The National Football League season is about ready to get underway and it seems it is probably a good time to see how the league is doing. Financially? Seems the money keeps rolling in from TV from stadium revenue and corporate support is not a problem despite all of the difficulties the league has faced over the past few years from players getting arrested for various crimes to owners getting arrested for drug usage and paying a massive fine for defrauding vendors at a non-NFL business.
The player pipeline from youth football to the NFL is in good shape as the amount of kids playing high school football stabilized and neatly the same number of children were on high school football fields in the last two calendar years. Fans still hate Commissioner Roger Goodell even though they are not sure why they should hate him.
The league will continue playing in London and is beefing up the league’s presence in the city and there is a plan to play a game in Mexico. The league is still trying to figure out whether the NFL brand is big enough to play a pre-season game in China or maybe a regular season game. The NFL has found out in the past that the NFL brand means nothing in China as two pre-season games in 2007 and 2009 were scrubbed.
The league is back in Los Angeles after a two-decade absence after Stan Kroenke moved his St. Louis Rams back to LA. There are two problem franchises, Oakland and San Diego as those team owners are looking for new stadiums, San Diego has a stadium referendum scheduled for November 8, and Mark Davis is trying to get a stadium in Las Vegas.
It seems Oakland has no interest in putting up more public money to satisfy the Davis family’s stadium needs. But the league is doing rather well heading into next week’s opening games.
By Evan Weiner For The Politics Of Sports Business.
This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, Evan Weiner.