One of the important reasons for the massive commercial success of American football’s National Football League (NFL), and its day-of-days known as Super Bowl Sunday, is that its economic model was in place from the very beginning. Unlike other major sports including baseball, which had been around for much longer, the NFL did not develop unevenly and in a fragmented fashion across decades.

“The interesting, overarching theme is the sport being built based on equality between teams and the recognition of the value of television revenue,” says Matt Croasdaile CA, partner at Longevity Partners, and board member of American Football Australia.

“Major League Baseball generated the majority of its revenue from ticket sales because they’d been around since before television. They didn’t truly appreciate the value of television at the beginning.”

In baseball, Croasdaile says, individual teams negotiated their own TV rights deals. They were not incentivised to televise home games because their strongest focus was on ticket sales. This allowed the NFL to expand.

“When the NFL arrived, they agreed to collectively negotiate with the TV networks for an entire package,” Croasdaile says. “That allowed them to drive up the value of the TV product.”

Here are five more key financial foundations that underpin the NFL’s commercial success – and the lessons they offer accounting professionals.

1. A competition built on equality

The vast majority of TV monies, league-wide sponsorship and other revenue earned by the NFL is pooled, then evenly distributed across its 32 teams.

Croasdaile, who captained Australia during the 2011 American Football World Cup in Austria, says this creates a more competitive product.

“In the NFL, approximately 60–70% of games come down to the fourth quarter and 50% are decided by one score,” he says. “That doesn’t happen in the older sports, where the wealthier clubs typically dominate every season.”

For accountants, this is an interesting lesson. The competitive balance of the NFL isn’t just good for fairness, it also drives revenue, audience growth and long-term asset value.

2. Aggressive but fair globalisation

A game played in only one nation is a game that is minimising its chances of growth. Knowing this, the NFL has designed an active expansion strategy to take it offshore.

In 2025, Croasdaile says, the NFL played seven of its usual competitive games – not showpiece matches, but points-carrying league games – in other territories. These matches were played in Brazil, UK, Germany, Spain and Ireland.

In 2026, the NFL will stage its first regular-season game in Australia at the MCG, with the Los Angeles Rams confirmed as the designated home team. The exact date and opponent are yet to be officially announced.

This brings us to another important point – Australia is one of the global territories open to the Los Angeles Rams for business. Clubs can’t just enter new territories to earn private income. Instead, the NFL has given each of them permission to operate only in specific global territories.

The focus offered by strategic market segmentation is another valuable lesson for CAs working with companies considering going global.

3. Shared revenue + local revenue = win/win

The shared revenue from media and national sponsorship isn’t all that drives the financial success of the NFL and its clubs, Croasdaile says. National income streams are shared but local income remains with the club.

This includes ticket sales, premium seating and hospitality packages, food and drinks sold during games, local sponsorships and revenue from other events held in their stadium. This can lead to massive differences in total revenue between teams.

“Shared revenue is around US$400 million per club but major clubs like Dallas Cowboys can earn another US$800 million locally each year,” Croasdaile says.

4. All things unequal: salary caps

So, what prevents the on-field dominance of wealthier clubs, like Dallas Cowboys? That’s what the salary cap is for.

Croasdaile says the cap – the maximum amount a club can spend on player salaries each year – is roughly US$280 million per team. That figure applies to the 53-player active roster, injured reserve and practice squad, and is directly tied to shared league revenue, not private or overall club revenue.

This cap is crucial. It means big clubs can’t outmuscle the smaller ones on the field by buying up the best players with more generous incentives.

5. Sponsorship and commercial innovation

Most important to understand is that American football clubs are for-profit businesses.

Unlike some other major sporting leagues around the globe, where clubs might be not-for-profit or may wholly or partly belong to their fans, NFL clubs are given the freedom to be as profitable as they like, especially with local revenue.

So, while the creativity and cost of advertising during the Super Bowl event often grabs headlines, clubs are busy all year long bringing in extra revenue.

Croasdaile recalls a recent Netflix documentary showing how one team’s owner pursued a club-specific Nike stadium sponsorship, even while it conflicted with NFL league-wide sponsorship deals – and allowed the team to keep all of the revenue itself.

“That club owner has always been aggressive in getting more revenue in the door … he’s definitely a commercially savvy individual,” he says.

The final lesson for accountants? Even in a tightly regulated revenue ecosystem, well-designed partnerships can introduce outsized commercial value.