GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – The Green Bay Packers released their financial records Friday for the previous season and they show a new record for revenue. This is coming off a difficult 2021 when NFL games were heavily impacted by the pandemic.
Team officials say their financial success is tied to winning games, and they say the league is in a strong position for the future.
“I think the league is at a very popular point, and we got great players. I’m happy to see them all performing well and getting contracts that they deserve, but I anticipate revenue will continue to grow as will player salaries,” Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy said.
The Packers are the only NFL team required to release its financial data because it’s a publicly-owned team. This latest report is for April 2021 through March 2022.
The Packers brought in $579 million in total national and local revenue. After $501.3 million in expenses, the team had $77.7 in operating profit.
Last year the team reported a $38.8 million loss on $371.1 million in revenue and $409.9 million in expenses.
Murphy says having a 17th extra season game and a primetime playoff game helped increase the team’s revenue.
“I think the fact that we won on a consistent basis certainly helps. I do think that the fact that we continue to invest in the stadium, in the game experience, that has served us well,” Murphy said.
Expenses also went up this year, however. Murphy says the pandemic season pushed a lot of player negotiations to this year. He said they renegotiated a lot of player contracts. “The Players Association wanted to preserve salaries during the pandemic, so they pushed some of the collectively bargained, like bonus performance pay for players, wanted to make sure we didn’t cut salary,” Murphy said. “We did a lot of things we wouldn’t have done if it wasn’t for the pandemic.”
The Packers say salaries are their biggest expense, and they don’t see expenses going down, but revenue continues to grow.
Murphy said sponsorships went up, which he credited to “pent-up demand,” and the NFL has signed long-term deals that kick in next year.
“I give [NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell] and the league office credit. They’re very creative in terms of growing revenue. For instance the Amazon package, the Thursday night package,” said Murphy.
The team added 177,000 shareholders with its latest stock sale, which ended in February. It now has 539,000 shareholders worldwide. Murphy anticipates doing a stock sale every 10 to 15 years for new generations of fans.
The team grossed $64.7 million from that sale of shares. That isn’t considered revenue but will help pay for new video boards, new concessions and a new dining space.
The team says it invested $467 million in capital improvements since 2011, including the scoreboard, sound system, and renovated suites. The new video boards will push that to $600 million.
The Packers plan to install those video scoreboards next year. They will be the same height as the current ones but much wider.
Team officials add that inflation and supply chain issues haven’t impacted those projects.
“Our timing has been good, and I think we have enough lead time we feel like we can get everything in time, all the projects finished up,” said Murphy.
The Packers Pro Shop at Lambeau Field also had its best year ever. That, too, is credited with pent-up demand in the pandemic and the sale of historian Cliff Christl’s book.
Copyright 2022 WBAY. All rights reserved.
