No Football Could Be Bad For Local Economy

The NFL Players Association predicts that if labor disputes result in the cancellation of this fall’s football season, Greater Boston and each city that hosts a football franchise could loose 3,000 jobs.

According to the Boston Globe, the local economy could be out $160 million in sports-related spending.

Chris Cakebread, professor of sports marketing and advertising at Boston University, warns that no football season will put stadium workers out of a job and mean significantly lower revenues for local restaurants and hotels.

Last season, networks that broadcast NFL games charged the largest amount for a 30-second advertisement during games. Local stations could be affected by that loss of advertising revenue.

“Revenues coming into the stations that sponsor the Patriots are significant and you can’t recoup that outside of that particular event because there is nothing to replace it,” Cakebread told Morning Edition Friday. “So, it’s going to impact them considerably and it will certainly play a little bit with their bottom line.”

From a public relations perspective, Cakebread predicts the players will come out of this dispute looking better than team owners.

“They're the ones that take the knocks out on the field, they're the ones that get hurt,” Cakebread said. “They're the ones that have no medical coverage when they finish their season and I think if they spin it properly they'll come off looking like they were looking for better revenues to help support the players past their playing time.”

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