Clayton: Packers 2020 financials could impact Broncos ownership plans

On Friday, the Green Bay Packers published their 2020 financial statement.

No other team does that because owners don’t want anyone outside the organization knowing how much profit teams make. But the Packers are a publicly owned team, so they want their shareholders to know where they stand financially.

The Packers numbers give some guidance as to where the rest of the league stands. Because of having few or no fans in the stands in 2020, this year’s statement has even more meaning.

Studying the Packers, numbers you can see the NFL lost roughly $4 billion of revenue last year. That’s roughly $125 million per team.

Players got 48 percent of the revenue in 2019 and 2020. Next year, because of the addition of a 17th game, the percentage goes up to 48.5 percent.

Overall, net income for the Packers dropped $38.8 million. National revenue from television, sponsorship and sales rose to $309.2 million from $274.293 million.

The big drop was in local revenue. The Packers, like a majority of the teams, didn’t have fans in the stands. Their local revenue fell from $203.65 million in 2019 to $61.8 million in ’20, a staggering loss.

The increase in TV revenue didn’t make up for the for the increased costs of running a franchise.

Expenses for the Packers in 2019 were $477.219 million. Last year expenses were at $409.8 million, hence the big loss for last year.

With the Pat Bowlen family having the franchise’s ownership lawsuit dismissed, it will be interesting to see how the last year’s lost revenue plays into the resolution. Will it stay in the family or will the team be up for sale?

No one knows at this stage, but these numbers could impact that answer.