A couple of years back, Roger Goodell persuaded Amazon Prime to pay $10bn so the streamer could show one live NFL game every Thursday night for a decade.
In the same negotiation, the rest of the fixtures were parcelled out to television networks for 10 times that sum. In his 19 years as commissioner, the league’s annual revenue has nudged past $20bn, and the value of clubs has increased so much that the Washington Commanders recently sold for $6.05bn.
All of which explains why Goodell is on a salary of $64m, making him better paid than any player in the sport. Nobody is better at wringing money out of people for his bosses than this guy.
Against that background, the least surprising thing about the NFL announcing the Pittsburgh Steelers will host a competitive home game in Croke Park next autumn was that the Irish Government was shaken down to contribute €10m towards the occasion.
The richest and most profitable sports league in the world could only pencil Dublin into the calendar if the State agreed to stump up an eight-figure sum to cover various expenses, including a licence, security, transport, and something called a “city activation” fee.
While the jury remains out on whether that is a smart use of exchequer funds, the contract leaves no doubt the NFL are the best-dressed welfare spongers in the world.
NFL owners are collectively worth almost $1 trillion yet this league had the nerve to hold on to its tax-exempt non-profit status until 2015. Born without embarrassment genes, these are the plutocrats brazenly tapping up the Irish Government for a hand-out. Most clubs are playthings for some of the wealthiest families in America, dynasties that have amassed vast fortunes from naked capitalism. More power to them.
In their sporting passions, however, the same people never pass up an opportunity to squeeze dollars, or euros in this particular case, from put-upon taxpayers. They are practised in the art of corporate welfare, always making sure other, less well-off people get press ganged into underwriting their lavish expenses and enhancing their profits. Dublin is only the latest rube.
Twenty-seven of the 30 magnificent stadiums in the NFL were funded with taxpayer dollars, ridiculously generous tax breaks and other subsidies. Not willingly either. In most cases, local and state governments had their arms twisted, having to stump up cash to stop the clubs relocating to another city, the standard, apocalyptic threat issued by teams in need of better venues.
Buffalo, one of the most depressed towns in America, is spending over $1bn it doesn’t have building a new home to hold on to the Bills.
In Nashville, where 14 per cent live below the poverty line, they are giving the Tennessee Titans (used to be the Houston Oilers until they got a better offer) the same amount in public funds toward a state-of-the-art, domed version of Nissan Stadium.
This is the way of it with the NFL’s feudal lords. You cross their palms with silver and pay fitting financial tribute . . . or else.
The most jingoistic league in America used to make a big deal of celebrating the military during television broadcasts. Pre-match flag ceremonies involving men and women in uniforms marching in lockstep, heartfelt cutaways to soldiers recently returned from war zones sitting in the stands with their families.
It turned out the clubs received $10m from the armed forces for this pageantry to not so subtly promote recruitment. The Steelers were among many teams discovered to be cashing in via what was termed “paid patriotism”. Lining their pockets with American taxpayer dollars.
In 1933, Art Rooney splurged $2,500 for the Steelers’ franchise. Should the remaining members of his family still involved choose to sell it anytime soon, bidding would start well north of $5bn.
A Pittsburgh institution, the club has never been shy about sucking at the public teat, strong-arming city and county taxpayers into contributing $281m, around 80 per cent of the total cost, towards the construction of Heinz Field back in 2001.
These days, their home is called Acrisure Stadium because an insurance company paid the Rooneys $150m for the naming rights. Theirs is a successful and lucrative business model.
“The opportunity for the Pittsburgh Steelers to play in Ireland is truly special, not only because of the Rooney family history there, but also to play in front of the growing number of Steelers fans in Ireland,” said Art Rooney II, current Steelers’ president.
“We are thrilled to be part of this historic event to represent Pittsburgh in a game that brings the NFL to the great sports fans in Ireland.”
At this point in our history, are we not mature enough as a nation to see through this terribly clichéd Irish-American guff about romantic ties to the auld sod?
If the Rooneys felt such a keen pull towards their ancestors who departed Co Down way back when, surely, as one of the league’s oldest and most respected members, they could have pressured Goodell into not hustling the Irish people out of €10m?
That is if playing in Dublin does mean something more to them, other than the opportunity to make easy money and potentially grow their fan base. They are perfectly legitimate reasons for any professional sport to flaunt their wares here. Just don’t harp on about how thrilled you are to come back then ask us to pay you for the privilege.
