COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the bottom line of sports organizations globally. Empty stadiums are unusually tough on the bottom line, but the NFL set the bar in 2020 on making money in the midst of a worldwide epidemic. NFL teams enjoyed a reported average of a 7% increase in overall team value last year. So where did Dan Snyder’s Football Team rank financially amongst the other NFL franchises?
7. Washington Football Team
- Revenue: $504 million
- Operating Income: $135 million
- Current Value: $3.5 billion
The team made a huge move this summer by dumping its controversial moniker, leading to awkwardly call themselves the “Washington Football Team.” The team isn’t faring so well on the field, but even still, Washington managed to cruise to a half-billion dollars in revenue last year.
Seventh.
It’s unclear what the article’s defining factor for “richest” was exactly, as the listings don’t seem congruous with the team’s “current value”.
It seems safe to assume that this report was put together before the events of last week though.
Big Money Loan
You know, the event where the NFL gave Snyder a couple of Brinks truck loads of ‘money’ to buy out the disgruntled minority owners. It was reported that Snyder had received near on half a billion dollars from the NFL in debt waiver.
There’s probably some rich guy rhetoric about how a debt waiver isn’t a loan, but that’s what it seemed and sounded like.
“Disgruntled Minority Owners”
Characterized as disgruntled minority owners, it would seem that former partners Fred Smith, Robert Rothman, and Dwight Schar were more than just disgruntled. Their relationship with majority owner Snyder could be described as litigious at best. They wanted out badly.
The disgruntled minority owners owned a hair over 40% (40.8%) of the franchise. That’s a pretty large percentage to be painting the three men in an insignificant light.
READ MORE: 2021 Washington Football Team Free Agent Signings
It is unknown what the exact buyout price was, as that would ultimately reveal the actual valuation of the team. The amount was speculated to be $875 million. That would mathematically only equate to about 40.8% of $2.14 billion, if that were accurate.
A far cry from the $3.5 billion estimate used in the aforementioned article.
Effect On The Bottom line
The numbers in the article might look drastically different if you took the giant loan into consideration. Sorry, debt waiver.
There’s no way to determine whether it was incorporated into the article’s consideration. It’s doubtful that it was, because of the timing.
If not, surely it would have a significant effect on the “current value” numbers cited by the article.
Taking out a $450,000,000 debt waiver has to detrimentally affect your bottom line.
Where would that have left Washington’s Football team sitting in the overall financial rankings?