By Haddon Libby
The Super Bowl this year is happening just down the 10 freeway in Glendale, Arizona. This is the NFLs fourth trip to Arizona since its first visit in 1996 when the Dallas Cowboys beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX. This year’s game is between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. The first Super Bowl was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Stadium aka the Coliseum in 1967 with the game played between the Kansas City Chiefs and the victorious Green Bay Packers.
The Super Bowl is a financial juggernaut. The cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad for this year’s game will be between $2.5 million and $5 million. A ticket for the game is around $5,000 – quite an increase from the $12 price of the game 57 years ago. Even if adjusted for inflation, that first ticket would only be $100 today.
The National Retail Federation estimates that the Super Bowl will create nearly $15 billion in retail sales. It is estimated that 90 million people will go to viewing parties with an average cost of $79 per person.
As reported in Forbes, the NFL had revenues of approximately $18 billion last year. If we assume that NFL revenues for the current season go up by a bit more than 10%, the average revenue per team will be $625 million.
In addition to enriching NFL coffers and those of retailers, many believe the NFL is a key reason why more households have not cord-cut and moved to streaming. During the last ratings season, the NFL represented 90% of the top 100 programs on live television.
The Washington Commanders are for sale by Dan Snyder. It is estimated that the successful buyer may pay $5.5 billion for the team. Last year, the Denver Broncos were bought by Rob Walton for $4.65 billion. Only three years earlier, the Carolina Panthers were sold for $2.3 billion. A team like the Cowboys is estimated to be worth $8 billion. For comparison, the Rooney family bought the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1933 for $2,500 while the McCaskey family bought the Chicago Bears in 1920 for $100.
The highest paid NFL players are quarterbacks. Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers leads the list with a 2022 salary of $50.3 million. Russell Wilson of the Denver Broncos was second at $49 million followed by injury-prone Kyler Murray of the Arizona Cardinals at $46.1 million, special massage enthusiast Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns at $46 million and Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs at $45 million.
The highest paid coach is Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots at $20 million followed by Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks at $15 million and Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams at $14 million.
As we gather in front of our televisions this Super Bowl Sunday, it is with the knowledge that football’s G.O.A.T. has finally retired. Tom Brady hangs up the cleats after 23 seasons to spend the next decade working for Fox Sports as their lead NFL color analyst for the cool sum of $375 million. Over Brady’s NFL career, he earned $333 million according to Sportrac.
Some of the records that Tom Brady holds include winning 251 games, passing for 649 touchdowns, and completing 7,753 passes for 89,214 yards. Over the 21 seasons where he was a starter, his team won the division 19 times, appeared in the Super Bowl ten times, won seven Super Bowls and was the Most Valuable Player of the game five times. If that is not remarkable enough, he led his team on a game-winning 4th quarter drive in six of the seven victories.
Tom Brady won more Super Bowls than any of the 32 NFL teams and beat every team at least once.
Haddon Libby is a proud New England Patriots fan, founder, and Chief Investment Officer of Winslow Drake Investment Management. For more information, please visit www.WinslowDrake.com.
