As the NFL reaches the home stretch of the 2023 season, the league’s increasing off-field earning power continues to show why football remains king among U.S. professional sports.
Early projections for the 2024 NFL salary cap are reportedly coming in at more than $240 million, representing a significant increase over this season’s $224.8 million that each team is allowed to allocate for player contracts.
Multiple reports say that next year’s salary cap won’t be officially set until at least January, but NFL team owners are expecting a third straight year of major growth as league revenues are fully recovered from the pandemic.
Soaring Cap
Because of the disruption caused by COVID, the NFL’s salary cap — as well as every other major sports league’s — went through an up-and-down period:
- 2023: $224.8 million
- 2022: $208.2 million
- 2021: $182.5 million
- 2020: $198.2 million
- 2019: $188.2 million
This season, revenue from the NFL’s new $110 billion media rights deals kicked in, adding a big boost to overall league cash intake. When final numbers come in, 2023 will represent another record year for the NFL.
In 2022, the league is believed to have brought in close to $20 billion in revenue — inching the NFL’s 32 owners closer to commissioner Roger Goodell’s long-stated goal of $25 billion in annual revenue.
Come 2024, there is no reason to think the NFL’s billions won’t be even bigger, either.
