The sports world is well aware that the NFL made a bunch of money in 2021, but the Green Bay Packers’ year-end financials release on Friday gave a glimpse into the massive amount of cash the league is raking in.
Since the Packers are a publicly owned franchise that has 539,000 shareholders, they are the only organization in the league that must legally disclose their financials each year. Friday offered up the team’s annual reveal of how they did in the 12-month period that ended in March 2022. And unsurprisingly, the legendary franchise did well. They did, very well.
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Like many organizations, Green Bay lost a boatload of cash in 2020 due to the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 they posted a $38.8 million loss and just $371 million in revenue. A poultry number for a franchise in the most popular sport in the most lucrative entertainment market on earth.
Green Bay Packers post $77.7 million in operating profit
As expected, 2021 saw the organization roar back in a major way with fans back in attendance and COVID restrictions mostly gone last fall and winter. Sports Business Journal reported the organization’s financial info dump and in 2021 the Packers pulled in $579 million in revenue and $77.7 million in operating profit. Operating profit is the total income a company generates from sales after paying off all its operating expenses.
Not only is it a notable increase on what they made last year, but it is actually over $70 million more in revenue than they earned in 2019 before the pandemic began. Three years ago, the Packers had $507 million in disclosed revenue and $70.3 in operating profit.
Much of the revenue comes from a 12% gain in the revenue split equally throughout the NFL. The league’s 32 teams shared $11.1 billion in television and sponsorship revenue last season or $347.3 million per team.
“The other thing that contributed to the increase was the 17th regular season game,” Packers CEO and President Mark Murphy said on the increase in the year-end financials. “And then there was an extra playoff game in primetime this year. And … then kind of a little bit of pent-up demand from the pandemic in terms of the sponsorships.”
The Packers are in the early stages of NFL training camp, which start this week.