How Roger Goodell became the NFL’s $20 billion man

As they met in the lobby of the Omni Viking Lakes Hotel in Minnesota in late August, Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, greeted each other warmly, sharing fist bumps as a small entourage that included their oldest sons surrounded them. The two men, who have nine Super Bowl wins between them (six for Kraft, 83, and three for Jones, who turns 82 on Sunday), were upbeat and refreshed after their summer vacations in the South of France and the Hamptons.

Soon they were joined in the lobby by other NFL royalty: the Kansas City Chiefs owner, Clark Hunt; the Pittsburgh Steelers owner, Art Rooney II; and, most significant, Roger Goodell, the league commissioner. There were smiles all around — and for good reason.

Over the next three hours, Goodell, 65, would preside over yet another decision that would make these already extremely wealthy individuals even richer: The league’s owners voted 31-1 to allow teams to sell up to 10% of their multibillion-dollar clubs to private equity groups.

The NBA, the NHL and MLB tapped private equity money years ago. But the NFL is the largest league with the best long-term prospects, which is why firms like Arctos Partners, Sixth Street Partners and others have been eager to bid for stakes in the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins and other franchises. By year’s end, owners of NFL teams, worth on average $6.5 billion, may get nine-figure checks to help pay for new stadiums, buy out partners or retire debt.

The private equity move is the latest financial milestone in Goodell’s 18-year stewardship of the NFL. The son of a politician, he has spent his entire career in the league, starting as an intern after college, then climbing the ladder by tackling an array of jobs, including overseeing its international expansion and strong-arming cities to subsidize stadiums. By the time Goodell was elected commissioner in 2006, he was well aware that Jones, Kraft and other owners who had paid nine and 10 figures for their teams wanted faster returns on their investments.

Goodell has made sure that happens with aggressive moves over the past two decades that have made the NFL the wealthiest sports league in the world.

In 2010, at the league’s annual meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, in Florida, Goodell and his chief financial officer, Anthony Noto, unveiled an audacious target: The NFL would hit $25 billion in revenue by 2027. The league generated about $8 billion at the time, double the amount it had 17 years earlier. Now Goodell wanted to more than triple its revenue in the next 17 years.

Owners and executives in the room shared sideways glances. The NFL was the country’s most lucrative league, but it was facing headwinds from a deep recession and a labor deal that the owners felt had given the players too big a share of the revenue. The owners were optimistic by nature, but not that optimistic.

But with the league now in its 105th season, Goodell’s goal is no longer an ambitious dream; it’s becoming a reality. The league has grown by about $1 billion a year since 2010 and now generates more than $20 billion in annual revenue.

In 2021, the league signed media rights contracts — its largest source of revenue — worth more than $110 billion. CBS, Fox and NBC agreed to pay more than $2 billion annually to hold on to their slots to broadcast games. And ESPN is shelling out about $2.7 billion a year to continue airing “Monday Night Football” and to be added into the rotation to broadcast the Super Bowl beginning in 2026.

In 2020, the owners persuaded the players to accept a 17th regular-season game, and in 2021, they added extra playoff games, changes that also increased revenue. In April, Goodell floated the idea of an 18th regular-season game, a contentious plan that would extend the season to late February. Revenue has also poured in from new stadiums in Las Vegas; Inglewood, California; and beyond.

As the league has prospered, so has Goodell: About 90% of the commissioner’s compensation is tied to a basket of metrics and incentives. After securing lucrative labor and broadcast deals and steering the league through the COVID-19 pandemic without missing a game, he received $63.9 million in each of the fiscal years running from April 2019 to March 2020 and April 2020 to March 2021, making him one of the highest-paid executives in the country. In October, Goodell signed an extension that will keep him atop the league through March 2027, when he will be 68. (Goodell declined to be interviewed for this article.)

Last year, 93 of the top 100 programs on television were NFL games. The number of NFL fans has increased to about 210 million, up from 170 million about a decade ago, according to figures supplied by the league. But the NFL has grown in part because Goodell and the owners take small, careful steps. The new private equity investment rules fit that pattern.

The owners began discussing accepting private equity in 2019 but chose to watch how other leagues handled the process first. The NFL wanted to preserve its governance structure, which relies heavily on owners to make most key decisions affecting the league. The owners were also wary of diluting the control of the multigenerational families that own the Chicago Bears, the New York Giants, the Steelers and other teams.

Most of those families have their wealth wrapped up in their teams and lack the cash to build splashy stadiums. As the value of teams has soared, they have found it harder to attract bidders wealthy enough to buy minority stakes that can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Private equity firms have access to billions of dollars and have been eager investors in sports. But they have a reputation for slashing costs at companies they acquire and flipping them for a quick profit, potential turmoil the NFL owners want to avoid.

So last year, Goodell created a committee that included Hunt; Kraft; the Atlanta Falcons owner, Arthur Blank; the Cleveland Browns owner, Jimmy Haslam; the Denver Broncos CEO, Greg Penner; and the Washington Commanders owner, Josh Harris, to design rules so teams could tap private equity money while keeping the firms at arm’s length.

In August, the league’s owners approved investment by four private equity groups. Three of them — Arctos, Sixth Street and Ares Management — can invest in no more than six teams at a time. The fourth group, a consortium that includes Blackstone and the Carlyle Group, can invest in up to 12 teams.

Goodell also jetted to the Paris Games this summer. NFL commissioners don’t often attend the Olympics, but because of Goodell’s lobbying, flag football will be included for the first time in 2028 at the Summer Games in Los Angeles.

The league has been promoting flag football in part to persuade parents to let their children pick up the game. When Goodell took over as commissioner, stories about players suffering from long-term brain damage were front-page news. He has pushed for better equipment and rule changes to reduce dangerous plays, though the repetitive hits to the head that have been linked to brain damage later in life are nearly impossible to remove from the game.

Some critics call flag football a gateway to tackle football. Even Goodell acknowledges that flag football is not without its risks. But every NFL team now sponsors youth flag leagues. In July, the NFL hosted a championship weekend in Canton, Ohio, where more than 2,000 athletes from around the world competed, and ESPN showed some of the games.

Peter O’Reilly, who runs events for the league, said sponsors like Toyota and Visa had attached their names to the tournament during a lull in the NFL calendar. He said the event could move around the country, a formula that had worked well for the draft.

To the NFL, flag football is another way to keep fans involved in the league. That has been its approach to sports betting as well. The league doesn’t make money on the bets themselves, but it sells tens of millions of dollars in sponsorships to gambling companies like DraftKings.

It also makes money selling its real-time statistical feeds, which will be integrated into streams that fans can personalize, something the league hopes will further increase viewership.

Another frontier is overseas. In Week 1 of this season, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers played in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the first NFL game in South America and the 44th played on international soil since 2007. Global expansion is such a priority that Goodell flew to Brazil instead of to Kansas City, Missouri, where the Super Bowl champion Chiefs hosted the season-opening game. Peacock streamed the game in Brazil.

But Goodell is committed to the plan he outlined 14 years ago. He recently said the NFL could play as many as 16 games a year overseas, which could allow the league to create a new media-rights package — and yet another huge payday for the owners and their expansionist commissioner.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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