PROFESSIONAL GRID-IRON IS BIG BUSINESS IN U.S.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30529, 26 August 1964, Page 15

PROFESSIONAL GRID-IRON IS BIG BUSINESS IN U.S.

TF it is difficult to imagine a dub football team earning a net profit equal to £53.00® each season, even in the mercenary turmoil of American professional gridiron, then consider the fact that 14 teams in the National Football League, the largest in the United States, have a total income of something in the vicinity of £6 000,000 a year. To anyone in this country, these amounts are fantastic and even in America, where the game is nothing more than a gigantic business venture, profits have been surprisingly high. Professional football in America is at present undergoing one of the strongest booms in the country and it has now reached the point where many sports fans are seriously contending that it is replacing basehall as the national game. Major-league baseball is definitely slipping at the box

office. There was a drop of 4 per cent in the attendance—Boo,ooo lost customers —during the 1963 season. However, major-league football the well established 14team National Football League, has had another year with a record attendance of more than 5 per cent above the previous season. The smaller eight-team American Football League also reports bigger crowds. The average crowd at National Football League games last season was about 43,000. Baseball draws five times as many people but plays 16 times as many games and sells tickets at one-third the price. In at least one city, Cleveland, the race for customers was close to a dead-heat, with both the baseball Indians and the football Browns

drawing crowds in excess of 500,000 for the season. But the rise to the top has not been fast For many years, professional football limped along in the shadow of baseball as a popular attraction. It took the national league until 1952, its thirty-third year in business, to draw as many as 2,000,000 persons to its games. The climb has been more rapid since. In 1958 the 3,000,000 level was passed and four years later the total number of spectators rose to more than 4,000,000. Annual club profits can now be more than 250,000 dollars. Professional football gained its big boost towards national popularity from television. The first network deal for 50,000 dollars was signed in 1951. Since then, the professional

teams, previously important only in their home areas, have became nationally famous television stars. On an average autumn Sunday, when matches are usually played, 15,000,000 television sets are estimated to be tuned in to the national league games. Last season television companies paid more than 325,000 dollars for each national league team and 240,000 dollars to each American Football League club. For the national league title game, an extra 926,000 dollars were paid, making it the most expensive sports show in television history. Even the weakest teams are extremely succesriul financially at the national league box office. Washington averaged 46,000 spectators and a gross of 200,000 dollars for its first four home games last season, three of which it lost

Incomes for the teams are enormous but expenditure is also considerable. Washington, one of the few dubs which release financial details, spent 550,000 dollars on players’ salaries, 75,000 on coaches’ salaries, 135,000 on office expenses, 75,000 on transportation, 15,000 on game films, 20,000 on uniforms and equipment, 45,000 on medical services, 35,000 on insurance and 40,000 on scouting for players last season. Player salaries are also increasing every year, perhaps faster than anything else. Last season, Cleveland’s full-back, Jim Brown, received the record amount of 45,000 dollars for playing 14 matches.

Surprisingly, this burst of prosperity for the professionals has not hurt college football. Attendances at college games have increased every year since 1954 and in 1964 more than 21,000,000 persons paid 60,000,000 dollars for tickets to these games. Pay-television and closed circuit television in theatres offer prospects of even bigger future incomes for the professional teams. Next season the national league clubs expect even more capacity crowds, greater television revenue, Increased profits and bigger pay cheques for the players. Both the National Football League and the American Football League are against increasing the number of teams but in every other way, the big business of professional football is constantly expanding.