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The NFL has several contingencies planned for the 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Besides delaying the season, the NFL could elect to play games without fans in stadiums. Which begs the question — how would an empty Paul Brown Stadium impact the Cincinnati Bengals?
Over at Forbes, Mike Ozanian looked at this very question and noted the following:
“The NFL would lose $5.5 billion of stadium revenue (the sum of tickets, concessions, sponsors, parking and team stores)—or 38% of its total revenue—based on figures for the 2018 season (ranking below). But the impact on the individual teams would vary greatly. For example, the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots would lose over half their total revenue while the Buffalo Bills, the Tennessee Titans and the Cincinnati Bengals would lose less than one-third.”
The Bengals wound up ranking 30th on the list just above the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers, with $99 million of their $380 million in revenue coming from stadium revenue.
While it’s probably more fun from a fan perspective to think about how an empty stadium would impact the players — headlined by Joe Burrow — it’s worth thinking ahead to the bigger picture across the entire NFL. With teams like Dallas estimated to lose around $600 or more million, the impact of fanless games will be felt leaguewide.
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