The NFL Gets Thrown for a Loss by the IRS
The world’s most unlikely nonprofit, the National Football League, is blitzing against new IRS regulations that would require it and other NPs to reveal on their Form 990 filings the salaries of way more key personnel than it currently does. The NFL is asking Congress to allow it to keep secret the names of its executives, with the exception of the league commissioner, who earn more than $150,000 annually.
Joe Browne, the N.F.L.’s executive vice president for communications and public affairs, said league lobbyists had not yet found a Congressional sponsor for their proposal.
“I’ve been here 40 years,” Browne said. “I finally get to the point where I’m making 150 grand, and they want to put my name and address on the form so the lawyer next door who makes a million dollars a year can laugh at me.”
He added, “A hundred and fifty thousand here is not the same as it is in Dubuque, Iowa, or West Texas.”
I’m sure schoolteachers and nurses in Dubuque and Midland are very sympathetic to Mr. Browne’s plight.
Anyway, I had no idea the NFL was classified as a nonprofit. It considers itself, according to the New York Times, a “trade association” funded by its various teams, whose owners have access to the league’s salary information, and so its proposal to Congress is to exempt it and other trade associations from disclosing paycheck data. Ah, but here’s the rub:
The league benefits from tax-exempt status by being able to sell hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds at a reduced rate that are then lent at cut rates to clubs building new stadiums.
Throw in the many, many millions of dollars that the league and its teams earn from television deals, merchandising and licensing, corporate affiliations, and the like, and you’ve got a situation soaked in chutzpah. Major League Baseball, faced with the same dilemma, last year threw up its hands and changed its status to for-profit. Don’t be surprised if the NFL punts and does the same thing. | 501(c)
