Detroit Lions Only NFL Team To Lose Money
- Thread starter OntarioVanMan
- Start date
What do you expect when the people that own them build cars for a living? The Ford family is NOT all that good at football.
Pretty sure the reason why they lost money was because the team has been terrible for the last decade. The profitablity of a NFL franchise has a lot to do with one important ingredient: fielding a winning team year after year. Like the Patriots,Giants Colts and so forth. The Lions have finally put together a winning team and are selling out every home game. I bet they make a nice profit this year for sure.
The Tigers, Wings and Pistons have NO problem drawing fans.
Much of the loss is due to lower TV revenue. That was a function of having a team that sucks. IF they continue to win that will improve.
greg334
Veteran Expediter
The Ford "family" doesn't own the lions, Will Ford does. A bit of a difference.
There is a real valid reason for this and it was explained to me a long long time ago, the losses are used to offset the gains in other investments and if you notice something when Ford stock is down and there is no money coming from it, the Lions seem to be spending a bit more money and do a bit better in the season.
But Detroit isn't a real sports town, it is a fair weather fan town and nothing like Chicago or Boston or even LA.
There is a real valid reason for this and it was explained to me a long long time ago, the losses are used to offset the gains in other investments and if you notice something when Ford stock is down and there is no money coming from it, the Lions seem to be spending a bit more money and do a bit better in the season.
But Detroit isn't a real sports town, it is a fair weather fan town and nothing like Chicago or Boston or even LA.
Jack_Berry
Moderator Emeritus
Plus making fans travel to Pontiac didn't help during bad times.
The Lions no longer play in Pontiac. They have a field in downtown Detroit for several years now. Pistons have no problem with fans going up to Auburn Hills.
The Lions started to draw again towards the end of last season when they started becoming competitive. They had been bad for a VERY long time.
Jack_Berry
Moderator Emeritus
But they were BAD in Pontiac. Funny how they got better when matt Millen was released.
They now have an ATTITUDE!!
The Pontiac Silverdome use to hold 80,000. people so they had a hard time selling out the stadium. Plus the team was awful so that made it even harder to sell out and lift the TV blackout. Ford Field holds something in the 60,000 range so easier to sell out,plus they aren't the silver kitty cats anymore. Go Lions rrrrrroar!
greg334
Veteran Expediter
The team hasn't been playing professional football for decades and can lose to Seaholm or Southfield HS if they play them. The stadium, which we subsidize for no real reason was to change both the tigers and the lions and "make" them into real serious teams with a promise not to increase ticket prices.
Well, don't watch them then. As to you having to pay for that stadium, you could move to North Dakota and then you would no longer have too.. I am sure glad I don't live in Detroit. This area is bad enough.
Never said different. I am STILL glad I don't live in Detroit. As I said, where I live is bad enough.