GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – The Green Bay Packers are asking Congress to preserve key protections in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 (SBA) as the House Judiciary Committee reviews the decades-old law that allows the NFL and its teams to negotiate national broadcast rights collectively.
In a March 26 letter to Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.), chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust Subcommittee, Packers Director of Public Affairs Aaron Popkey said the SBA has been essential to the team’s long-term viability — particularly as the NFL’s smallest-market franchise and the only publicly owned team in American professional sports.
The Packers argued that the current broadcast structure supports revenue sharing that helps stabilize all teams regardless of market size, helping maintain competitive balance across the league.
The letter warns that changing the SBA’s core framework could dramatically widen financial gaps between teams in major media markets and smaller markets like Green Bay.
According to the Packers, if teams were forced into independent broadcast negotiations, the value of media rights would likely concentrate in large markets, undermining financial equity and making it harder for small-market teams to compete.
Popkey wrote that eliminating the NFL’s ability to negotiate broadcast rights collectively would pose an “existential threat” to the Packers’ continued existence in Green Bay “as we know it,” while also making it more difficult for fans to watch Packers games.
The Packers also emphasized their role as a “critical economic and cultural driver” for their community, region and the state of Wisconsin — saying the SBA’s framework has helped the franchise remain viable and competitive while staying in Green Bay.
As the committee weighs a potential hearing or changes to the Act, the organization urged lawmakers to consider how alterations could affect NFL teams’ competitive operations.
The Packers said they would welcome further discussions with Fitzgerald and other committee members about the SBA and its impact on the team’s heritage and the state.
The letter copied multiple members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation, including Reps. Tony Wied, Glenn Grothman, Gwen Moore, Mark Pocan, Derrick Van Orden, Tom Tiffany, and Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson.
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