The other, bigger mystery is on the expense side of the ledger. The biggest cost is player payroll, which
can be tracked. The collectively bargained salary cap for this season is
$133 million. (To arrive at that figure, the league combines 55 percent of TV money with 45 percent of NFL Ventures revenue and 40 percent of projected local revenue, then divides by 32 teams.) But aside from the players’ take, the NFL’s costs are a dark box, even when team financial statements
are leaked. And teams have every incentive to disguise profits and claim poverty.
Beyond the normal tax concerns, profit squeezes can be used to negotiate downplayer costs and convince lawmakers to pay for new stadiums. Operating expenses, according to Vrooman, are where teams tend to “blow the most smoke,” when outside parties have been able to look at their books. “The non-player costs are highly irregular to say the least,” he says. “The scams range from owners employing themselves to disguising taxable return on equity as tax-sheltered interest on club debt.”
