Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen with the NFL’s 2020 season. While the players and league are working on various plans of how to progress in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, something Browns center JC Tretter shed a lot of light upon in his conference call this week, there is no definite answer for anything just yet.
One of the popular proposals and theories is for teams to play in empty stadiums. That’s the current model in Korean baseball and German soccer and is a definite possibility for a variety of American sports. If that happens, the Browns will lose a significant source of income.
According to a report in Forbes, the Browns would stand to lose $113 million in revenue if the games are played with no fans in the seats. The figure is based on 2018 stadium revenue for all 32 NFL teams and represents 37 percent of the Browns’ total revenue stream.
As author Mike Ozanian notes,
A season without fans would also hurt the players. In March, the league agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement that allocated 47% of football-related income to the players in 2020 and 48% in 2021.
The NFL has still yet to make any decisions on fans or player access, but it’s a hot topic of conversation. With so much money at stake, it’s hard to see the NFL playing in front of empty stadiums for long, if at all.