Dear Alumni:
At the Retired Players Convention in Phoenix I asked several questions
regarding Players Inc. Here are the questions I asked and the answers
I got:
Question: How much revenue is currently generated by Players Inc, and
from what sources?
Answer: $22.4 Million Total. $11 Million from Football Cards; 8
Million from Sponsorships; 4.4 Million for Player Marketing
Opportunities.
Note: I assume that $22.4 is the net revenue, because their annual
retail sales of Players Inc. licensed products is over $750 million!
Question: How much of the revenue going into Players Inc. are for
Players (Retired and Active) and how much is for Operations (Staff and
other costs) ?
Answer: 40% of funds go to operations; 40% go to Active Players.
Note: I could be wrong, but I don't believe they could tell us, at that
time, how much went to to Retired Players. For the purposes of
discussion I will assume that the remaining 20% goes to retired
players.
Question: I understand that each Active player signs an agreement with
Players Inc. that allows them to use their image, name etc. for
marketing purposes. How much money does an Active Player get when they
sign the licensing at the beginning of the season?
Answer: The amount has recently gone up from about $6,500 to
approximately $7,000 or $8,000 for each player.
During the presentation, the presenter (I can't remember who it was)
showed us several charts. One of them was a pie chart showing that 375
retired players received some form of compensation from Players Inc.
and that 104 were (HOF) Hall of Famers and 271 were non-Hall of Famers.
They seemed quite proud of the fact that more non-HOF retired players
were compensated,. Unfortunately, they did not tell us what the actual
amount of compensation was for the HOF and non-HOF retired players.
Based on the figures they presented at the convention and my assumption
that the retird players received 20% of $22.4 million net revenue, then
$4,480,000 would have been paid out to retired players. How much of
that was paid to HOF's and how much to non-HOF's? I don't know, but I
would imagine that a high percentage is going to the HOF's, and rightly
so.
If the 104 HOF's received just 50% of the money they would each be
receiving an average of $21,538 annually. If the 271 non-HOF retired
players received 50% of the money, they would each be receiving an
average of $8,266 annually. Obviously, these are just averages, and
some HOF and non-HOF players would receive more or less.
In order to be considered for any compensation via Players Inc. you
first need to sign their licensing agreement. Secondly, you must be a
member in good standing (pay your dues!) Thirdly, you probably need to be a Hall of Famer or someone "in demand" (how do they determine that?), and lastly you probably have to be on Player Inc.'s good behavior list. If you have made critical comments about the NFLPA or
Players Inc. you might be on the shit list for quite some time. When
exactly does hell freeze over?
It's interesting to note that Players Inc. boasts of representing 3,500
retired players. On their Website www.nflplayers.com they state, "Each
year the player marketing department negotiates and manages more than
3,500 player marketing opportunities for 1,800 active and 3,500 retired
NFL players. They say they "represent" 3,500 retired players, but based
on the information they gave us at the convention, their only paying
375 retired players. What marketing opportunities do the other 3,125
retired players get? Are they including all dues paying members of the
NFLPA Retired Players in this figure. Are they saying they have
licensing agreements with 3,500 retired players? If so, is your
licensing agreement collecting dust in the basement of Players Inc.?
Now that you know what Most of the retired players are getting from
Players Inc. (The short end of the stick)...... I should also note that
in addition to the approx. $8,000 each active player gets at the
beginning of the season for signing the licensing agreement, many of
the "in-demand" players get huge sums of money for their appearances
both during and after the season. They divvy up approximately
$8,960,000.00. Not bad for hanging out at a golf tournament, Super bowl
party or some charity event.
Now that I've shared this information with you, I need to make one
thing very clear. I have no problem whatsoever with the fact that many
of the "high profile" Active and Retired players get compensated by
Players Inc. That's the way it should be. Players Inc. has done an
exceptionally fine job of increasing its revenues since its inception
in 1994. What bothers me is the way they make it sound like 3,500
retired players are benefiting from this companies representation. When
was the last time you received a check?
Obviously, there are other ways to compensate players, and its not all
in the form of cash. I don't know if Players Inc. counts airfare, hotel
stay, food etc. when they determine benefits to players. I know that
many of the retired players that are not in 'high demand" would enjoy
an invitation to an event even if they were not being paid. Maybe this
is happening, and that is where they are getting the 3,500 figure from.
When was the last time you were invited to a golf tournament or Super
Bowl party?
It would be nice if Players Inc. could find a way to get more of the
retired players invited to and compensated for events, but the reality
is, most of us that played never lit up the marquee and as we get older
the fans begin to forget our generation of players and therefore we are
no longer "in demand"........maybe we never were......but we did
contribute in some small way to the greatest show on earth....the NFL.
There are a lot of good people that work for Players Inc. and they are
doing an excellent job of marketing the NFL and its players. I just
wish there was more they could do for the majority of retired players
that are slowly disappearing from the memory of the fans.
For your information, the paid staff (approx. 35 people) and the
operating expenses of Players Inc., based on what they told us at the
convention, are approximately 9 Million dollars annually.
The Players Inc. executive staff includes:
Gene Upshaw - Chairman
Doug Allen - President
Pat Allen - Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Pam Adolph - Vice President, Apparel & Operations
Dawn Ridley - Vice President, Corporate Marketing & Business
Development
Karen Bush - Assistant Vice President, Trading Cards & Collectibles
Felice Jones - Assistant Vice President, Special Events
Josh Goodstadt - Assistant Vice President, Multimedia
Angela Manolakas - Assistant Vice President, Player Marketing
Lara Potter - Assistant Vice President, Communications
Doug Ramsay - Assistant Vice President, Internet
Joe Nahra - Staff Counsel
If I have stated anything that is off the mark, then I welcome a
rebuttal and/or accurate information from Players Inc., or anyone else
for that matter. I don't have all the information I would like to have,
therefore I can only comment on the information that has been given to
me by Players Inc.
If you have any questions regarding this information, please feel free
to contact me at jeffni...@aol.com, or respond to this google posting.
Sincerely,
Jeff Nixon
Vice President
Buffalo Bills - Retired Players Chapter
