12-12-2018, 03:02 PM
(12-11-2018, 10:00 PM)Joelist Wrote: The real problem comes in when you look at profitability. IIRC you basically have to be the Dallas Cowboys to make real money. Most everyone else is in the 10-15 million per year profit club. Now add in that profit and loss looks at things like signing bonuses differently than the cap - that 60 million signing bonus on the 6 year deals may only be $10 million against the cap but it is 60 million off of P & L. Ever wonder why we backload instead of front load deals and are not so enthusiastic about signing bonuses?
Then there is the fact that the Bengals ownership has no other business interests. This is pretty unusual in the NFL, and I think the only other franchise like this is Green Bay. What it means is the club cannot be run at a loss and as a tax write off like a lot of others can be.
This does not excuse the many flaws of ownership, among which are that for people in a resource constrained environment they do not do a good job of prioriotizing where the money needs to go to increase the profitability of the product - create a better product and revenue can go up. But perhaps it sheds a little light on the sometimes strange behavior of ownership.
I believe looking at profits is deceptive. When you add back in non-cash expenses (i.e. player salary depreciation) NFL teams pocket quite a bit of money. I would rather see a team's cash flow analysis to get a real perspective. Accounting profits are usually smoke and mirrors. Ask any good accountant, "How much money did I make?" and the correct response should be, "How much money do you want to make?"
