This is kinda fascinating
As a lion fan forced to buy this premium product to follow one of nfls less premium product teams
Was always a head scratcher. Tax is for wanting to follow lions fans from
Out of state seems like an odd way to build and keep your fanbase.
“I had my own opinion that our production was below standards that the networks (Fox and CBS) had set. We had not met that standard,” he said.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, a member of the league’s media committee, was called to the stand after Goodell. Jones also defended the league’s broadcast model, even though if teams could sell their out-of-market rights separately, the Cowboys would be one of the top teams to benefit.
“I am convinced I would make a lot more money than the Bengals,” Jones said. “I’m completely against each team doing TV deals. It is flawed.”
Jones will continue his testimony on Tuesday. McManus is also expected to be called to the stand.
You’re an attorney so answer me this. Does the fact that some teams would make more than other teams even matter in an anti-trust matter? I feel like the root issue was that teams were colluding to wrangle more customer funds than they would with free market principles. Why would Jerry’s point help the defense? It seems like he’s basically acknowledging collusion but excusing it with the why.
You’re right. It’s basically an admission to horizontal price fixing.
The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that the teams are not a single entity:
If that same principle is applied to pay per view NFL games, the NFL should lose.
One wonders if such a loss could lead to a challenge to the salary cap and/or the draft itself. Potentially, it could become a free for all with large market teams being able to outbid smaller market teams. As you know, that’s what the system has been designed to prevent.
This is what they sold us
But is it really true ?
Jerry has wanted to win yet lost to bartolo and the packers. That was pre free agency stuff with the argument teams would outspend lesser markets also keeping teams from leaving those markets
Well it turns out
Imo
Much like any business
There’s a lot the rides on ownership being smart and wanting to win
Because
We still saw teams move
We still got plenty of accusations of playing favorites
Plus still had dynasty’s by the same teams
What it also did was protect an owner like Daniel Snyder who hid behind the shield while being terrible and not winning and in big market historic team but with no consequence for his bad ownership , money came in making it a great biz investment rather than demand smart decisions.
So I can help but ask
Were these unintended consequences by the owners or was this what they wanted all along ? Some owners want to win. Some just want a team.
Lions as a good example of
The salary cap uniquely hurting Lions for doing it right ( staff Calvin Suh )
But also show that smart ownership decisions can make the Lions small market team actually become one of the most popular nfl teams.
It’s hard to see Lions as the 30th valued franchise right now.
The NFL TV rights sharing is the best way for a major sports league to function. It provides a somewhat level playing field and allows Buffalo, Green Bay, and Cincinnati to compete with New York, LA, San Francisco and Dallas.
Franchise movement is a result of one of the areas that are not shared among NFL owners, stadium revenue.
The Rams, Raiders, and Chargers moved because their stadium deals were not competitive with the other teams in the NFL.
The Lions moved to Pontiac and back to Downtown Detroit for better stadium deals.
Revenue sharing does allow bad ownership groups to float and make millions because it is almost impossible to lose money owning an NFL franchise.
Owners don’t have to win to make money.
Owners don’t have to sell tickets to make money (profit is locked in with TV money alone).
The NFL manages a great majority of revenue generating operations.
Jerry Jones is trying to say he is leaving money on the table by having the league negotiate a uniform TV rights deal.
He is saying the uniform rights deal is not about maximizing revenue but for competitive balance.
I agree while at same time he has a vested interest in promoting that narrative too
While from
The inside seat at the table
He knew Daniel Snyder was a terrible owner
The choice to move is to chase money
The same as it would be without the salary cap
But imo it really would draw the curtains back on the owners revealing who really wants to win and be a smart franchise on the field
Because there’s people with deeper pockets who would buy WCF out or Snyder out or Bidwell
And Rams moving as example
Kroeneke did as much as he could to field a bad team to get out of lease and move to LA as much as anything else.
Revenue share is the way they chose
But that doesn’t mean it really is the best way.
Of course if you’re an owner who really wants to win
You probably don’t mind the WCF Snyder Bidwell type owners.
That’s my point.
The only way to make more money is to get a better stadium deal.
There is no huge incentive to winning.
If the teams shared stadium revenue also, there would be no incentive to move.
If you let each franchise function as an independent business without TV revenue sharing and a salary cap it would be incredible to watch.
Some teams would fail spectacularly.
A few teams would bully the rest of the league with payrolls 3 times as high as other teams. The Buffalo or Jacksonville would probably have to relocate to survive.
It would be like college football where there are only a few teams with a legitimate chance to win every year.
All the good players would be on 6 or 7 teams.
Or they could sell to owners with deeper pockets. And they’d try to outspend each other
With revenue share on tv they still move chasing money but now the reason is a stadium and who’ll putout for one
Or take Davis who could’ve sold to an Oakland group who would’ve kept raiders in Oakland, but he could make more moving it to Las Vegas and use the reasoning that Oakland the small market that didn’t support the team
“would be like college football where there are only a few teams with a legitimate chance to win every year.
All the good players would be on 6 or 7 teams.”
There’s some irony here when you think of nfl where hope is sold more than reality it’s not the same teams and same teams at the bottom most frequently