National Football League: Socialism and Capitalism, combined – NFL Feature
The commissioner of the American professional football league, National Football League (NFL), Roger Goodell, has recently gone public about projecting his office as the best of example of socialism and capitalism being successful in a setup at the same
time.
He obviously did not mean if the league has been taken over by Russians. Apparently, he referred the American football sports as a social activity at its heart and a profitable business at its outlook.
No one could have dared touch the subject of socialism in the capitalistic America, otherwise. Hence, the possibility of a controversy by the American corporate gurus around his comments was not there.
The commissioner got away with his remarks conveniently.
He did make a point, though that: in the era of professional sportsmanship it is possible to turn all the sports activities, which by and large are considered to be social pastime, into a profitable business.
These activities can be run on the business lines at least, even if they are not profitable. The UK soccer and American football sports are evident examples of it.
This was the main point raised by the commissioner when he called the American premier league a profitable business.
He in no way was touching the subject of hefty payments to football stars, who are wealthy tycoons in most cases.
The commissioner was just focused on his office, the NFL. The NFL represents total 32 franchises, which compete against each other in the regular season and post season, which includes playoff and Super Bowl.
The teams has following of millions of fans. They are main football market for corporations and business looking to advertise and market their products.
They do not have to be sports goods or related products, only. Anyone selling anything, from a ball trimmer to building infrastructure products, can find the market as potential and conducive target to their business.
The league may not be able to benefit from this sort of business, however. It is the players and franchises who sell the rights of advertising, respectively, and benefit from displaying logos and products related content on their uniforms, their equipment
and facilities.
So, the money goes direct to their accounts. It still not affects the league office in its potential and prospects of earning revenues.
Their channels and avenues of generating income are different from those of the players and franchises.
One big source of income for the league is the TV rights for coverage of 16 games in the regular season, one wild card game, one playoff game, one American Football Conference (AFC) championship game and one Super Bowl event.
The best example of it is its recent signing of the deals with American TV networks including ESPN and Fox Sports.
The league is projected to earn as much as $3 billion dollar annually until 2022, the stipulated expiring period of these deals.
Meanwhile, the league has its own television network that focuses the football sports only in its around-the-clock coverage, attracting revenues through advertising.
Moreover, the NFL has special deals for the most popular Thursday and Saturday night games. It markets rights of these games separately.
The money it earns through fines, arbitration and registration top-ups its income by many times.
Altogether, the commissioner was true to his claims that he has successfully turn the league office into a profitable business. The business values at around $10 billion a year.
Yet it has not affected the socialistic nature of the American football. It has rather marketed and promoted it professionally.
Above all, pro players are far more paid and have sustainable earning opportunities, are happy and prosperous, as compared to their amateur counterparts.
Again, it is the very capitalistic nature of the sports activity that attracts amateurs towards professional sports activities.
So, the commissioner should be hailed to have made the socialism and capitalism at peace and dependent to each other.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article in no way reflect bettor.com's editorial policies
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