The Green Bay Packers haven't been as affected by the NFL lockout as much as other teams, but Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy said the team isn't ruling out paycuts for its staff and coaches if the labor stalemate drags on, the Green Bay Press-Gazettereported on Friday.
“It’s based on when we’re going to start missing revenue,” Murphy said.
About 75 percent of NFL teams have imposed a pay reduction of some kind in reaction the lockout, which is approaching its third month. The Packers have been among the holdouts, citing strong revenue across the board.
The Packers have lost some sponsorship money, but Murphy said they can hold off on paycuts until other avenues of the business model falter.
The Packers are defending Super Bowl champions, a fact that no doubt helps keep business booming for the league's only publicly-owned franchise.
“Each team has to make their own decisions, and some teams have been affected already,” Murphy said. “We’re very fortunate, I think, with the type of fans we have and the success we had last year. We haven’t seen a drop-off in ticket revenue or premium seats, where some of the other teams in the league, they’ve already seen losses in revenue.”
Murphy told the Press-Gazette that if paycuts are imposed, the team would repay lost pay to employees if no regular-season games are missed.