To the average American football fan, this battle between the National Football League’s owners and the NFL Players Association is largely being referred to now as what the media has labeled a fight between the billionaires and the millionaires. In addition to the millions of devoted football fans, employees, and vendors that will be affected, closely watching the impending lockout are advertisers with billions of dollars may not get spent in football this year. With the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement set to expire this Thursday, March 3, advertisers that have traditionally allocated large portions of their media budget on the NFL may be forced to spend their money elsewhere.
$3 billion in ad revenue for major networks including Fox, CBS, NBC, ESPN, and Direct TV are at stake. Labor stoppage will make the NFL brand less attractive with each day that it continues and could leave the league forever damaged as a revenue-generating vehicle. Economists associated with the NFLPA estimates that the loss of an entire football season would potentially cost the cities of each franchise approximately 3,000 jobs and $160 million in revenue. However, the NFL is not in agreement with these particular figures. I’m not trying to taking sides or anything here, but I will leave you with this final thought.
