GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Packers finished the 2015 fiscal year with a franchise-record profit of $48.9 million, a figure that includes $222.6 million in national revenue.
Calling it "another strong year financially," Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy said during his annual meeting with reporters in advance of the team's July 21 shareholders meeting at Lambeau Field that the combination of the team's worldwide popularity, the NFL's dominance as the United States' most-watched sport and the Packers' on-field success led to the record-setting bottom line.
"Obviously, the continued [on-field] success -- the consistent success -- has been helpful for us, as well as the popularity of not only the Packers but the league over the long period of time," Murphy said.
All 32 teams saw a significant spike in their shared national revenues a year ago, when the league's lucrative new television contracts kicked in. The Packers originally reported their national revenue as $226.4 million for the 2014 fiscal year, but a change in accounting procedures related to visiting team shares of ticket revenues changed that number to $209.1 million for 2014. Using that new formula for last year, the Packers arrived at the $222.6 million figure.
The Packers finished the 2014 fiscal year with $29.2 million in profit and attributed the nearly $20 million spike in part to a decrease in onetime expenses incurred last year. The team's previous record for net income was a $43 million profit for the 2012 fiscal year.
In addition to the $222.6 million in national revenue the Packers received as their share from the 32-team league, the team generated $186.2 million in local revenue, a remarkable figure given the team is in the smallest market in the league. That local revenue contributed to the franchise-record $408.7 million in total revenue and to the team's $75 million profit from operations, also an all-time high.
Murphy said the Packers' net income ranked ninth in the 32-team league, the third consecutive year the Packers have finished there.
"But I should tell you, if our revenues were 1 percent lower, we would have been 13th," Murphy said. "It's a very tight number of teams right there."
The Packers are the only NFL team that is required to share its financial information because they are technically a publicly owned company, even though the team's 360,760 shareholders hold stock that has no monetary value and cannot be traded.
Murphy and Paul Baniel, the team's vice president of finances and administration, said the Packers are expecting an uptick in player costs next year because a number of starters, including running back Eddie Lacy and three members of the team's starting offensive line, are entering the final year of their contracts.
"We've got a number of key players up with their contracts expiring," Murphy said. "And then it really becomes a question of the timing of when we sign the extensions and whether we use roster bonuses or signing bonuses."