The National Football League

This episode is brought to you by:

Brex. Brex began as the first corporate card for startups and now offers a full financial stack built for scale. Get 10-20x higher credit limits, uncapped rewards, easy deposits and payments, and expense management all in one. Grow your business faster with Brex.

[00:02:18] - [First question] - What is the NFL?

[00:03:26] - The size and scale of the NFL as a business

[00:04:55] - Points of growth on the league side and the team side

[00:06:42] - The growth rate of the NFL over the past five years

[00:07:24] - How many people are watching the NFL and the size of their audience

[00:09:53] - The structure of the NFL compared to other major sports leagues

[00:14:08] - Distribution of the revenue generated by media rights

[00:15:53] - Other factors that make the NFL’s model unique 

[00:18:11] - How the NFL came to dominate the landscape of American sports

[00:21:26] - When the NFL became bigger than the MLB and why

[00:23:00] - How viewership and media rights have changed over the years

[00:24:52] - Complexity of scheduling games and creating scarcity

[00:26:14] - How the NFL Schedule is Created

[00:27:43] - Additional sources of revenue at the league level

[00:30:54] - Major costs to operate the NFL at the national level

[00:31:50] - Contributing factors that make annual operating costs $1.5 billion

[00:32:29] - How much it costs to run an NFL game

[00:33:35] - Major drivers and ways to increase the topline of the business

[00:36:09] - How much of the league revenue share is distributed to team owners and players

[00:39:06] - Seat sales, boxes, and sponsorship revenue

[00:40:40] - Who owns stadiums and an overview from a management and cost perspective

[00:42:43] - Non-player related operating costs

[00:45:46] - Operating leverage as an owner in this business

[00:47:08] - What a commissioner is and the governance model of the NFL

[00:51:31] - Overview of an executive team beneath the owners

[00:53:01] - Collective bargaining agreements 

[00:57:15] - How enterprise value is created and why it’s growing so fast for the teams

[00:59:11] - His perspective on comparing teams to assets generating revenue multiples

[01:00:51] - Defining relevance in regards to the NFL and what it means for the future

[01:04:39] - Plans to embrace a D2C model and the impact streaming might have on them

[01:06:56] - How the Superbowl became such a pivotal sporting event and why they made it

[01:11:35] - What will have to go right in order to grow exponentially over the coming decade 

[01:17:34] - Potential risks and concerns that could negatively impact the NFL’s growth

[01:22:21] - A big lesson we can learn from the NFL for entrepreneurs

[01:23:29] - Lessons for investors when studying the NFL

[01:24:48] - Learn more about professional sports and the NFL; The Game Plan; Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps (book);