Roger Goodell Archives

Tag: <span>Roger Goodell</span>

NFL’s games in Brazil, Europe are key to more…

6 September 2024
by admin

The National Football League kicks off its first-ever game in South America on Friday night, as the league pushes to grow its footprint overseas.

As the NFL enters the Southern Hemisphere, professional football has never been stronger financially. Last season, the league pulled in $13 billion in revenue, and the average team is worth about $6.5 billion, according to CNBC’s Official NFL Team Valuations.

But as the league tries to sustain its growth, international markets are a priority.

Ahead of the league’s inaugural game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the league aims to become an international sports property. This season, the NFL will play five games abroad in Europe and South America. By next season, the league will play eight games overseas.

“The reality is, when we bring our brand of our regular season games here, it creates a whole new environment,” Goodell said. “It creates a spark and everything seems to really take off after that point in time,” he added.

Goodell said it has been a learning process playing games abroad, as the league sees how players handle long flights and different time zones.

“When [the players] get back to their home cities tomorrow, they’ll be on a similar time zone, and eight days before their next game,” Goodell said. Brazil is one hour ahead of the Eastern time zone but an 11-hour trip. “This is all part of learning how many games we can play,” Goodell said.

As the NFL plays in places such as London, Germany and Brazil, it not only creates new fans, but it also helps grow sponsorship opportunities and deepen the league’s relationships with international media partners.

The league had two sponsorship deals in Germany before it played games there starting in 2022. Today, the NFL has 15 agreements.

The league has also allowed teams to build brand awareness and fans abroad through its Global Markets Program.

This program, currently in its third year, gives teams marketing rights in other countries. This season, 25 franchises are participating in the program across 19 international markets.

Among the deals, the Miami Dolphins have marketing rights in Argentina and Colombia; the Los Angeles Rams have rights in South Korea and Japan; and the Seattle Seahawks have rights in Canada and are expanding to Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Goodell also spoke to CNBC about the NFL’s current media rights landscape, and said the addition of streaming options has benefited the league and its fans.

The NFL has broadcast deals with Fox, Disney’s ESPN and ABC, NBCUniversal and CBS, in addition to streamers YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Peacock, all worth an estimated $11.4 billion in 2024. Some games are streaming exclusive, including Friday’s matchup in Brazil, which will air on NBC’s Peacock platform.

“The bottom line is you have to go where your fans are and our fans are moving onto steaming platforms,” he said.

Yet, Goodell said 85% of NFL games are still available on broadcast television.

“We really think that our policy are really beneficial to our growth, to supporting more people watching NFL football and the fans’ enjoyment of it,” he added.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

Science & Environment

Soaring sports team values create new pressure for owners…

3 September 2024
by admin

A detail view of a NFL shield logo paint of the field during a preseason game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium on August 24, 2024 in Houston, Texas.

Ric Tapia | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

Sports team owners benefiting from soaring team values are also facing new pressure from two of the oldest certainties in American wealth: death and taxes.

With the average age of team owners rising, and team values skyrocketing into the billions, owners and leagues are increasingly focused on how to insure smooth ownership transitions to the next generation of buyers. While today’s owners have highly sophisticated tax and succession plans, even the best plans can blow up over family disputes or unexpected tax changes.

“The people who bought sports teams a long time ago have now found that a large portion, if not a vast majority, of their long-term estate is now the value of the team,” said Stephen Amdur, co-leader of mergers and acquisitions and private equity practices at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, who advises many billionaire team owners. “They’re thinking a lot about who is going to hold it for the next generation and what they’re going to do with it.”

Succession and taxes have become especially important in the National Football League, where the average age of team owners is now over 72 and team values are all surging. CNBC’s Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations list, ranking all 32 professional franchises, will be released Thursday.

NFL owners face one of two painful choices: They can sell the team while they’re alive, which can create massive capital gains tax bills, or they can pass the team to their families, which can trigger estate taxes or prolonged family battles for control.

Former Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen created a detailed succession and tax plan for the team a decade before his death in 2019. Yet a bitter dispute among family members, both before and after he died, led the team to be sold in 2022 to Walmart heir Rob Walton for $4.65 billion.

Then-owner Bud Adams of the Tennessee Titans signs autographs during a preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings at LP Field on August 13, 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Grant Halverson | Getty Images

Tennessee Titans founder Bud Adams, who died in October 2013, had divided ownership of the team among three branches of his family, which he thought would keep the peace. Instead, the split created a highly public battle over control, leading to an eventual deal within the family. Amy Adams Strunk, Bud’s daughter, is now controlling owner of the team.

Longtime New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson touched off years of litigation when he removed his daughter and two grandchildren from his estate and passed ownership of the NFL team and the National Basketball Association’s New Orleans Pelicans to his wife Gayle when he died in 2018. She still maintains control of the Saints.

Then-New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson and his wife Gayle before a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on August 26, 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

And perhaps the most poignant cautionary tale in the NFL is the legendary Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie, who left the team to his wife and nine children at the time of his death in 1990. A family feud and estate taxes of more than $45 million forced the family to sell a majority of the team in 1994.

Under current U.S. tax law, estates over $13.6 million for individuals or $27.2 million for couples are subject to a tax of 40%. Since teams in the NFL and NBA are now worth billions, all team owners could potentially be subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes without proper planning.

Another wrinkle: It’s unclear whether the estate tax rates would change in 2025, when the current levels are set to expire. So owners have to be planning for the potential for more punitive estate taxes in the coming years.

Trust and estate attorneys say today’s team owners have a much broader array of tools at their disposal to minimize the tax impact of succession. One of the most popular is the family limited partnership, which makes family members minority stakeholders and leaves the primary owner, as the general partner, with control. By dividing up ownership, the partnership can lower the value of assets (and therefore of the taxable estate) of the general partner.

Owners can also split ownership among family members through individual trusts, as Chicago Bears owner George “Papa Bear” Halas Sr. did with his 13 grandchildren. They can also transfer an interest in the team into an irrevocable trust through a partnership or an LLC.

Chicago Bears coach George Halas watches his team play the Los Angeles Rams in the Coliseum on Nov. 2, 1958.

Bettmann | Getty Images

“Owners are spending more time on the front end thinking about long-term estate planning to ensure as tax-efficient an outcome as possible,” Amdur said.

That’s assuming the team stays in the family, of course. While owners often hope to pass their passion and financial commitment to a team on to their children, the next generations often have different interests or financial goals, which could mean offloading some team ownership.

And there’s now a fresh pool of prospective buyers.

The NFL last week voted to allow select private equity firms to buy minority stakes in teams, giving owners and their families a chance to draw down cash that they could then reinvest in their teams or invest in nonsports assets to better diversify – all while keeping control.

“I think it’s an appropriate thing to give the teams that liquidity to reinvest in the game and to their teams,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in making the announcement.

Science & Environment

NFL owners vote in favor of private equity investment;…

28 August 2024
by admin

NFL nears private equity approval: Here's what's at stake

The NFL’s most exclusive club just let in new members.

At a special league meeting in Eagan, Minnesota, on Tuesday, National Football League owners voted in favor of allowing select private equity firms to buy up to a 10% stake of a team. Each fund or consortium will be able to do deals with up to six teams.

The vote passed with support from 31 of the 32 franchise owners. Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown voted against the measure, according to a person familiar with the vote.

Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt led the special committee on ownership policy. He told CNBC’s Jim Cramer after the vote that the NFL has been considering such a move for upwards of 5 years and felt it was the right time for the league — though he acknowledged the 10% cap amounted to “baby steps.”

“The capital will be very helpful to teams as they look to grow their business and improve the fan experience,” Hunt said.

The initial approved firms include Ares Management, Sixth Street Partners and Arctos Partners, in addition to a consortium nicknamed “The Avengers” that includes Dynasty Equity, Blackstone, Carlyle Group, CVC Capital Partners and Ludis, a platform founded by investor and former NFL running back Curtis Martin.

The firms collectively have $2 trillion in assets and intend to commit $12 billion of capital to be raised (inclusive of leverage) over time, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified to speak about terms that were not public. With at least four investor groups able to invest in up to six teams each, that works out to $500 million of added capital on average for each team that receives an investment.

According to the terms of the proposal, the minimum hold period for these funds will be six years.

“We thought it’s an opportunity for us to really change how some of the ownership groups have real problems with the illiquidity, they have big families and have to solve a lot of problems that are not usual,” New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “And so we thought this was a great source of capital and could be done in a way that was very functional and wouldn’t affect the operation.”

Robert Kraft on new NFL PE rules: Allows us to grow and build our asset

Pending final approval, Arctos, one of the approved firms, would be the only firm approved to invest in equity across each of the five most popular major North American sports leagues.

“We are honored to be among the first private investment firms being considered by the National Football League as potential partners for their clubs and owners,” Arctos said in a statement. “[We] look forward to contributing to the League’s continued success.”

Ares said in a statement it was honored to be able to invest in “iconic football franchises.”

“The NFL has long engendered deeply loyal fanbases, innovative approaches to media and some of the most viewed and highest valued sports franchises in the world. We are excited for the opportunity to support the continued growth of NFL teams through Ares’ extensive investment experience and strong relationship networks in the sports, media and entertainment sector,” the firm said.

The investing consortium of Blackstone, Carlyle, CVC, Dynasty Equity and Ludis said in a statement: “We are pleased to have secured this provisional approval following the NFL’s thoughtful and robust process, and welcome the potential opportunity to partner with the league.”

Private equity in sports

The approval Tuesday comes after years of discussion.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC in July that the league had seen tremendous interest from private equity.

The league created a committee last September to look at the possibility of welcoming private equity funding and has been meeting with the selected firms more recently.

The NFL is the last major sports league to allow private equity investment, and it’s still treading lightly on the issue by allowing only a select group to participate and at a lower rate than the other professional sports leagues.

The National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer all allow private equity ownership of up to 30%.

Goodell told CNBC in July that he believes the 10% is a complement to the existing ownership structure and that the percentage could be raised at some point in the future.

As NFL team valuations rise, it’s meant a smaller pool of owners have the money to foot the price tag when teams become available.

That dynamic was on display during the sale of the Washington Commanders last year. The franchise sold for a record $6.05 billion to an ownership group that included Apollo co-founder Josh Harris and 20 other investors.

Harris said in June that the process “created a little bit of a wake-up call at the NFL.”

“Unless you’re one of the wealthiest 50 people [in the world], writing a $5 billion equity check is pretty hard for anyone,” Harris told CNBC at the CNBC CEO Council Summit at the time.

As the NFL opens its doors to fresh capital, the money will also free up funding for new stadiums and related projects.

“It will give teams who are considering new or renovated stadiums access to a capital pool they haven’t had access to in the past,” Hunt said.

The Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans are both currently in the process of building new stadiums, while the Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders are actively pursuing new stadiums in the future.

— CNBC’s Jake Piazza contributed to this report.

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Science & Environment

The NFL is open to private equity team ownership…

11 July 2024
by admin

Roger Goodell, Commissioner of the National Football League, after the morning session at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 10, 2024.

Kevork Djansezian | Getty Images

The National Football League is considering allowing minority private equity ownership for its 32 teams of up to 10%, Commissioner Roger Goodell said in an exclusive CNBC interview Thursday.

“As sports evolve, we want to make sure our policies reflect that,” Goodell said in an interview with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin at Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley Conference. “We’ve had a tremendous amount of interest [from private equity firms], and we believe this could make sense for us in a limited fashion, probably no more than 10% of a team. That would be something we think could complement our ownership and support our ownership policies.”

The NFL hopes to set its new ownership policies by the end of the year, Goodell said. The 10% cap would be a starting point, and the league is open to raising it in time, he said.

While other major U.S. sports leagues, including the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and Major League Soccer all allow private equity ownership of up to 30%, the NFL has resisted taking money from institutional funds, such as private equity, preferring limited partners to be individuals or families.

WATCH: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell discusses ownership policies, international expansion

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But franchise valuations have steadily risen as the NFL has signed lucrative media deals, meaning fewer people can afford team ownership. In 2023, Josh Harris, co-founder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management, headed a group that paid $6.05 billion for the Washington Commanders — the most money ever spent on a U.S. professional sports franchise.

“Unless you’re one of the wealthiest 50 people [in the world], writing a $5 billion equity check is pretty hard for anyone,” Harris told CNBC “Squawk Box” co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin at the CNBC CEO Council Summit in Washington, D.C., last month.

Harris tapped 20 people to help raise money for his bid, including former NBA superstar Magic Johnson; former Google CEO Eric Schmidt; and David Blitzer, the Blackstone Group senior executive who previously partnered with Harris to buy the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.

“Raising that amount of capital was unique; it had never been done before,” Harris said. “I think it may be leading to some rethink into the consideration of letting private equity, as an example, or institutional investors into the NFL.”

The National Women’s Soccer League allows private equity firms to take majority control of franchise teams, unlike the other U.S. professional sports leagues. Private equity incentives around reaching investment targets and exit thresholds could alter the motivations for ownership in ways that make the bigger sports leagues uncomfortable.

Minority stakes typically come with little or no decision-making power on the team. That is likely comforting to the NFL if it allows private equity investors, but it has also limited the number of individuals interested in taking smaller stakes in teams.

“These people are really rich and successful. They’re used to being the center of the universe. And now you go, I need a quarter of a billion dollars. Fantastic, what do I get? Nothing,” Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics, told ESPN in May. “Do you have any control? Any role? No, you’re passive investors. You’ll get your name on a website somewhere or something and you get to tell people I own a piece of an NFL team.”

Private equity firms, tasked with finding investment vehicles to make returns on their assets under management, may be better suited to minority ownership.

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Science & Environment

Netflix hunts for a production partner for its Christmas…

13 June 2024
by admin

Brock Purdy #13 of the San Francisco 49ers prepares to take a snap in the first quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs0 during Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium on February 11, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Michael Reaves | Getty Images

Netflix is trying to get ready for some football.

The streaming giant has been reaching out to broadcasters this week in the hopes of finding a partner to produce the NFL games it will air on Christmas Day this year, according to people familiar with the matter. Netflix will show two games on Christmas Day this year, followed by at least one matchup in both 2025 and 2026, the company announced last month.

This is Netflix’s first real foray into traditional live sports, driven by the company’s ambitions to grow its advertising tier. The company signed a deal earlier this year with WWE to be the home for its live “Raw” events, but Netflix dubbed that deal as “sports entertainment.” Unlike WWE, Netflix’s deal for Christmas NFL games doesn’t come with a full production team. That’s left the streamer looking for help.

Netflix has been in touch with the broadcasters that currently air NFL games, including Disney’s ESPN, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Paramount Global’s CBS Sports, said the people familiar, who asked not to be named because the discussions have been private. Disney won’t produce the games because it already has college football obligations the same day, two of the people said.

In-depth discussions haven’t begun with the other broadcasters, but Netflix’s options may be somewhat limited.

Fox and CBS Sports already produce various games in different regions each week, which could make taking on additional games for Netflix a burden, some of the people said.

There’s also competition to consider.

Amazon inked a deal with NBCUniversal to produce its NFL games before its first season of “Thursday Night Football” in 2022, but there may be more resistance among current NFL partners to help out Netflix, according to people familiar with the matter. That’s because Netflix could be auditioning as a future long-term media rights partner for NFL games in place of a legacy media company, such as Paramount, Fox or NBC.

The NFL has an out clause in its current media contracts that allows it to select new media partners after the 2029-30 season.

Representatives for Netflix, the NFL, NBCUniversal, CBS, ESPN and Fox declined to comment.

Welcoming Netflix

Netflix announced its entry into the NFL in mid-May ahead of its Upfront presentation, when it tried to woo advertisers for its burgeoning ad-supported platform. Netflix said last month it has reached 40 million global active users for its advertising tier, which costs $6.99 per month in the U.S. and debuted in November 2022.

In May, co-CEO Ted Sarandos told CNBC that the NFL was the right fit for Netflix because it matched the streamer’s event strategy — effectively allowing Netflix to own the day. Netflix will pay the NFL roughly $75 million per game, CNBC previously reported.

For the NFL, Netflix represents the chance to reach a global, younger audience. There’s also the potential to lay the groundwork for Netflix to become a future bidder on a larger package of games.

The NFL signed long-term deals in 2021 with Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Fox and Amazon for its five primary packages of games.

While there is some trepidation among current media partners to produce games for a potential rival, pressure from the league — and a hefty paycheck from Netflix — could convince broadcasters to strike a deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

“There aren’t that many players in the space who are capable of doing this at a level that you would want to trust when you’re launching as a new partner with a league as important as the NBA or the NFL,” said Shirin Malkani, co-chair of the sports industry group at law firm Perkins Coie, adding that the production side “can be a big hole for streaming partners.”

Netflix and the league are looking to mirror the partnership that Amazon’s Prime Video lined up with Comcast’s NBC Sports for “Thursday Night Football” games.

While NBC Sports’ Fred Gaudelli produced the 2022 season of “Thursday Night Football,” Amazon appointed Mark Teitelman, one of its own employees, to the role of lead game producer in 2023.

Amazon produces all of its pregame, halftime and postgame coverage, but NBC Sports handles the extensive production work that goes into an NFL game, and employs the vast majority of those workers.

Netflix is interested in finding a similar partner, according to people familiar with its plans.

If a deal can’t be made with one of the incumbents, Netflix could find other options with third-party producers. Endeavor Group Holdings’ IMG is the production partner for Major League Soccer, which is offered through Apple.

“It’s not easy to do an NFL game at a level that people are used to watching, which is a very high level and well produced,” said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Integrated Media, which specializes in digital media investment. “But there’s a number of options out there that can pull it together without [Netflix] having a fully staffed sports division.”

Shifting to streaming

Amazon Prime Video was the first streamer to obtain exclusive rights to NFL games as the league pushed to broaden its media partners and have more streaming offerings to widen its audience.

Amazon reached its deal to carry “Thursday Night Football” in 2021 in conjunction with the rest of the media rights deals for the NFL — an 11-year media rights agreement worth over $100 billion, with an opt out clause at the seven-year mark.

Given the recent NBA media rights negotiations, which are beckoning top dollar from various media companies, many in and around the industry expect the NFL to exercise the clause and look for new partners.

Since the NFL has inked its deal, streaming services for Comcast, ESPN and Paramount have begun to simultaneously stream games, and in some cases, hosted games exclusively. Alphabet’s YouTube TV is also the new home of the “Sunday Ticket” package of games.

Sports, particularly the NFL, have been the glue holding the traditional TV bundle together — and have also proved to be a boost to streaming. NBCUniversal said in April its exclusive NFL wild-card game on Peacock helped to add, and then retain, more customers than expected.

The league has been vocal in its push to add more streaming partners in an effort to widen its audience.

That was the thinking behind the deal with Netflix to stream these Christmas Day games.

When the “Sunday Ticket” rights negotiations were underway, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC the longtime package offered only by DirecTV would move to streaming.

“I think that’s best for consumers at this stage,” Goodell said at the time.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

Tag: <span>Roger Goodell</span>

NFL’s games in Brazil, Europe are key to more…

Soaring sports team values create new pressure for owners…

NFL owners vote in favor of private equity investment;…

Private equity in sports

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

The NFL is open to private equity team ownership…

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO

Netflix hunts for a production partner for its Christmas…

Welcoming Netflix

Shifting to streaming

Don’t miss these exclusives from CNBC PRO