There is a purpose rich persons are tripping over each other to grow to be the following fortunate particular person chosen to be an NFL proprietor. The newest billionaire is Vinod Khosla, whose possession group was fortunate sufficient to be chosen to buy the present Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks for a record $9.6 billion.
He forked over all that cash as a result of the NFL prints cash like only a few different enterprise entities, sports activities or not, do. How a lot is a little bit of a thriller, on condition that the league as a complete is a personal enterprise. The NFL would not have to open its financials to public scrutiny, in contrast to a publicly traded firm on the New York Stock Exchange.
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But the Green Bay Packers are completely different. It’s publicly owned by its followers, so the general public will get a snapshot of the league’s monetary well being annually via Green Bay’s public disclosure. And that disclosure gives a broader sneak peek on the NFL’s funds general.
While each workforce’s funds are completely different as a result of market dimension, native tv contracts, sponsorship offers, workforce salaries, and different variables, the shared income the league distributes to every franchise is identical.
Not solely that, however that distributed cash is often the largest single chunk of income every workforce will document on its books.
So what did the Packers’ funds reveal? The NFL is as financially wholesome because it has ever been, however the Packers’ funds suffered a uncommon hit final yr following its marquee signing of Micah Parsons.
The Packers have been completely happy to pay Micah Parsons the wage of two gamers because it usually takes two gamers to sluggish him down. Justin Edmonds / Getty Images
Packers $188 million Parsons deal sends working revenue adverse
The Packers had an attention-grabbing offseason final yr.
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They made the splash of the summer season once they traded for former Cowboys All-World edge rusher Micah Parsons after which instantly signed him to a four-year $188 million contract that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL historical past on the time.
That kind of deal not solely places a crunch on a workforce’s wage cap, it additionally places a gap within the workforce’s annual revenue assertion, particularly when mixed with further participant prices related to trades and launched gamers.
Excluding the one-time $133.6 million in non-operating revenue from internet funding beneficial properties, because of the NFL’s sale of NFL Network to ESPN, the Packers recorded an working lack of $1.1 million, partly as a result of the commerce for Micah Parsons contributed to a $131.7 million enhance in participant prices.
Still, the cash from the NFL Network deal saved the workforce within the inexperienced, offsetting the loss, and leading to $132.5 million in internet revenue for the fiscal yr, according to its financial release, a virtually 55% enhance, on complete income of $753 million.
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In quick, that non-operating income really saved the Packers from dropping cash final yr, because it reported an working loss for the primary time in a non-pandemic yr since 1990.
But the workforce additionally is aware of that it must spend cash to remain aggressive.
“The NFL is more competitive and more expensive than ever,” Chairman of the Board, President and CEO Ed Policy mentioned. “We want to ensure our football leadership has every tool in the toolbox to build a competitive roster, and we do.”
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The workforce says it endured an unusual monetary yr “due to a combination of player acquisitions and departures. The structures of some new contracts, along with the required accounting of accelerated costs on released and traded players’ deals.”
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The workforce additionally endured a few different monetary headwinds, together with having one fewer house recreation this yr than final (because of the odd-numbered 17-game NFL season). Despite that, the Packers elevated home-game income by $13.4 million yr over yr in 2025.
While its share of the ESPN sale represented a pleasant windfall for the franchise, the largest driver of income for the Packers got here from income sharing.
Packers nationwide income hits $453 million as NFL pockets $14.5 billion
The Green Bay Packers reported a 4.8% or $20.6 million year-over-year enhance in nationwide income to a document of $453.2 million.
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National income represents the shared cash the NFL distributes from its multi-billion-dollar media broadcasting offers, league-wide sponsorships and licensing.
And that is why the Packers’ monetary disclosures are so illuminating. Since nationwide income is distributed evenly, to search out out simply how a lot the league took in from these income streams, one wants solely multiply the Packers’ share by 32.
The NFL recorded greater than $14.5 billion in income from its media broadcast offers, sponsorships, and licensing. That is up from the $13.8 billion it recorded in 2024, and that complete accounted for under about 62% of the NFL’s aggregate income.
While that nationwide income is gravy, the Packers are a small-market workforce, they usually acknowledge that they’ve some operational disadvantages in comparison with privately owned franchises.
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“It’s like other teams have an ATM that we don’t have,” Policy mentioned, referring to private equity.
The workforce says that, because the league’s solely publicly owned franchise, it doesn’t have entry to non-public fairness capital, and its “roughly once-per-decade” inventory gross sales elevate solely a small fraction of the funds different groups elevate from non-public fairness.
And whereas the workforce has greater than $700 million in its company reserve fund (a $77 million enhance from the earlier yr), it says it has taken it greater than 30 years to save lots of that a lot cash, “while other clubs can now raise just as much in a matter of months.”
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This story was initially printed by Lindys Sports on Jul 28, 2026, the place it first appeared within the NFL part. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.