GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers have come out against any significant changes to the Sports Broadcasting Act, the team said in a statement released Tuesday. The team said, in part, that its ability to compete with the other 31 NFL teams could be significantly impacted.
The Packers also took issue with U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, who recently led a House Judiciary subcommittee meeting on the SBA and said the NFL might be in violation of the act. Fitzgerald also called the Packers' concerns "ridiculous" and "almost laughable" during a recent appearance on WISN-TV in Milwaukee.
"Packers fans everywhere should be deeply concerned that Rep. Fitzgerald admitted to giving 'zero' consideration to keeping the Packers in Green Bay as he explores upending the 65-year-old Sports Broadcasting Act," the Packers said in a statement released Tuesday. "Fans should be offended that Fitzgerald then went further, saying our concerns were 'laughable.' What is laughable is that a congressman from Wisconsin is leading this charge. Why threaten the team his community overwhelmingly cherishes and its ability to compete on a level playing field?
"The tremendously successful model of pooling media rights and sharing revenue equally amongst teams has allowed the Packers to survive and thrive in the smallest media market in professional sports. This model is as foundational to the Packers' existence as the very bricks in Lambeau Field. It is careless and unwise to rearrange the bricks of a foundation which has stood strong for over half a century."
The Packers not only operate in the smallest market in professional sports but also don't have a deep-pocketed owner to fund the team. Nor can they sell a percentage of the team to private equity investors like the other 31 teams can, so they rely on the leaguewide TV deals for equal shares of national revenue.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice began an investigation into the NFL's use of the Sports Broadcasting Act. The SBA was established in 1961, when the NFL lobbied for legislation after a court found that the league's rules and agreements restricted individual teams' broadcast rights, according to the House Judiciary Committee.
The House Judiciary Committee has discussed whether updated laws are needed to regulate how professional sports negotiate their TV deals.
Unlike in baseball and other professional sports, NFL teams do not negotiate their own television deals with regional broadcast partners. Instead, the NFL distributes equal shares of the national television contracts, which last season totaled a record $432.6 million, according to the Packers' financial records. The Packers, as a publicly owned team, are the only team in the NFL that has to open its books, and doing so reveals what each team receives from the television deals.
The NFL currently has television contracts with ESPN/ABC, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Prime Video and Netflix to air its games. Subscriptions are required to watch "Monday Night Football" games on ESPN that aren't simulcast on ABC, "Thursday Night Football" and the Black Friday game on Prime Video, and Christmas games on Netflix. Some international games also air on NFL Network, which is owned by ESPN. Select postseason games also require subscriptions. The NFL has also awarded select games to ESPN+ and Peacock in the past.
All games, however, air free on the local stations in the broadcast markets of the teams playing.
"The NFL's media distribution model is the most fan and broadcaster-friendly in the entire sports and entertainment industry," the NFL said in a statement shortly after the Department of Justice launched its investigation. "With over 87% of our games on free, broadcast television, including 100% of games in the markets of the competing teams, the NFL has for decades put our fans front and center in how we distribute our content."
ESPN's Dan Murphy contributed to this report.
