Eagles, NFL Would Take Substantial Financial Hit with No Fans

The loss of money could be compounded by a decrease in the salary cap

Barring significant setbacks in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic it’s looking more and more likely that there will be a 2020 NFL season.

The question then becomes what will that season look like?

According to New York governor Andrew Cuomo Monday he has been encouraging pro sports teams in the state to "plan reopenings without fans," hardly a secret as sports entities around the globe have already started taking things in that direction.

If that remains the case come September, however, the NFL will be returning under a different economic landscape, one which would cost the Eagles over $200 million in revenue, according to Forbes.

The iconic business magazine estimated the NFL would lose $5.5 billion of stadium revenue, which includes ticket revenue, concessions, corporate sponsors, parking, and team store revenues, nearly 38 percent of the league’s total pie based on figures for the 2018 season.

However, the gross numbers were expected to increase absent any COVID-19 impact with the Raiders moving into their new digs in Las Vegas and both the Rams and Chargers sharing the opulent SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

The hit on individual teams varies with both Dallas and New England standing to lose over half of their projected revenues. For the Cowboys, it would be a stunning $621M of $950M in total revenue.

Jeffrey Lurie and the Eagles would stand to lose $204M of $482M in total revenue per the 2018 numbers.

The impact will also harm the players who agreed to a new CBA which essentially splits 47 percent of revenue off to them, meaning the first substantial ding to the salary cap in history unless a miracle is around the next corner.

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM’s Tony Bruno Show with Harry Mayes, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SBNation Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen