American football is really only watched and consumed with passion in the U.S. and Canada, but that hasn’t stopped the teams from becoming some of the most valuable sports franchises in the world. The Dallas Cowboys, for instance, topped Forbes’ 2024 list with a $10.1 billion valuation. On top of that, NFL teams made up 60 percent of the top 20 on that list.
Advertisement
Considering that the lion’s share of viewership comes from North America, commissioner Roger Goodell and the rest of the team owners are doing their darnedest to change that. The NFL International Series has been expanding every year, with the league now hosting games across several European countries as well as in South America. Australia is set to join the fold in 2026. And all of that has contributed to the league posting a record $23 billion in revenue for the 2024 fiscal year.
That means a $416 million distribution for each team “from the league’s national media, sponsorship, and licensing revenue.” That’s a massive 8.9 percent increase over the previous year’s returns.
NFL CFO Christine Dorfler cautioned that sustaining growth at that pace would be difficult. However, she’s likely just trying to manage expectations. New media rights contracts and the possibility of an 18-game regular season are likely to continue the league’s financial growth.
In fact, Goodell’s $25 billion prediction made way back in 2010 seems very much on the table with the way the league is progressing financially. However, these massive levels of revenue for execs and NFL owners have many fans on Reddit wondering about how “they have the audacity to ask taxpayers to pay for their stadiums.”
Despite hoarding wealth that ranges from just over $1 billion to over $113 billion, NFL owners continue to gouge taxpayers in their team’s cities to pay the lion’s share when the bill on a new stadium comes due. Shad Khan and the Jacksonville Jaguars, for example, had the city cover 55 percent of the financing on the approved plans for a ‘stadium of the future.’
Even with the dire financial situation facing many hard-working middle- and lower-class Americans, they’re still being asked to foot the bill for billionaire owners who continue to see record profits from these cash cows. The financial advantages for hosting sporting events or pro sports teams have long been exaggerated as well.
As one frustrated Reddit user put it harshly—but correctly: people “still quote how good teams and stadiums are for the economy when it’s been proven for decades it’s a pretty egregious waste of money. For all sports, Olympics, etc. It’s just a way for billionaires to trick rubes into giving them money.”
“$23B but taxpayers in Ohio have to pony up $350M for the Bengals in stadium renovations,” another chimed in, while this netizen quipped, “fans should start getting a cut too.”
Football fans love having an NFL team in their city, but at what cost? If they’re already paying out the wazoo for eternally rising ticket prices, ridiculously priced stadium concessions, and expensive merchandise, why should they be paying again—and even more—to help fund the building of a stadium?
Billionaires hoarding their wealth and raking in massive NFL revenues, while asking regular people living paycheck to paycheck to fund their football cathedrals, just doesn’t sit right.
