GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – The Green Bay Packers are asking Congress to preserve key protections within the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 (SBA) because the House Judiciary Committee opinions the decades-old legislation that permits the NFL and its groups to negotiate nationwide broadcast rights collectively.
In a March 26 letter to Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust Subcommittee, Packers Director of Public Affairs Aaron Popkey stated the SBA has been important to the staff’s long-term viability — notably because the NFL’s smallest-market franchise and the one publicly owned staff in American skilled sports activities.
The Packers argued that the present broadcast construction helps income sharing that helps stabilize all groups no matter market dimension, serving to keep aggressive stability throughout the league.
The letter warns that altering the SBA’s core framework might dramatically widen monetary gaps between groups in main media markets and smaller markets like Green Bay.
According to the Packers, if groups had been compelled into unbiased broadcast negotiations, the worth of media rights would seemingly focus in massive markets, undermining monetary fairness and making it more durable for small-market groups to compete.
Popkey wrote that eliminating the NFL’s skill to negotiate broadcast rights collectively would pose an “existential threat” to the Packers’ continued existence in Green Bay “as we know it,” whereas additionally making it harder for followers to watch Packers video games.
The Packers additionally emphasised their function as a “critical economic and cultural driver” for his or her group, area and the state of Wisconsin — saying the SBA’s framework has helped the franchise stay viable and aggressive whereas staying in Green Bay.
As the committee weighs a possible listening to or adjustments to the Act, the group urged lawmakers to take into account how alterations might have an effect on NFL groups’ aggressive operations.
The Packers stated they’d welcome additional discussions with Fitzgerald and different committee members in regards to the SBA and its affect on the staff’s heritage and the state.
The letter copied a number of members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, together with Reps. Tony Wied, Glenn Grothman, Gwen Moore, Mark Pocan, Derrick Van Orden, Tom Tiffany, and Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson.
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