Teams are very concerned that it will drop a ton next year because of decreased revenue from COVID. The salary cap is based on expected revenue. Teams stuck with big contracts that spent down to the cap limit this year will be fucked next year if that happens.
Really? Why? They're potentially going to lose two sources of revenue, neither of which is irrelevant, but neither of which is game changing:
- Game day revenue (tickets and concessions)
- Other stadium activity (primarily concerts)
Broadcast revenue will be unaffected - if fans can't go to games then even more of them will be watching on TV, so broadcasters aren't pulling out of the contracts. Merchandising might be slightly impacted by the high street retail shutdown but my guess is that the majority of merchandising sales are done online already anyway.
I'm not hugely sympathetic to the idea of any NFL teams crying poor. I think there will be fans in the stadiums by September anyway.