One thing may have changed significantly since the 1986 (or so) study
that claimed only five football programs made money.  The TV packages
have exploded over the last ten years or so, as evidenced by the multitude
of games on the tube.  To ignore this enormous increase in revenue and
assume that the previous study still holds (assuming it once did) doesn't
make sense.
 
(BTW, can anyone tell me how to get my hands on this study?)
 
Frankly, the revenue/expense numbers from the USA Today site are SO lopsided
that the only way you could get to anything close to only five or ten
football teams making a profit would be to invoke the kind of Hollywood
accounting practices that still show movies like E.T. still in the red.
 
Dave Hendrickson
 
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