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Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip
1) There is no standard format (like tax forms almost are) that makes any direct comparisons impossible--even in the same sport.
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Yes, that is an annoyance. It makes comparing the baseball data across years difficult, as certain revenue or expenses are lumped into different categories.
I have a long run of Winnipeg Blue Bombers annual reports, and twice during that run it changed accounting practices, shifting some revenue and expense items from one category into another. Fortunately, in that case, there was enough data included from prior seasons to figure out what moved where, so producing a long-term, consistent example of financial results is possible. That'll get posted eventually.
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Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip
2) Some have great detail, others lump much together. The CFL income is broken down nicely, while the Packers have the odd categories National and Local. We can all guess at what is in each bucket, but only guess.
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There are earlier Packers reports which have more detail. I can't remember where I downloaded it from, I think it was a Packers fan site, but it had a file showing reasonably detailed revenue and expenses for the club from 1997 through 2010. That'll get posted eventually too.
National and local are the two main categories of revenue.
National revenue is that derived from the league itself, so its national television broadcasting contracts, league-level merchandising, sponsorships, etc. National revenue is usually divided equally between all the member clubs. In the UK's Premier League, half of the national revenue is divided equally between the teams, one-quarter is assigned to merit pay (the higher a club finishes in the table the more it receives), and the other one-quarter distributed to clubs appearing in televised matches, with teams appearing more often getting more money.
Local revenue is that generated locally by the club, so things like ticket sales, premium seating and luxury suites, local broadcasting deals, local merchandise sales, concessions, stadium rental for other events, parking, advertising and promotions from local businesses, etc. Clubs in larger cities will usually generate more in local revenue.
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Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip
3) the baseball teams show "provision for income taxes" (a common term meaning they haven't been audited yet) while the other sports generally don't.
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There is certainly variety in terms of the detail given for non-operating income and expenses. But at least the revenue and expenses from club operations are there, which would be the bigger focus for those interested in the business side of a pro sports team.
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Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip
4) the 1960 SF Giants have interesting buckets. "Team Development and Replacement" sounds ominous. Is it the minor leagues or not.
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Team development and replacement is a category which appears frequently in the latter 1950s into the 1960s. It refers both to the operation of the minor leagues and the bonuses paid to sign new players. In some cases replacement and development are separated (the former being signing bonuses and the latter being the minor league operations).
Following WWII, the competition between MLB teams to sign new players became intense, causing signing bonuses to amateur players to skyrocket. It got so bad some clubs were spending more to sign unproven amateur talent than they were on major league player salaries. MLB tried various bonus rules to clamp down on the spending, but these didn't work. It was the creation of the amateur draft in 1965 that finally ended that signing bonus frenzy.
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Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip
Anyway, fun but futile due to the lack of comparisons.
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For the moment I'm posting the data as it originally appeared, and have not done any editing or adjusting to convert it to EBITDA (for those wondering that means earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization), or streamlining categories to allow for better cross-comparisons.
Such editing and adjusting will come along later, probably in its own thread, at least for baseball data. I want people to be able to see the original data so any changes made later on can be followed. That way no one can claim I am "cooking the books."
