NFL: Economics Affect the Big Guys

Economic distress in the United States is effecting even its most profitable leagues.  The NFL has seen sponsors dial back at the Superbowl and tickets drop and stay static in some venues for the 2009 season.

Even the Superbowl saw a price decrease for the first time in a long time.

The loss of the big three automakers advertising has hurt a number of sports, but it was very noticeable during the Super Bowl.  Without GM, Ford and Chrysler one will have to wonder how the leagues will adjust.

Often in life sports have been one of the dependable things that pulled the public away from daily troubles.  But during the depression all pro leagues saw teams move, or cease to exist. 

Sports teams are businesses no different from many others, they rely on their consumers to keep buying what they are selling.  According to Matt Powell at SportsOneSource suggested that the league merchandise sales are down 15 percent from the previous year.

We will not know for sure until the next summer how the lost sponsors effect sports in general, the NFL is positioned to still be in good shape this coming year.  Of course being the top league in the country helps to mitigate it.

Should the economic fallout continue for another year it would not be unreasonable to see leagues to retrench from areas, teams in the NHL in the south will start to fold or move, the NBA has already seen one well established team move. 

Baseball, which has for the most part survived the steroid era, financially, have the advantage of big stadiums with low ticket costs and lots of games compared to others to balance against bad times.

Major League Soccer, which recently changed the way teams could hire players will have to continue its model of tight control if the league wants to continue to thrive as the lowest level of the larger leagues.

The league so far has done a reasonable job building  a marketable product while spending only what it could afford.  Other than David Beckham they have largely avoided the same trap of grabbing loads of name players for big dollars which caused the NASL to go under.

The NFL, still the model for the other leagues has a salary cap, marketable players and a league revenue sharing model which is the envy of other leagues.  With the audience for the Super Bowl still keeping solid there is little doubt that the big boys will continue to lead all other leagues.

So while they have made cut backs the NFL still appears to be in a strong position even in an economic downturn.