NFL owners earn 7,000 times more than the average fan, while fans face $700 cost increases under GOP Fiscal Plans, alongside rising streaming & ticket prices.

Today, in time for the kickoff to the 2025 professional football season, Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) released a new study showing that the estimated $600 million of annual income of the average NFL franchise owner is 7,000 times greater than the income of the typical NFL fan, who brings in on average about $85,000 a year. The top 0.1% of highest-income households (of which every owner is certainly a member) will each, on average, receive a tax cut of over $286,000 next year thanks to the tax-and-spending plan enacted by Republicans this summer. Meanwhile, the average fan will face $700 in higher expenses as modest tax cuts are overwhelmed by higher prices caused by the Trump tariffs. 

“Economic inequality and price gouging are as much on display in the new NFL season as peak athleticism, acrobatic catches, and explosive runs,” said David Kass, ATF’s Executive Director. “The fans who loyally support their favorite teams through good years and bad, putting up with steadily rising ticket prices, streaming costs and concession-stand gouging, have little in common with the billionaires who own their franchises. It’s the owners who will benefit from Trump-GOP economic policies in the form of huge tax cuts for billionaires and economic elites like themselves, while fans will lose money from a combination of cuts to vital public services like Medicaid and SNAP and Trump’s chaotic tariff regime.”

Source: Americans for Tax Fairness