If you didn’t think the NFL was skeezy already, a report today by the Wall Street Journal states that the NFL owners used an accounting trick to hide $120 million of revenue from the NFL Players Association.
How you might ask. They classified “waived gate” revenue from the NFLPA as something they didn’t need to share even though they are required by the NFL collective bargaining agreement to share 40-percent of “local revenues” which ticket sales (gate) falls into with the players as well as 45-percent of league sponsorship revenue and 55-percent of media sponsorship revenue. The total of those three is then split in half, half going to the players as salary (this is how you get the salary cap figure) and the other half is pocketed by the owners.
Because the NFL owners withheld roughly $120 million of revenue of which the players are entitled to 40-percent of, the salary pool will go up by about $50 million total, or $1.6 million per team for the 2016 season.
The NFLPA noticed the discrepancy during this years routine audit. This discrepancy has gone on for three seasons. If the NFL gave a damn about their players they would have said something and given the players the correct amount of revenue sharing.
The NFLPA filed a grievance in court and an arbitrator ruled that the NFL had to hand over the cash and add it to the funds shared with the players.
The NFL Salary Cap for 2015 was just over $143 million per team and was projected to be about $154 million before this latest misdeed by the NFL came to light. Factoring in this cap expansion, the NFL players can expect a collective salary pool of about $4.9 billion dollars.
This is just another black eye for the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell. Why would anyone take this league at face value anymore, they haven’t given you any reason too for some time.
