It's possible this is true however you also need to remember that the era of very wealthy billionaires owning NFL teams is a fairly recent one. Most of the people who owned NFL teams prior to 1994 were more like Kraft and the Rooneys than like Dan Snyder, Paul Allen, Woody Johnson, etc. So maybe we're arguing apples and oranges here. Maybe the NFL has become such a good investment that the price of entry has gone way up and the returns are the reason that is true. If that's the case then we're going to get a veritable stampede to the exits when the network contracts start bidding down from where they are now - and that's probably going to be the next time things are renegotiated.
perhaps its a separate/off topic discussion but I disagree with your idea Ralph Wilson was a good owner. The guy went cheap with every single decision of his career. Just because he got lucky with one of his cheap decisions (hiring the inexperienced, cheap Bill Polian), doesn't mean he was a good owner. That was rabbit's foot stuff. And its funny you mention he 'kept' the Bills in buffalo as he very nearly cost the city its team by being so cheap. He was so cheap he was scared off by an inheritance tax so he didn't give the team to any younger family as he refused to sell. The team remained chained to him with an uncertain future as he stopped caring completely. That city got lucky with Pegula buying the bills. He has decision making issues but he's not a cheap clown like Ralph Wilson
Yes, exactly. No doubt because of the era of dirt-low interest rates. I'll be the Krafts have refinanced Gillette Stadium half a dozen times over the last decade. And if you're lender looking at a financial statement and business plan for an NFL team, would you prefer one that includes a salary cap and cost certainty, or one that allows for unbridled spending in a business chock full of emotional people? Before you answer - that's not a real question. The networks SHOULD start bidding down. If I had negotiated those contracts, I'd be ripping mad that I agreed to pay a bazillion dollars only to have the NFL open its own cable channel and compete against me. Imagine the nerve. I'm not saying I don't want or enjoy the NFL Network. I do. I just have a hard time swallowing the chutzpah of the NFL owners, who repeatedly demand and GET so much out of everyone beneath them - fans, players, networks, etc. - when so few have any commitment to winning or running a successful football business.
I don't know the history of the bankruptcy but the wiki on it suggests it was a unique case, with the Senators being an expansion team that was awarded to the owners before firm plans were in place to build the arena and the necessary infrastructure around it. This lead to an $80M default loss before the team even began operations, which is a hefty penalty to pay in a small city in a tertiary sport like the NHL. The guy who owned the team originally was a real estate developer from the area and it's not surprising that he had trouble with the type of loss that he took right off the bat when the provincial government refused to pay for things that he thought they would pay for. He probably should have negotiated an ironclad deal before he got the franchise.
