National Football League

Official says NFL may lose $1 billion

Published Oct. 12, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Even as the NFL romps through a season of record television ratings, the owners, and some of the league's key sponsors and corporate partners, are bracing for what could be an expensive and debilitating player lockout next spring, The Wall Street Journal reported in its Wednesday edition.

In a private meeting Tuesday at the league's annual fall owners' meeting, NFL officials presented a sobering financial forecast.

According to two senior league officials who have seen the report, it stated that the lack of progress on a new contract with the players' union had already begun to create financial losses — and that even if a deal were reached late next summer that allowed the league to play the entire season, total losses could reach $1 billion.

Reebok, the league's top merchandising licensee, has already requested a $30 million reduction in its scheduled payments because of the labor uncertainty, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. A Reebok spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment.

If there's no deal in place by March 1, the NFL report said the league could expect to lose $125 million as existing corporate partners demanded discounts on sponsorship deals and others decided not to sponsor late-season events like the Pro Bowl.

The report said owners could expect to lose $400 million in March alone, the prime month for fans to renew their season tickets and for the league to organize games abroad.

From April through August, the report said losses from a labor deadlock would climb by an additional $500 million as preseason games are missed. NFL officials said each team could expect to lose about $8 million for every canceled home game.

Given the immediate losses and the potential for more in the near future, NFL officials said that if the league can't agree with the players on a new collective-bargaining agreement soon, the league's future proposals to the union are likely to get worse rather than better.

"In any negotiation, when there are less revenues on the table, the proposal gets worse for everybody," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in an interview Monday.