New Evidence the Green Bay Packers Don’t Handle Losing Well By Erik Lambert - July 14th, 2019
The Green Bay Packers have always loved to flaunt the fact they’re a publicly-owned football team. The only one in existence. Nobody has bothered to point out how delicate a balance that can create for a franchise in terms of money. Unlike other teams who have billionaire owners with their finances often backed by other businesses, such is not the case for the Packers. This explains why the team endured one of its worst revenue returns in a long time.
Yahoo Sports reported that the 2018 season did not yield the results the Packers had grown used to. Not just with their inability to make the playoffs for the second-straight year, but also the drastic plummet of their annual profits. How drastic? It went from an eight-digit number in 2017 to a six-digit number last year. Suffice to say it was not the result the Chicago Bears rival was looking for.
fake news... Gross income increased by 5.4 percent. Profit plummeted due to several factors: 1. Signing Rodgers to a new contract. 2. Being active in FA for the first time ever, signing the Smiths, Amos and Billy Turner. 3. Hiring a new coach (and still paying tubby his full salary). 4. The team’s obligations to the concussion liability reserve, which funds the legal settlement being drawn upon by former players. 5. Work is continuing on Lambeau Field as well, with a multi-year concourse renovation and the large renovation west of the stadium. Local revenue for the Packers grew by $4.7 million (2.3%), with bigger boosts expected down the line. A second straight non-playoff season had an effect on local revenue growth, Murphy said, and the organization is continuing to invest in the Titletown development across the street from the stadium.
From Murphy: “If you exclude the coaching transition as well as the settlement provision, our operating profit would have been comparable to previous years. ”Including development partners, the total investment to date in Titletown is roughly $170 million, with construction on Phase 2 featuring office and residential buildings underway. “We’re at a point now where the expenses exceed the revenue with Titletown because it’s starting, it’s not fully running yet,” Murphy said. “But we view it as a community asset and we expect over the long term to have a responsible rate of return.”