The Green Bay Packers are the only NFL team that is owned by the public instead of by an individual owner. Because of this, the Packers release their net income and expense statements each year to their stock holders, which consists mostly of their rabid fans. The 2017 statement was released on Wednesday and Fox Sports reports that there was an interesting net income added to the team's annual statement.
The NFL relocation fees
Fans in St. Louis watched their Rams leave and head back to Los Angeles. The San Diego Chargers left their home this summer and will now play in Los Angeles as well.
Meanwhile, one of the most popular teams in the NFL, the Oakland Raiders, announced that they are headed to Las Vegas - possibly by 2019. While their fans are disappointed, other teams in the NFL have profited from the moves thanks to relocation fees.
If an NFL owner wants to move their team to another city, that owner is forced to pay relocation teams to all the other teams in the NFL. Thanks to the Green Bay Packers being a publicly owned team, fans can actually look at their annual statement and see how these numbers add up.
The Green Bay Packers 2017 income statement showed that they received a total of $27.1 million in relocation fees. The total net income for the Packers for 2017 was $72.8 million, or $45.7 million before the added relocation fees from the NFL were added in.
Those fees were paid by the Oakland Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, and Los Angeles Rams.
The total revenue for the Green Bay Packers was $441.4 million in their 2017 statement, which was an eight percent increase from the previous year and was the 14th straight year that their revenue has increased.
The individual relocation fees
The Oakland Raiders have not moved yet. While the city of Oakland has said that they want the Raiders out as soon as possible, the Raiders need to wait for their stadium in Las Vegas to be built before they can move. Despite that, the Raiders had to pay $350 million in relocation fees after the NFL voted that they could move.
The Los Angeles Rams moved to St. Louis many years ago but moved back to Los Angeles last year. They played their first season back in Los Angeles in 2016 and paid $650 million in relocation fees for the right to move back home. The San Diego Chargers moved north and will start their NFL tenure in Los Angeles this year. They also had to pay $650 million to move.
Adding those relocation fees' totals together, and then dividing it among the NFL teams, that averages out to be $55 million per team for the other 29 franchises. The Green Bay Packers said that the money will be paid out in installments over 10 years.
