Ben Gilbert

But at least players are virtually guaranteed in whole to make a

close to half of the league's overall revenue.

But how does that work with local and national revenue?

Well, since it is based on the total revenue, if a team makes a whole bunch of local revenue, they're going to have no problem making the obligation that they have to pay the players.

Ed, you're saying that that fixed amount...

Right.

It's okay as long as the local revenue doesn't become too big of a part.

But at some point, you have to imagine that...

what is 48.8% of league average could be 90% of what I make as a team in a small market with a crappy stadium.

And then because I have to pay players so much, there's no way I can pay for other stuff.

And so, you know, my coaching gets hurt or the production for fans gets hurt or something that makes me a less competitive team, even if the players on the field are paid just as much as the players on the field from other teams.

Yeah.

And it's interesting because I think in 93, when the salary cap first came out, it was just of the shared revenue.

But now that in the more recent agreements, it includes all league revenue and local revenue is actually growing as a portion of the overall revenue for the top teams.

Unshared revenue for teams grew from 12% in 1994 to 21% in 2003 and is over 30% today.

So there's definitely a meaningful and ever-growing part of NFL team revenue that really does come from just the team itself and what it can do in its local market, not from that sort of locked brotherhood of we're all in it together league revenue.

It's a good question.

The comps would probably be like Marvel or Lucasfilm.

Really?

Yep.