NFL not immune from struggling economy

The NFL brings in the most revenue of all of the four major sports in the U.S. However, even Roger Goodell and company have not been able to avoid the economic woes which have plagued the nation over the last few years.

One of the biggest ways that NFL teams bring in money is by selling the naming rights of the stadiums they play in to a large corporation for an absurd sum of money. But recently, even that has not been a guarantee for some teams. Los Angeles has been trying to build a stadium for the last 15 years so they could lure a team back to town, but plans have stalled now in part because no corporation will pay money to put their name on the stadium. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/agreement-gives-proposed-nfl-stadium-in-industry-a-boost.html

Jacksonville is struggling more so than any other franchise right now. The are one of lowest valued franchises in the league, they have the second lowest average ticket price, and have been unable to sell out the stadium this season. Their stadium is publicly owned, and does not have a name on it, which is a huge chunk of money that the Jaguars are lacking. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/sports/football/03jaguars.html

This habit of naming stadiums is in fact a fairly new concept. As of 1990, there were no baseball stadiums with corporate names; as of 2001, the majority of baseball, basketball, football and hockey arenas had sold their naming rights to large corporations (Leeds and Pistolet 584).

And while some may think that naming a stadium Heinz Field (thought you'd like that Prof. Burns), or the TD Bank Sports Center, the main reason is for the money. We cannot for get that sports are a business. Of course a franchise wants to win and be successful, but just as important and if not more important is the ability for that franchise to make money (Lavoie 162).

Do you wish that we could go back to the days where the communities took the brunt of the financial burden, and we would have more "Municipal Stadiums"? Do you think that there will ever be a situation, such as a tanking economy, where we will go back to a situation like that?

Whether you like having these named stadiums or not, it's impossible to ignore the financial impact that naming rights can have for a professional franchise.