood article Zip. I like that you tied in NFL into economics and it really caught my attention. It's very interesting that the Dallas Cowboys are worth over one billion dollars but they aren't even that good of a football team. I also never knew chicken and beef prices went up during the season. I will remember to buy pizza instead.
ReplyDeleteI found this article interesting because I never really had paid attention to the numerous ways that football moves money in America. The fantasy side of things makes up for so much online betting and I had never thought about that aspect of it all.
ReplyDeleteLoved the numbers and statistics, it opened up my mind and let me compare.
ReplyDeleteAmerica's game is dominating entertainment and economics. The NFL is what everyone looks forward to in the fall and it will continue to dominate TV ratings along with college football. There has been inquiry that ratings will go down due to rule changes and how they affect the game, but football will always be a prime time entertainment powerhouse.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to think about how deep the NFL really goes in influencing the American economy that it even goes down to the price of chicken wings and beef. This article did a good job of breaking down a few aspects of the economic impact of the NFL.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting to see that actual stats of the economic impact that the NFL has. The growth the franchise has had in the last 20 years being over 100% is crazy! I'd also never considered the other effects that football has besides the tickets and TV deals. How much money fantasy football brings to the table is a large amount and what was most surprising to me was the effect that the Superbowl had on grocery stores. It makes sense though with all the parties and snacks and meals that people make. It's interesting to see how much economic influence these players and teams have on the US.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to think about all of the different industries that the NFL affects. I never thought about how many people would buy food for parties and stuff on Sunday.
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