7 Ways Money in Sports Rules the Games

By Richard Janvrin Contributor Updated: 20 November 2024

Richard Janvrin Contributor

Richard has been writing about sports since he was a teenager. Still, his first professional role came in 2015, covering all things NFL and fantasy football-related. From there, in December 2018, he started in the sports betting industry, covering sportsbook reviews before arriving to where he is today. 

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How Money Rules American and International Sports

We’re all aware of money in sports, but sometimes, we may not totally understand the magnitude of how it can affect leagues’ operations and interactions with fans.

Below, I have seven ways money has impacted sports, including college sports, broadcasting deals, the Middle East, and more. After seeing the money exchanged across various sports, you’ll also gain insight into the question, “How much is the sports industry worth?”

• College Sports NIL
• NFL Broadcasting Deals
• Stadium Naming Rights and Financing
• The Middle East Entering the Market
• Olympic and FIFA World Cup Bidding
• The Los Angeles Dodgers
• International Soccer Transfer Markets

College Sports NIL

In college sports, especially college football, NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals have impacted the sport. This includes players staying in school a bit longer than they would or transferring at the end of the season to improve a team.

According to On3, nine of the top 10 NIL values come from college football players:

1. Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado: $5.1 million
2. Livvy Dunne, Gymnastics, LSU: $4 million
3. Travis Hunter, DB/WR, Colorado: $3.1 million
4. Arch Manning, QB, Texas: $3.1 million
5. Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas: $2.2 million
6. Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama: $2.2 million
7. Jaxson Dart, QB, Ole Miss: $2.1 million
8. Cam Ward, QB, Miami: $1.9 million
9. Carson Beck, QB, Georgia: $1.9 million
10. Nico Iamaleava, QB, Tennessee, $1.9 million

Other notable players include Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel, Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, and more. In college, money in sports has had a massive impact.

Ward was a candidate to enter the 2024 NFL Draft, and while it’s unconfirmed, I believe the NIL money might’ve played a factor for him to stay in school, making money in sports, and play a higher level of competition to improve his draft stock. As of Sept. 23, 2024, Ward is the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy.

With NIL present, players no longer need to wait for their turn to play. They can transfer, earn money, and play right away. This system does allow teams like the Buckeyes to bring in two high-caliber players, Howard and running back Quinshon Judkins.

NFL Broadcasting Deals

While the NFL earning money from broadcasting deals is nothing new, we’re starting to see something new happen with streaming services becoming big-time competitors of standard television. This is one of the most prominent ways sports and money intersect.

Here are the current broadcasting deals the NFL has:

• ABC, ESPN, and Disney: $2.7 billion (2022-2033)
• YouTube TV/Google: $2 billion (2023-2029)
• NFL Network: $1.3 billion (contract length unknown)
• Fox: $2.2 billion (2023-2033)
• CBS/Paramount: $2.1 billion (2023-2033)
• NBC/Comcast: $2 billion (2023-2033)
• Amazon: $1 billion (2022-2033)
• Netflix: $150 million (2024-2026)

The NFL has games with Amazon, Peacock, and Netflix. These games are behind those service paywalls, and some NFL fans are simply not happy with that. Here’s how money in sports will impact NFL viewing in 2024 and beyond.

• The deal with Amazon is for Thursday Night Football.
• We also saw an exclusive Peacock game on Friday, Sept. 6, between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers in Brazil. This was their first game of the season.
• The Netflix deal is for three years and features exclusive Christmas Day games.

Combined, Peacock, Netflix, and Amazon Prime cost close to $40 per month if you opt for Netflix with no ads. Some fans aren’t happy with this, but the billions of dollars do demand attention.

Those contracts above combine for well over $13 billion.

Stadium Naming Rights and Financing

When you bet on NFL games, most of these teams are playing in stadiums around the country that are named after a brand or some kind of industry. The only teams without a sponsorship include the Green Bay Packers (Lambeau Field) and the Chicago Bears (Soldier Field). The Cleveland Browns also didn’t briefly, but now their field is referred to as Huntington Bank Field.

Here are the top five naming rights sponsorship values as of Dec. 1, 2023:

• Las Vegas Raiders (Allegiant): $20-$25 million
• Dallas Cowboys (AT&T): $17-$19 million
• Los Angeles Chargers/Rams (SoFi): $15 million
• Miami Dolphins (Hard Rock): $13.9 million
• Philadelphia Eagles (Lincoln Financial): $12 million

Needless to say, this is easy revenue in sports. Simply offer up the naming rights and make some cash.

In addition to these sponsorships, we always run into funding questions. If a team cannot secure funding to build a new stadium, it threatens to leave the area. The most recent was the Oakland Raiders moving to Las Vegas. We’ve also seen other teams, like the Houston Oilers, move to Tennessee to become the Titans. Unfortunately for those former fan bases, this is another way sports and money interact.

The Middle East Entering the Market

Countries in the Middle East, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, are investing billions of dollars into sports. We saw the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar, Saudi Arabia invest in LIV golf and notable esports competitions, and more.

Middle Eastern countries also have a hand in ownership for certain teams, including Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, and Newcastle United.

Paris Saint-Germain is backed by Qatar Sports Investments, Sheikh Mansour of the UAE purchased Manchester City, and finally, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund leads a group that purchased Newcastle United.

To host the 2022 World Cup, Qatar paid about $220 billion on infrastructure projects.

LIV Golf sent hundreds of millions to notable golfers like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. Now, LIVE and the PGA are set to merge.

Olympic and FIFA World Cup Bidding

Hosting the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup is a massive opportunity for countries to attract millions of tourists. As a result, these countries spend enormous amounts of money to upgrade the designated areas, whether it’s stadiums, transportation, and more.

As mentioned, Qatar spent about $220 billion, easily the most spent by any country to host an event. Rio spent about $13.1 billion (2016 World Cup), and Paris (2024 Summer Olympics) spent about $9 billion.

Countries willing to spend billions to upgrade their facilities and make it a hospital environment for a massive event typically win the bids.

Future Olympics and World Cup locations include the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 2026 (World Cup) and Los Angeles, California (2028 Summer Olympics).

The Los Angeles Dodgers

As of Sept. 23, 2024, the Dodgers’ ability to spend has proven to be massive for their franchise. During the 2023 offseason, they spent over $1 billion total, including $700 million for superstar Shohei Ohtani. They also signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto for 12 years and $325 million. They signed two other players, catcher Will Smith and starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow, to over $136 million.

The Dodgers are 93-63 as of Sept. 23, 2024. This is the best record in the MLB. Ohtani is hitting .301 with 53 home runs and 55 RBIs. He’s the only player ever to hit 50 home runs and have 50 stolen bases in a season. In terms of making money in sports, no one is making more than Ohtani.

Baseball doesn’t have a salary cap. There’s a luxury tax, but the Dodgers have shown they’re willing to spend whatever to win, which has a massive impact on baseball.

International Soccer Transfer Markets

I mentioned Paris Saint-Germain earlier and the Middle Eastern backing, which had a massive impact on the squad. In 2017, Neymar came over from Barcelona for about $263 million. They also had Kylian Mbappe come from Monaco for $214 million. There have been well over a dozen transfers north of $100 million. This kind of money improves the squads. The Premier League has been known to spend.

For the MLS, Lionel Messi is getting about $20.5 million per year from Inter Miami, as well as a share of revenue from Apple TV+ subscriptions and equity in the team. In all, this contract has a value of about $150 million.

This amount of money spent on players worldwide is a way in which franchises aim to increase their value and expand the sport’s reach globally even more.