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http://sportsfans.org/2012/03/why-is-the-national-football-league-given-tax-exempt-status/
Legal procedure: Critics cry foul as NFL defends nonprofit status - NBC News.com
Borges: NFL millionaires cling to non-profit status | Boston Herald
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn is a conservative politician from Oklahoma with whom I agree about as often as Halley’s Comet is visible to the naked eye, but he’s clearly onto something with his continuing effort to end the charade that the NFL, as well as the NHL, ATP Tennis and the PGA Tour, have been running by claiming to be not-for-profit trade associations and hence exempt from taxation as a 501(c)(6). The league office, for example, collects $255 million in dues from the 32 league teams but pays no taxes on it because, hey, it’s not about the money.
The NFL has been fighting Coburn over this even after Major League Baseball relented in 2007, commissioner Bud Selig muttering “I know when the jig’s up” (or something like that). The NBA always has had the good sense to not argue it was anything but a for-profit operation, even in the years when not all of its teams seemed to understand that.
But the NFL is nothing if not shameless. It considers itself as privileged as Queen Elizabeth. While the 32 individual teams pay all the taxes accountants and tax attorneys can’t make disappear, the league office at 345 Park Ave. pays nada.
Why? Because they say they’re just doing what any good trade organization does. They’re not making money. They’re just trying to further the interests of the industry. That’s funny, I don’t recall them trying to further the interest of the World Football League or the United States Football League or the United Football League before they all croaked.
They didn’t try to further them; they tried to bury them. They’re no more a trade organization furthering the pro football industry than Dunkin’ Donuts is trying to further the bakery industry. They’re a for-profit organization that collects and disburses the league’s billions and lobbies Congress not to do things like what Coburn wants to do, which is end a symbolic absurdity in the tax code.
If the NFL is a tax-exempt not-for-profit trade organization like your local chamber of commerce, why did it pay commissioner Roger Goodell $29.49 million last year, $22.3 million of it in bonuses? Bonuses for what? For not making a profit?
When Sports Business Journal revealed Goodell’s salary earlier this year, it was defended by Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, chairman of the NFL’s Compensation Committee, by saying, “The NFL is the most successful and best-managed sports league in the world. This is in no small part due to Roger’s leadership and the value he brings to the table in every facet of the sport and business of the league. His compensation reflects that.”
No one would question Goodell’s efforts on the league’s behalf or his understanding of how best to run a business, whether that’s negotiating a favorable collective bargaining agreement or hornswoggling retired players into a settlement of a concussion lawsuit that left the majority of the plaintiffs out in the cold and the owners safe at home. But if that’s what his office does, how does it qualify for a tax exemption amounting to an estimated $109 million over the next 10 years?
That’s a question Coburn has been trying to bring into legislative form for a year now with S. 1524, the PRO Sports Act, but guess what? He can’t even get fiscal watchdog U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to co-sign it even though it’s a bill designed to stop tax handouts to the most profitable league in sports history.
That might seem baffling until one realizes the persuasive power of access to a Super Bowl ticket or two.
The NFL spends more than $1 million a year on federal lobbying. Individual club owners have written substantial checks to various political-action committees and individual politicians. They’re all part of the same club: the stadium club.
“If you are in a state with a pro football league (team) or runs a pro golf tournament, the career politicians are afraid to touch it,” Coburn charged when unveiling his annual Wastebook of profligate public spending and tax breaks. “That $100 million we are giving to that very elite group of people in the front office of these major leagues is money you are paying in taxes to make it up.”
Well, somebody has to pay it. Who doesn’t want to help out those poor struggling guys who own NFL teams? Don’t you?
Well, you already are.
Legal procedure: Critics cry foul as NFL defends nonprofit status - NBC News.com
Borges: NFL millionaires cling to non-profit status | Boston Herald
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn is a conservative politician from Oklahoma with whom I agree about as often as Halley’s Comet is visible to the naked eye, but he’s clearly onto something with his continuing effort to end the charade that the NFL, as well as the NHL, ATP Tennis and the PGA Tour, have been running by claiming to be not-for-profit trade associations and hence exempt from taxation as a 501(c)(6). The league office, for example, collects $255 million in dues from the 32 league teams but pays no taxes on it because, hey, it’s not about the money.
The NFL has been fighting Coburn over this even after Major League Baseball relented in 2007, commissioner Bud Selig muttering “I know when the jig’s up” (or something like that). The NBA always has had the good sense to not argue it was anything but a for-profit operation, even in the years when not all of its teams seemed to understand that.
But the NFL is nothing if not shameless. It considers itself as privileged as Queen Elizabeth. While the 32 individual teams pay all the taxes accountants and tax attorneys can’t make disappear, the league office at 345 Park Ave. pays nada.
Why? Because they say they’re just doing what any good trade organization does. They’re not making money. They’re just trying to further the interests of the industry. That’s funny, I don’t recall them trying to further the interest of the World Football League or the United States Football League or the United Football League before they all croaked.
They didn’t try to further them; they tried to bury them. They’re no more a trade organization furthering the pro football industry than Dunkin’ Donuts is trying to further the bakery industry. They’re a for-profit organization that collects and disburses the league’s billions and lobbies Congress not to do things like what Coburn wants to do, which is end a symbolic absurdity in the tax code.
If the NFL is a tax-exempt not-for-profit trade organization like your local chamber of commerce, why did it pay commissioner Roger Goodell $29.49 million last year, $22.3 million of it in bonuses? Bonuses for what? For not making a profit?
When Sports Business Journal revealed Goodell’s salary earlier this year, it was defended by Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, chairman of the NFL’s Compensation Committee, by saying, “The NFL is the most successful and best-managed sports league in the world. This is in no small part due to Roger’s leadership and the value he brings to the table in every facet of the sport and business of the league. His compensation reflects that.”
No one would question Goodell’s efforts on the league’s behalf or his understanding of how best to run a business, whether that’s negotiating a favorable collective bargaining agreement or hornswoggling retired players into a settlement of a concussion lawsuit that left the majority of the plaintiffs out in the cold and the owners safe at home. But if that’s what his office does, how does it qualify for a tax exemption amounting to an estimated $109 million over the next 10 years?
That’s a question Coburn has been trying to bring into legislative form for a year now with S. 1524, the PRO Sports Act, but guess what? He can’t even get fiscal watchdog U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to co-sign it even though it’s a bill designed to stop tax handouts to the most profitable league in sports history.
That might seem baffling until one realizes the persuasive power of access to a Super Bowl ticket or two.
The NFL spends more than $1 million a year on federal lobbying. Individual club owners have written substantial checks to various political-action committees and individual politicians. They’re all part of the same club: the stadium club.
“If you are in a state with a pro football league (team) or runs a pro golf tournament, the career politicians are afraid to touch it,” Coburn charged when unveiling his annual Wastebook of profligate public spending and tax breaks. “That $100 million we are giving to that very elite group of people in the front office of these major leagues is money you are paying in taxes to make it up.”
Well, somebody has to pay it. Who doesn’t want to help out those poor struggling guys who own NFL teams? Don’t you?
Well, you already are.
