For those who haven’t been paying attention, the NFL has been involved in a notable antitrust lawsuit centered around their Sunday Ticket television package. The lawsuit suggests the league conspired to price gouge fans by making out-of-market games only available on Sunday Ticket. It was so important that Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones testified. On Thursday, a verdict by the jury was reached. The league, including the Chicago Bears, would have to pay $96 million to the commercial class and $4 billion to the residential class.
The plaintiffs in the case asked for $21 billion. While the NFL seems to have avoided the worst-case scenario, a possibility still exists where that $4 billion could go higher. Why is this so important? The fallout could mean drastic changes to how teams sell their out-of-market media rights. Sunday Ticket was essentially the league’s way of revenue sharing. If that isn’t going to stick around much longer, there is a belief it could result in the death of the salary cap.
Either way, the Bears will be impacted if the league decides to lower the current cap to make up for the losses from the lawsuit.
Appeals court is almost certainly up next. The NFL will try to get the case dismissed or the punishment lowered. This process could stretch on for a long time. However, if they’re forced to pay up, it will lead to a landmark moment in league history. Death of the salary cap means teams would be in a free-for-all spending-wise. The richer teams could throw countless dollars at free agents or spend as much as they need to keep all of their own players. Conversely, lowering the cap means teams may be unable to keep certain players they’d hoped to.
The overall idea would be to adjust Sunday Ticket so that fans would be allowed to purchase individual packages of every team rather than having to get the entire one. It would be a cheaper alternative. Obviously, the NFL doesn’t want that because they likely lose money. Smaller market teams with smaller fanbases lose a huge chunk of the revenue stream. The Chicago Bears likely wouldn’t be affected too much. Their fans are numerous and widespread. Still, seeing how long the league tries to draw this process out will be interesting.
