Earlier this month, we reported that the NFL was raising the debt limit for teams, allowing each franchise now to account for $500 million, rather than $350 million. That’s an increase of $150 million, and as it turns out, perhaps that wasn’t such an arbitrary number.
That seems to be right in the ballpark of what the average team will lose in revenue this season if they play in empty stadiums, from the loss of ticket sales and in-stadium spending during the course of games. The numbers vary a fair bit, actually, with Pittsburgh ranking pretty much in the middle of the pack.