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There has been a lot written about the Jets financial picture this off-season. Here is my take on the situation.
In a column this week, Daily News sportswriter Manish Mehta wrote, “The latest news released by Forbes that the Jets are worth $1.17 billion ($227 million annual revenue) and the ninth most valuable sports franchise on the planet reinforces the notion that money shouldn’t be a problem for owner Woody Johnson. (Johnson, who purchased the team for $635 million in 2000, has seen the value of the franchise increase by 84 percent).”
When you quote those kinds of numbers, it sounds like the Jets should just pay Revis, or other players looking for new deals, whatever they want.
But there are a couple of problems with using that Forbes’ story as a way to guage the Jets wealth.
First of all, it’s all guesswork, so we don’t know if the numbers are entirely accurate. Remember, they didn’t see the Jets books.
Secondly, since Woody Johnson isn’t selling the team anytime soon, the $1.17 billion figure is irrelevant. That figure is only pertinent if Johnson sold the team and received that amount of money.
And even though Forbes thinks the team is worth $1.17 billion, good luck getting somebody to ante up the figure in this awful economy.
While I’m not going to hold a charity fundraiser for Johnson, there are some financial “issues” with this team. There are with all teams right now.
Even the Dallas Cowboys, a team that signed one free agent this off-season, a backup guard, Montrae Holland.
We talks so often about unsold PSL’s, and that is a factor, but something we don’t talk about nearly enough are unsold luxury boxes. That is a major problem.
Corporations either don’t have to money to spend on them, or they are afraid of Big Brother.
If you are a bank, Wall Street firm or auto company that took bailout money from the government, you are definitely wary of plopping down millions of dollars on a luxury box. One of Czars (and I’m not being a wise guy) would question you on an expenditure like that.
So while we are all so caught up in PSL sales, keep the lagging luxury boxes sales in mind. From what I hear, it’s not going very well.
Also, the naming rights of the New Meadowlands have yet to be sold.
That money would certainly come in handy.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when the Jets cut five coaches from that staff after last season, something Rex was forced to do, you should have seen the writing on the wall.
When the team moved on from Marques Douglas, Jay Feely and James Dearth, for a few million dollars total, that was another sign that belt-tightening was going in Florham Park.
I actually have a bigger problem with those cost-cutting measures than the Revis’ situation.
$12-13 million a year is more than fair for Revis.
But saving a few hundred thousand dollars on a player like Dearth, or a million on a “money” kicker like Feely or a solid defensive lineman like Douglas, is short-sighted. I don’t like to spend other people’s money, but it seems like the Jets could have figure out a way to keep Douglas, Feely and Dearth without bankrupting their franchise.
But you know what – we early need to keep in mind how the recession is impacting these teams. 10 miles from Jets camp, the mayor of Newark just cut the work week for city workers to four days a week and toilet paper for city buildings. The city has a $70 million budget shortfall.
Governor Christie froze the salaries of all the teachers in New Jersey.
Things are bad out there.
And if we think for one second that NFL teams are immune from the recession, we are being somewhat naïve.