{"id":822477,"date":"2026-07-25T06:57:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T06:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822477\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T06:57:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T06:57:15","slug":"green-bay-packers-lost-money-last-season-in-nfl-rarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822477\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Bay Packers Lost Money Last Season in NFL Rarity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Green Bay Packers<\/a> had an operating loss of $1.1 million during the 2025 season, according to the NFL<\/a> team\u2019s annual financial statements released Friday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe figure was down from an $83.8 million profit for 2024, and it was the first loss for the team since the 1989 season, outside of the COVID-19-impacted 2020 season played without fans at Lambeau Field.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Packers are in very strong financial shape, and we\u2019re going to invest whatever it takes to field a championship-caliber team,\u201d Packers CEO Ed Policy said during a video call with reporters. \u201cThe NFL is more competitive than ever, both on and off the field. It\u2019s more expensive than ever to run an NFL team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe loss was triggered by a $130 million increase in player costs to $440 million, including more than $70 million in player benefits. Policy called it an \u201cabnormal year\u201d on the player cost side \u201cdriven by the structure and timing of player contracts.\u201d He highlighted the trade for Micah Parsons, which included a new $188 million contract with a $44 million signing bonus, as well as the releases of Jaire Alexander, Elgton Jenkins, and Nate Hobbs, and the trade of Rashan Gary.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe loss is an anomaly due to the inflated player costs, but it is a rare financial happening in a league where team stakes are getting sold at more than $10 billion, and the average team EBITDA is $150 million. Note that the Packers\u2019 operating loss does include tens of millions of dollars in non-cash charges tied to depreciation. The club wouldn\u2019t specify the total depreciation but said it was increasing due to construction projects around Lambeau.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt wasn\u2019t all bad for the Packers, as the team posted $133.6 million in non-operating income that resulted in net income of $132.5 million, up from $85.6 million\u2014non-operating income was $1.9 million in 2024. Policy credited gains on the team\u2019s investments\u2014the S&P 500 rose 18% last year\u2014and the NFL\u2019s 2026 sale of NFL Network to ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NFL assumed a 10% ownership in ESPN<\/a> worth $3 billion as part of the deal. That sits on the books of the league\u2019s 32 Equity investment arm, and 1\/32 of any gains or losses in the entity flow through the Packers\u2019 non-operating income.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOverall revenue rose 4.7% to $753 million. National revenue, derived from shared media rights<\/a>, league sponsorships, NFL events, licensing and international business, was $453.2 million, up 4.8% from the previous season. NFL teams book slightly different figures for their national revenue, but the Packers\u2019 number implies gross national revenue of $14.5 billion for the league, as Sportico first reported<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\n\tLocal revenue rose 4.7% to $299.8 million in a year when the team had eight regular-season home games, which command the highest prices and attendance\u2014there were nine home games in 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think we\u2019re going to have to be more aggressive with new revenue generation,\u201d Policy said. \u201cThe cost of competing in the NFL is going up, and other teams have access to capital sources that we just don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPolicy referenced teams selling minority stakes to institutional and individual investors and highlighted the Miami Dolphins\u2019 sale of 1% of the team and its related business at a $12.5 billion valuation. His plans to increase local revenue include more events at Lambeau Field\u2014the team is set to host a Notre Dame and Wisconsin game Sept. 6\u2014and more sponsorship revenue. Policy said naming rights to Lambeau would not be sold.<\/p>\n

\n\tPolicy said there are no plans to change the structure of Packers ownership as the only NFL team owned by fans. There are about 539,000 stockholders that own 5.2 million shares. The team pays no dividends, and shares cannot be publicly traded.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Packers\u2019 version of a billionaire owner is their corporate reserve fund. It started more than 30 years ago as a rainy-day fund, primarily in case of a work stoppage. The balance of the fund is now $701 million, up from $579 million a year ago.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s important that we maintain and grow [the fund] just because we don\u2019t have that wealthy owner,\u201d Policy said. \u201cOther teams are able to capitalize on bringing in limited partners, whether they\u2019re private equity or otherwise. But they also do tend to have very high-net-worth individuals owning those teams who can, if needed, contribute capital at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Green Bay Packers had an operating loss of $1.1 million during the 2025 season, according to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,794,1243,49881,593,85],"class_list":["post-822477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-espn","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-media-rights","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}