NFL Lockout Would Slash Small Business Profits

The cancellation of next year's NFL season would be the final knockout punch for many small businesses like mine. It would top off a list of recent jabs at our profits, including lower overall revenues because of rising expenses, higher costs of goods sold and fines from vague laws and regulations.

Keep in mind that this is all happening at a time when owners in my industry cannot increase their prices to customers due to a flat economy.

I currently own four bars named Village Pourhouse in the New York Tri-State area as well as another sports bar named sideBAR. There are thousands of other sports bar owners waiting breathlessly for an NFL agreement to be made, as our livelihood hinges on this decision. So what's at stake here for people like myself who live and die by business from the NFL?

A canceled NFL season could mean zero profits. I will use one of my venues, sideBAR, as the experimental guinea pig.

Out of 365 days, the NFL season represents 21 Sundays (don't forget additional revenue from Monday Night Football, a few Thursdays and Saturdays.)

My total revenue for the year is approximately $3.5 million. $300,000 of this revenue -- or 8 percent of my total revenue -- was generated by these 21 NFL football Sundays. Last year my profit was this amount. So there you go: my profit will be largely wiped out if an NFL lockout occurs.

Here's how it works out. Without football, Sundays average only about $2,000 in revenue. With football during the regular season, we average a whopping 600 percent more or approximately $12,000 on any given Sunday. Add $2,000 for playoffs without a home team playing, or at least another $5,000 with a home team, totaling approximately $14,000-$17,000 for playoffs, which take place for three weeks. Depending on who is playing, the Super Bowl can range from $20,000-$30,000. The difference is staggering. Multiply the difference by 8.875% and you'll figure out how much in sales tax is wiped away.

The number of staff changes drastically on NFL Sundays. The total number of staff that works a non-sports Sunday shift is about seven, including bartenders, waitresses, porters, bar-backs, cooks, dishwasher, and a manager. An average Sunday will employ almost 30 people. Keep in mind, 23 additional staff pay a lot more income tax than seven do.

My vendors are next to be affected. Twenty-five percent is my approximate cost of goods sold, meaning, without football, I spend approximately $10,000 on food, beverage and bar supplies based on a period of 21 Sundays at $2,000 each Sunday. With NFL games on, the 21 Sundays will see about $75,000 spent on vendors.

Now take into account the staff, the lost sales for vendors, and the lost tax dollars. And take into account the thousands of other sports bars, and we're talking about hundreds of millions in lost revenue, and the resulting taxes, expenses and profits that help the economy.

Yes, the NFL's millionaires (the players) and billionaires (the owners) would suffer from a lockout. But it seems those who will be hurt the most by an NFL lockout will be the small business owners, also known as the "thousandaires." I beg both sides to work something out and avoid further crippling this economy. The fans supply enough green for each gang to cut up so please think about the bigger picture. Please meet in the middle so we can continue to root for the Gang Green every Sunday. Go Jets!

 

Follow Michael Sinensky on Twitter: www.twitter.com/msinensky

Comments

[Tim McGrenere]

11:00 AM on 03/12/2011

Lots of fallout in a battle of millionaires and billionaires....here's a parody of the Goodell letter...Dear Fans, thanks for being the dumb money at the table...Could include small business owners as well...

http://wp.me/p11z5Q-r

[missingjournalism]

02:47 PM on 02/25/2011

I am confident the economic impact upon small businesses will be met with Congress valiantly convening hearings followed by emergency funding and incentives to the NFL.

[David John Toth]

08:39 AM on 02/25/2011

Michael - Obviously your business does not matter to NFL owners or players, or the government. We live in a country where the rights of public workers and small business owners are of little concern compared with the rights of football players, owners, and politicians. Did your tax dollars go toward subsidizing the stadium, subsidizing the banks and insurance companies who caused the economic crisis, subsidizing agribiz, subsidizing tax cuts for the wealthy, and subsidizing corporate tax breaks, and subsidizing politician's benefits? Your a good boy, but don't expect anyone to help you. You are too small to succeed.

[PRONESE]

06:59 AM on 02/25/2011

The Tailgaters, The TAILGATERS!
More Coffee...
R/ PRONESE

[Daniel Seth Mendel]

01:42 AM on 02/25/2011

i see a lockout as a step in the right direction. some time off from football and the bars is a pretty solid proposition for american society.

[angrymanspokane]

05:48 PM on 02/24/2011

I quit watching baseball after the strike, the same thing will happen here. It's a shame that people are so consumed by sports - when demand is high, prices will be high. We are the ones responsible for high ticket prices, high salaries, etc.

[lglglg]

04:30 PM on 02/24/2011

The radio program "Marketplace" on public radio stations (distributed BTW by American Public Media, not NPR) this week considered the possibility that a lockdown and missed whole-or-partial season might just be BENEFICIAL for the housing market. If people have nothing to lock them in front of their TV sets on Sunday afternoons with pretty good weather ( Sept/Oct/Nov ), they just might go house hunting, thus helping the real estate industry. The major draw of NFL football is the opportunity to bet on the games. In cities where horse racing is still going on, one shouldn't be surprised to see the handles increase. Will people go to more movies or stage shows or anything else that causes folks to part with their disposable incomes during weekends. It's worth investigating if a lockout does occur.

[Cranmer1549]

02:53 PM on 02/24/2011

Ha ha ha...do you think that the billionaires and millionaires battling each other care about small business owners?

[TOPCAT711]

02:17 PM on 02/24/2011

Fear not !

People won't protest to end wars, but they sure as he!! will march on Washington if there's an NFL lockout.


That is the world in which we live.

[Gene Hammett]

01:32 PM on 02/24/2011

I don't even have to read this article to make a comment "these are most spoiled people I know".

I can't believe they are fighting over $ when they already make millions to PLAY something they love to do.

Gene Hammett
http://genehammett.com

[ydrittmann]

07:30 PM on 02/24/2011

The players are not fighting over anything. The owners opted out of the previous agreement and see a chance to bust the union. It's a lockout, not a strike.

[imoverit]

01:16 PM on 02/24/2011

You make a $300,000 annual profit and I'm supposed to feel sorry for you? My husband spent his life as a firefighter and never made more than $30,000 a year. The only people who will be hurt by a lockout are the part-time people employed for game day. As for you, I'm sure your investments will provide enough income to get you through the season. Or you could lay some people off, right? You will be the last person to suffer from this.

[fredR]

03:51 PM on 02/24/2011

!!! what asurprise to find another selfish READER on huffpo. you you you. Your husband was a firefighter but where are the tax dollars coming from to create salaries for public jobs. Part of it comes from tax dollars created from these types of small businesses and from employees who work there.
The author simply wants to point out the impact of this "game" not being played goes a lot deeper than players and owners. He mentions the loss of shifts for his emplopyees, loss of revenue from vendors and loss of profits. And if this gentleman's business goes down to $0 in profits, i don't think he will have a great year.
You write:
"The only people who will be hurt by a lockout are the part-time people employed for game day" You don't have a clue. How about the local delis who deliver chips, sodas, beer to people watching. How about the chip, beer and soda companies themselves. How aboput dominos pizza. what about all the service employees who work the games, the sports schwag sold at the games, the cable tv stations, and hold the fort, what about the overtime shifts firefighters, ems and polics who work at the stadium, and so on and so on.

When will you realize we are all in this fight together. The firefighters and business owners. Everyone who works should feel sorry for eachother when something like this happens because this is all connected. We need to fight together.

[imoverit]

05:12 PM on 02/24/2011

I'm selfish? I'm not the one whining about losing $300,000 a year and trying to justify my argument by posting charts about how many people that affects. Firefighters where I come from don't get overtime, they have shifts; and they don't stand by at football games. And, when you get right down to it, the world needs people like my husband a lot more than they need another bar owner. I've worked for small business owners and large corporations and their focus is the same: protecting their own personal bottom line. I don't care about the rich and I'd bet my last cent that I pay more personal income tax than he does. If you want to fight for him, that's your right; I'll fight for middle class workers, public and private. Oh, btw, thanks so much for the tax dollars that allow my husband to put his life on the line every day to save the neighborhood bar and its patrons.

[ydrittmann]

07:32 PM on 02/24/2011

The tax dollars pay for the fireman because the business owners don't want their business to burn down.

[Paul]

12:45 PM on 02/24/2011

Put Bundesliga soccer on the TV screens.

Or start taping the NFL channel's Best Games series...