This article explains how the National Football League makes money, from the nationwide league to the team franchises to the income from live games. This huge industry also includes royalties from streaming, merch sales, and advertising.
Keep reading to find out how players get a piece of the earnings and how a single 30-second ad can turn small businesses into empires.
How Money is Organized Inside the NFL
The NFL divides all money it receives into national and local funds. National funds are all distributed evenly across each team.
Local funds are generated locally from ticket sales and vary from team to team, depending on their sources of income. If you combine the different sources of revenue, the NFL makes an enormous amount of money each year. For example, according to Sportico, the league generated $13 Billion in revenue for 2023.
National fund
- Every one of the 32 NFL teams receive an even share of the national fund. There are no larger shares allocated to teams who win the league or make the playoffs, nor are there penalties for teams who finish at the bottom of the competition.
- For the most part, the national fund is made up from merchandise, tv contracts, and licensing deals. In the 2023-2024 season, this fund amounted to a whopping $11.98 Billion. Each team received an equal share of over $400 million in shared revenue.
- This even distribution of wealth helps NFL teams remain competitive with one another, and stops a handful of teams with wealthy owners from completely dominating the competition.
Local fund
- The local fund in the NFL is made comprised of ticket revenues and vendor sales.
- The amount a team receives from the local fund will vary, depending on how in-demand their tickets are, as well as how much the vendors pay to work at their stadiums.
- Different teams bring in varying amounts of money through these avenues.
- For the 2022-2023 season, teams averaged earnings of $583 M, while the Cowboys gained $1.14 B, the bengals reported $498 M revenue.
- This is how the rest of the teams made:
| Team | Revenue | Team | Revenue |
| Dallas Cowboys | $1,140M | Cleveland Browns | $545M |
| Las Vegas Raiders | $729M | Indianapolis Colts | $545M |
| Los Angeles Rams | $686M | Atlanta Falcons | $544M |
| New England Patriots | $684M | Baltimore Ravens | $544M |
| New York Giants | $639M | Minnesota Vikings | $540M |
| San Francisco 49ers | $622M | Kansas City Chiefs | $540M |
| Houston Texans | $605M | New Orleans Saints | $533M |
| Miami Dolphins | $600M | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | $531M |
| Philadelphia Eagles | $598M | Carolina Panthers | $530M |
| Green Bay Packers | $577M | Los Angeles Chargers | $518M |
| Denver Broncos | $563M | Jacksonville Jaguars | $517M |
| New York Jets | $560M | Tennessee Titans | $516M |
| Chicago Bears | $556M | Buffalo Bills | $503M |
| Seattle Seahawks | $555M | Arizona Cardinals | $500M |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | $548M | Cincinnati Bengals | $498M |
| Washington Commanders | $545M | Detroit Lions | $495M |
Game Day! It’s Money Time
A home game is one of the biggest ways an NFL generates money. How much a team can make on one home game depends on the size of their stadium and the price of the tickets.
The average stadium size in the NFL is about 70,000 seats. If you multiply this figure by the average cost of an NFL ticket, which is $457, you get $31,990,000, or just under $32 Million.
This is just from the ticket income alone.
Many teams will also make a significant income from sales of merchandise, food, clothing, gameday programs and more.
What's top gain for the cities hosting the NFL games?
The NFL games contribute around $5 billion to the economy in the host cities, according to an analysis by Edgeworth Economics for the NFL Players Association.
Credits: Pixabays
How Do Wages Work in the NFL?
Wages in the NFL are determined by a variety of factors, including the player's performance, experience, and position.
Generally speaking, the higher the player's performance and experience level, the higher their salary will be.
The wage cap in the NFL regulates how much money teams can spend on player compensation. This cap is set each year by the league and is based on a percentage of the league's total revenue.
The salary cap for 2024 was set at $255.4 million per team, with each team allowed to spend up to this amount on player salaries, this is $30.6 million and 13.6% increase over last year's cap number, the biggest since 1994, when salary caps were create.
Players
Players earn a substantial proportion of the money each NFL team makes. In 2022, the players received roughly 49% of their teams income, on average. However this number is down 6% from the year before.
Average NFL salary for 2023 was $2.8 million and that number keeps increasing over time.
The average salries by position are the following:
| Position | Average Salary |
| Left Tackle | $8,952,680 |
| Right Tackle | $5,128,198 |
| Quarterback | $4,855,892 |
| Inside Linebacker | $3,856,602 |
| Outside Linebacker | $3,703,880 |
| Edge Rusher | $3,234,289 |
| Defensive End | $2,996,247 |
| Guard | $2,500,421 |
| Defensive Tackle | $2,496,660 |
| Center | $2,394,058 |
| Wide Receiver | $2,277,703 |
| Kicker | $2,228,472 |
| Safety | $2,196,749 |
| Tight End | $2,055,238 |
| Cornerback | $1,999,348 |
| Running Back | $1,789,687 |
| Fullback | $1,724,440 |
| Punter | $1,520,940 |
| Long Snapper | $1,069,016 |
The majority of this income is distributed amongst the best players, who would each potentially earn tens of millions of dollars per year. The rest of players will still earn a significant salary, starting at a minimum of $795,000 for the 2024-2025 season and goes up for $1.125 millions for players with 6 to 7 years of experience as a minimum season salary.
Highest paid playeres for 2024-2025 season
| Position | Team | Player | Salary |
| Quarterback | Cincinnati Bengals | Joe Burrow | $55 million |
| Edge rusher | San Francisco 49ers | Nick Bosa | $34 million |
| Wide receiver | Philadelphia Eagles | A.J. Brown | $32 million |
| Defensive lineman | Kansas City Chiefs | Chris Jones | $31.75 million |
| Offensive lineman | Detroit Lions | Penei Sewell | $28 million |
| Safety | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Antoine Winfield, Jr. | $21.03 million |
| Cornerback | Green Bay Packers | Jaire Alexander | $21 million |
| Linebacker | Baltimore Ravens | Roquan Smith | $20 million |
| Tight end | Kansas City Chiefs | Travis Kelce | $17.1 million |
| Running back | San Francisco 49ers' Christ | Christian McCaffrey | $16 million |
| Kicker | Baltimore Ravens / Philadelphia Eagles | Justin Tucker / Jake Elliott | $6 million |
| Fullback | San Francisco 49ers | Kyle Juszczyk | $4.6 million |
| Punter | Seattle Seahawks | Michael Dickson | $3.68 million |
| Long snapper | Indianapolis Colts | Luke Rhodes | $1.62 million |
Do NFL players get paid extra for the preseason?
The NFL contract only pays the player during the regular season, during the preseason players are paid 'per diem' (latin for 'each day'). According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the payments are specified and increased every 2 years and all players must fall into one of two categories:
- First-year player
First-year players are those that have no credited season, they earn $1,850 per week, or $11,100 for the 6 weeks that the preseason lasts.- It will grow to $2,000 per week for the 2025-2026 season.
- Veteran player
Veteran players have at least one credited season, they earn $3,200 per week, or $19,200 for the complete preseason.- It will grow to $3,500 per week for the 2025-2026 season.
Non-players
Non-players also play an important role in the economics of the NFL. Coaches, trainers, and other staff members are essential to the success of any team, and they are compensated accordingly.
The average salary for a head coach in the NFL is around $7 million per year, while assistant coaches can earn up to $2 million. Other staff members, such as trainers and scouts, can earn anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000 per year.
The NFL employs around 3,594 people with average salaries of $53,871 per year. On average, people stick around for about 4.2 years at their jobs, according to online recruitment services, Zippia.
The owners
The owners of NFL teams ultimately control the finances of their respective teams. They are responsible for setting the team's budget, hiring staff, and making decisions about player contracts.
Owners also have a large say in how much money is spent on marketing and advertising for. This can include anything from stadium signage to television commercials.
Owners also receive a portion of the revenue generated by their team, which can range from 10-20%.
Postseason gains
The NFL postseason is a major source of revenue for the league and its teams. The Super Bowl alone generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, with ticket sales, merchandise, and advertising all contributing to the total.
Teams that make it to the playoffs can also expect to see an increase in their income due to increased ticket and merchandise sales.
Additionally, teams that make it to the Super Bowl can expect to receive a large bonus from the league.
The Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the biggest event in the NFL and it brings in a lot of money for the league. It's also one of the biggest annual sporting events on Earth. The majority of this money comes from television rights fees, which are sold to networks such as NBC and CBS.
The Super Bowl also brings in a lot of money from sponsorships, which can easily climb into the hundreds of millions. These sponsors usually pay for exclusive rights to advertise during the game, as well as other promotional opportunities.
Credits: JESHOOTS
For example, in 2021, companies spent $545 Million on advertisements that ran during the game, and that’s just television alone.
Also in 2022, Apple paid the NFL $250 Million just to host the halftime show.
According to Nielsen media consultant, 77% of American homes viewed the 2023 LVII Super Bowl, with a total audience of 113 milion people.
The LVII Super Bowl took place in Glendale, Arizona, and was credited of a total spending of $1.3 B, contributing $726 M to Arizonas GDP, according to Arizona Stat University’s L. William Seidman Institute.
The Arizona Office of Tourism estimated a spending of $221 M, a 184% increase from the previous year.
Finally, the Super Bowl also generates a significant amount of money from ticket sales.
The cheapest LVIII Super Bowl verified resale ticket was $6,969 + fees on Febrary 6th 2024, while the most expensive was $99,000 + fees on Ticketmaster.
According to TicketIQ on the same date, prices had an average price of $10,026.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, the NFL and the Super Bowl are major contributors to the American economy.
Credits: Karolina Grabowska
From stadiums to merchandise to television contracts and more, there is a tremendous amount of money generated by these events each year.
It's amazing to think about how far it has come in such a short time. From its humble beginnings as an idea in 1920, the NFL has become one of the most influential economic forces in the country, and is sure to keep scoring touchdowns in the future.
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