Generic Green Bay Packers game, Lambeau Field. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A Wisconsin congressman is leading the charge to revamp the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, but the Green Bay Packers insist doing so would “threaten the team.”
The Packers have been lobbying against changes to the SBA, warning of consequences if the law is changed and saying this would significantly impact Green Bay’s ability to compete with the other 31 teams in the NFL.
The SBA allows professional sports leagues like the NFL to negotiate broadcast deals collectively. Right now, every franchise shares national revenue from sources like broadcast deals. In fiscal year 2025, that number was $432 million for each team. Prior to the SBA, teams sold the media rights to their games individually. Without this law, Green Bay would be up against the likes of New York and Los Angeles to strike TV deals.
The House Judiciary Committee has spent months discussing whether updated laws are needed to regulate how professional sports negotiate their TV deals in the modern era. A review of the SBA by the HJC’s Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust could bring modifications. Wisconsin Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-5th District, serves as chairman of that committee. A 27-page HJC report claimed the NFL hasn’t been following the law’s antitrust exemption while inflating prices for consumers.
In April, Fitzgerald posted on X, saying the investigation is “to know whether the major sports leagues were distorting what broadcasting may be permissible under its antitrust exemption.” He added, “Wisconsin sports fans should have access to their teams’ games without having to pay for multiple cable and streaming packages.”
The Packers said the SBA, in its current form, provides much-needed stability and viability for small-market sports teams and maintains any major changes could have devastating impacts on its long-term future.
In a statement Tuesday, a Packers spokesperson said:
Packers fans everywhere should be deeply concerned that Rep. Fitzgerald admitted to giving “zero” consideration to keeping the Packers in Green Bay as he explores upending the 65-year-old Sports Broadcasting Act. Fans should be offended that Fitzgerald then went further, saying our concerns were “laughable.” What is laughable is that a congressman from Wisconsin is leading this charge. Why threaten the team his community overwhelmingly cherishes and its ability to compete on a level playing field?
The tremendously successful model of pooling media rights and sharing revenue equally amongst teams has allowed the Packers to survive and thrive in the smallest media market in professional sports. This model is as foundational to the Packers’ existence as the very bricks in Lambeau Field. It is careless and unwise to rearrange the bricks of a foundation which has stood strong for over half a century.
Not only do the Packers operate in the smallest market in all of professional sports, but Green Bay also doesn’t have a deep-pocketed owner to fund the team, nor can they sell a percentage of the team to private equity investors, like the other 31 NFL teams can. Therefore, the Packers rely heavily on the league-wide TV deals for equal shares of national revenue.
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