🏈 The Business Of The NFL

Letter From The Editor
Summer is over. I hate just writing that, but there’s no avoiding it. This past week in the Adirondacks the leaves began to change and started to fall. The lake was COLD. The kids started school on Thursday here in Upstate NY, and I have the house to myself again. I’ve slipped right back into my usual rhythm, but I have to admit at times it is “too quiet”, but all that changes in the afternoon when they get home and I begin my afternoon/evening of driving them around. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Now onto today’s issue.

In today’s newsletter I discuss the business of the NFL and how it’s never been a better time to own a team, Elon Musk gets a nearly $1 TRILLION dollar pay package from Tesla, MrBeast is launching is how phone company, Glen Powell is in a new Hulu series called Chad Powers that looks super funny, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani has died at the age of 91, and the NY Giants sell a 10% stake in the team for $1 billion dollars valuing the team at $10 billion dollars.

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The Business Behind The News

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🏈 The Business Of The NFL

The business of the National Football League is an absolute juggernaut! It’s a machine that prints money, and shows no signs of slowing down as the league expands internationally. As of September 2025, the average NFL team is valued at $7.1 billion dollars, which is a 25% increase from last year. The Dallas Cowboys, owned by Jerry Jones, continue to be the most valuable team in the NFL with a valuation of $13 billion dollars. Can you guess the team with the lowest valuation? Now it’s not my NY Giants. It’s the Cincinnati Bengals, which are owned by Mike Brown, with a valuation of only $5.25 billion dollars. Even the lowest valued NFL is still higher than any team in the NHL, or most teams in the NBA and MLB. The NFL as a whole brought in over $21.2 billion dollars in 2024, and Commissioner Roger Goodell has a stated goal of reaching $25 billion dollars in annual revenue by 2027.

The primary reason for these team’s massive valuations and revenues is the media rights the NLF sells. The league’s current deals with Amazon, CBS, ESPN, Fox, and NBC are worth more than $110 billion dollars over the next decade. The NFL also just signed a long-term agreement with Google that gives YouTube TV the exclusive rights to "NFL Sunday Ticket" in the United States. This deal is worth $2 billion dollars annually to the league. The NFL has also been aggressive in selling off its assets. Just recently, it was announced that the NFL would be taking a 10% equity stake in ESPN in exchange for giving ESPN operational control of its NFL media properties and the popular RedZone channel. As part of this new deal it was also announced that RedZone will now have commercials for the first time in its 16-year history as the NFL continues to monetize every asset they can.

This level of financial success has led to a major change in how ownership stakes in teams are sold. A prime example is the recent agreement for the NY Giants to sell a minority stake to Julia Koch and her family. The deal values the team at more than $10 billion dollars. Other recent sales include the San Francisco 49ers selling a 6.2% stake at an $8.6 billion dollars valuation in May, and the Chicago Bears agreeing to sell a 2% stake at an $8.8 billion dollars valuation this past month. These deals are happening because the NFL has made it nearly impossible for a team owner to lose money. Last season, the 32 teams averaged $127 million dollars in operating income, and no team fell below $21 million dollars.

The NFL’s business model is built on an equal media revenue sharing agreement between the league’s 32 teams. Last season, each team received $432.6 million dollars from this pool. This includes money from the huge media rights deals as well as national sponsorship and licensing agreements. In addition to this, teams also make local revenue from things like ticket sales, concessions, and local sponsorships. While a team like the Dallas Cowboys can bring in nearly $800 million dollars in local revenue, every team is still guaranteed a substantial amount of money from the league itself. This is why even a team like the Cincinnati Bengals can be valued at over $5 billion dollars, because the media rights money is spread out and guaranteed. The business of the NFL has never been better and the league’s goal of continued expansion, especially into international markets, means there is even more room to grow.

With an average franchise valuation of over $7 billion dollars, the NFL is an economic powerhouse that has mastered the art of generating revenue. From the enormous media rights contracts with companies like Google and ESPN, to the increasingly lucrative sales of minority ownership stakes, the league has created a nearly fail-proof business model. This success is shared among all 32 teams equally through the national revenue pool, ensuring that every franchise, from the most valuable Dallas Cowboys to the Cincinnati Bengals, is a multi-billion dollar operation. Commissioner Roger Goodell's push for international expansion is a clear sign that the league sees even more financial growth on the horizon. With seven international games scheduled for the 2025 season in cities like London, Dublin, Madrid, and Berlin, the NFL is actively working to make football a truly global sports juggernaut.

💰 Business

Tesla's board has proposed a new pay plan for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth up to $1 trillion dollars over 10 years, which would be the largest compensation package in corporate history! The plan, which requires shareholder approval at a November 6 meeting, would grant Elon Musk an additional 12% stake in the company and expand his voting power if Tesla's market value reaches $8.5 trillion dollars. This is the latest effort to incentivize Elon Musk after a Delaware court recently voided his previous $44.9 billion dollars pay package from 2018. If this new plan passes, one might think that even Elon Musk would be motivated enough to focus on fixing Tesla’s aging vehicle lineup.

🍿 Entertainment

I came across this trailer for Glen Powell’s new Hulu series, Chad Powers, and I immediately couldn’t wait to watch the show when it debuts on September 30. Check out the trailer below.

📞 Tech

Jimmy Donaldson, known to his fans as MrBeast, may be about to launch his own phone company in 2026. The venture would operate as a mobile virtual network operator, using existing carrier infrastructure rather than building a new network from scratch. MrBeast is the latest celebrity to get in on the virtual phone company business, following Ryan Reynold’s Mint Mobile, which he sold to T-Mobile in 2024, and Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes who are launching their own company SmartLess Mobile as an offshoot of their popular podcast “Smartless”.

👗 Fashion

Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani has died at the age of 91. There is no heir apparent, so it remains to be seen what will happen to his empire, which in 2024 was valued by analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence to be worth between $9.3-$11.7 billion dollars. The Armani business business was solely owned by Giorgio Armani, unlike most of the other major fashion houses like Louis Vuitton owner LVMH and Gucci parent company Kering. The world of fashion has lost an icon, and an elder statesman of the business world.

🏈 Sports

Private equity wants in on the NFL, and judging from the size of their checkbook they’ll get in. A perfect example is the Koch family, led by Julia Koch who is the widow of David Koch, and her family agreed to purchase a 10% minority stake in the NY Giants. The deal, which values the Giants at a record-breaking $10 billion dollars, cost the Koch family over $1 billion dollars. The transaction must still be approved by the NFL's other owners. Now if only the NY Giants could open their checkbooks to sign some star players to improve our odds at a spot in the playoffs this year.

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.