NFL faces tough times for 2020, then bright economic outlook

Let's get this straight from the outset: If the NFL has no fans at any games this season — or doesn't have much of a season at all — it will not go out of business.

Sure, the 32 teams and the league itself will lose millions, very possibly billions of dollars. Its broadcast partners will take a hit harder than any that Von Miller has delivered on the field. Same for sponsors and advertisers who pinpoint pro football as the best way to reach fans (read: consumers).

And unless the coronavirus pandemic stretches beyond the 2020 season, the NFL will come out right where it has been for decades: on top of the sports world.

“The NFL is to the sports and entertainment industry the way Amazon is to the retail industry," says Marc Ganis, co-founder of Chicago-based consulting group Sportscorp and a confidant of many NFL owners.

“We need to look at this as an overarching umbrella: This has a likelihood of being a one-season problem. So as we get to the 2021 season, the problem will have gone away, so it is a one-year aberration.

“There’s a semi-permanent impact (on other industries) I don’t see for the NFL. I see the NFL coming back stronger than ever for two reasons:

— "The value of the NFL for non-attendance activity. Broadcasting, gambling, Internet, video gaming, those all need the NFL more than ever before. The kinds of people and consumer activities it attracts, it will come back more strong.

— “The new CBA with the players, the 11 years of labor peace. When it was approved in March there were a host of high-profile players saying they were against it, in large measure because they didn’t see a rush to do it so quickly. They were as wrong as anybody could ever be. You just don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so get it done when you can get it...