Greetings!
The SuperBowl is one of the few remaining events Americans all gather together for. 108.4 million people watched this year’s game, while by contrast 125.5 million people watched the last episode of M*A*S*H (the highest rated TV show ever). It’s an educational snapshot of our society; good, bad, and ugly. This year, we learned that buying beer supports our troops, that military=football=manhood, that irreversibly brain damaged players are just the cost of playing the game, and more. Here’s what really strikes me, though… how can a highly profitable business like the NFL still be treated as a non-profit tax-free organization?
The fundamental reason for non-profits, the only reason for treating them differently from any other organization, is they exist to accomplish some social benefit unlikely to profit enough to support their work. The NFL is the league’s “trade organization”, with the apparent social benefit of promoting football. As the most lucrative sports league in the world their profit seems enough to support them for now. They do everything from creating and managing intellectual property to negotiating TV deals, scheduling games, and (surprise) lobbying Congress. Here are just a few stats on the NFL, courtesy of CBSNews.com…
- Revenue for the league, not counting the teams, was $255.3 million.
- The top eight league officials made a total of $50.1 million in 2011 from the NFL.
- In 2011, the NFL paid $35.9 million for office construction, $13.5 million in office rent, $6.7 in IT consulting, and $6.7 million in travel expenses.
- It had notes and loans owed to it of nearly $620.8 million.
- The organization spent more than $1.5 million on lobbying.
The absurdity of non-profit status is only the beginning. The story of NFL teams extorting cities to finance football stadiums is an old one. The NY Times pointed out that “as the N.F.L. prepare[d] to kick off its 2010 season, nearly all of the league’s 31 football stadiums [we]re financed with public money. On average, more than half the reported building costs of all active stadiums has been paid for with tax dollars — for a collective total of $8 billion — and in several instances, taxpayers have footed the entire bill.”
The NFL is one of many groups abusing non-profit status (I’m looking at you, dark money political groups!) but it’s such an obvious abuse that even Representative Tom Coburn, the “godfather of the modern conservative austerity movement”, has written a bill to remove the NFL’s tax-exempt status. If you’re so inclined you can show support by joining over 354,000 people who signed the petition at Change.org. If not, enjoy the football… you’re paying for it!
It’s not that I hate football, or success, or Amerka. But in times of budget shortfall, when politicians are cutting critical support to the neediest, why leave billions of taxable dollars in the pockets of the greediest? How can laws we make to encourage useful-but-not-profitable work be twisted to feed one of the most profitable purveyors of some of the least useful work imaginable? Because people are easily distracted by bread and circuses, even when the circus is stealing their bread.
Take Care and Make a Great Day!
