Beyond the Scoreboard

Sports

© Narratique

Every game has two scores. One goes on the scoreboard. The other goes on a contract. Beyond the Scoreboard follows the deals, rules, and incentives that turn a game into a business: why NFL teams split their TV money, what a salary cap really caps, who pays for the stadium, and how a rookie's sneaker contract rewrote athlete endorsements. Each episode takes one familiar sports puzzle and tells the documented story of the deal behind it. Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Research sources in every episode's notes. A Narratique original.

Why NFL Teams Share Television Money

In July 1961 a federal judge in Philadelphia blocked a contract in which fourteen NFL clubs agreed to sell their television rights together and split the fee equally. Seventy-two days later, President Kennedy signed a law that made the same arrangement legal. This episode follows the money from Bert Bell's blackout rules and the 1953 antitrust judgment, through Pete Rozelle's election, the rival AFL's pooled ABC deal and the voided CBS contract, to the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. Benjamin Hartenstone explains how pooling works, why big-market owners agreed to it, what equal shares did for Green Bay, and the trade-offs fans and broadcasters still argue about.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

United States v. National Football League, 196 F. Supp. 445 (E.D. Pa. 1961), Grim, J., decided 20 July 1961: https://static.case.law/f-supp/196/cases/0445-01.json
United States v. National Football League, 116 F. Supp. 319 (E.D. Pa. 1953), Grim, J., decided 12 Nov 1953: https://static.case.law/f-supp/116/cases/0319-01.json
15 U.S.C. § 1291 (Pub. L. 87-331, § 1, 30 Sept 1961, 75 Stat. 732, as amended 1966 and 1986): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1291
15 U.S.C. § 1292 and § 1293: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1292
A Level Playing Field? Congress Tackles Football's Antitrust Problem (26 Aug 2026): https://history.house.gov/Blog/2026/August/8-26-Football-Antitrust/
NFL Television Broadcasting (Spotlight on Judicial History): https://www.fjc.gov/history/spotlight-judicial-history/nfl-television-broadcasting
General History – Chronology (1960 to 1979): https://www.profootballhof.com/football-history/general-history-chronology-1960-to-1979
Bert Bell biography page: https://www.profootballhof.com/players/bert-bell
Richard C. Crepeau, NFL Football: A History of America's New National Pastime (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2014),: https://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2014/09/12/excerpt-from-nfl-football
A look at the seminal broadcasting moves that define the NFL (Associated Press, NFL 100 series, 2019): https://www.espn.com/nfl/story?id=27453905

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Salary Caps: The Rule Designed to Control the Payroll

On the last day of March 1983, one NBA owner voted against the first modern salary cap and asked what a cap means if you are allowed to go over it. This episode answers him. Benjamin Hartenstone explains why a cap is really a percentage of league revenue, how the contract definition of that revenue drives the number, and why soft caps leak by design while hard caps bend through accounting. The story runs from the NBA's 1983 agreement and its three point six million dollar cap, through football's courtroom fight and the 1994 NFL cap, to what both sides gained and gave up, and what a fan is actually hearing when a team says it has no cap space.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

Wood v. National Basketball Association, 809 F.2d 954 (2d Cir. Jan. 21, 1987), opinion by Judge Winter: https://static.case.law/f2d/809/cases/0954-01.json
NBA/NBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement, July 2023, Article VII: https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/06/2023-NBA-Collective-Bargaining-Agreement.pdf
Paul D. Staudohar, Salary Caps in Professional Team Sports, Compensation and Working Conditions, Spring 1998: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/cwc/salary-caps-in-professional-team-sports.pdf
Paul D. Staudohar, Labor relations in basketball: the lockout of 1998–99, Monthly Labor Review, April 1999: https://www.bls.gov/mlr/1999/04/art1full.pdf
O'Brien, Lanier Hail NBA Player Agreement, April 2, 1983: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/04/02/OBrien-Lanier-Hail-NBA-Player-Agreement/5101418107600/
NFL Owners, Players Settle Dispute, Roanoke Times, January 7, 1993 (from Associated Press and Washington Post: https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1993/rt9301/930107/01070042.htm
1990s: Growth of the Union: https://nflpa.com/about/history/1990s-growth-of-the-union
NBA Salary Cap for 2024-25 season set at $140.588 million, June 30, 2024: https://pr.nba.com/2024-25-nba-season-salary-cap
Full term sheet of proposed collective bargaining agreement (2020): https://www.nfl.com/news/full-term-sheet-of-proposed-collective-bargaining-agreement-0ap3000001102608
NFL Announces 'Unprecedented' Salary Cap Spike of Over $30 Million per Team, Feb. 23, 2024: https://www.si.com/nfl/2024/02/23/nfl-salary-cap-spike-30-million-per-team-record-breaking

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Luxury Taxes: When Spending More Costs Even More

In December 2025 the Los Angeles Dodgers were billed $169.4 million for spending too much on players, and they had not broken a single rule. This episode explains the luxury tax: a price on payroll rather than a limit. Benjamin Hartenstone traces it from baseball's 1994 strike and the 1996 owners' vote that flipped after one free-agent signing, through the 2002 deadline deal the Yankees alone voted against, to the NBA's repeater tax and the record bills paid by the Nets, Warriors, Mets and Dodgers. Who wanted a tax instead of a cap, where the money actually goes, and what the line tells a fan about their own team's choices.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

2022–2026 Basic Agreement, Article XXIII (Competitive Balance Tax): https://www.mlbplayers.com/_files/ugd/4d23dc_d6dfc2344d2042de973e37de62484da5.pdf
2003–2006 Basic Agreement, Article XXIII: http://roadsidephotos.sabr.org/baseball/BasicAgreement.pdf
2023 NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, Article VII Section 2(d): https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/06/2023-NBA-Collective-Bargaining-Agreement.pdf
Paul D. Staudohar, Baseball negotiations: a new agreement, Monthly Labor Review, Dec 2002: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2002/12/art2full.pdf
Owners Will Play Ball After All: Baseball's Labor War Finally Over (AP), Nov 27 1996: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/nov/27/owners-will-play-ball-after-all-baseballs-labor/
Reinsdorf's Wild Spending May Cost Selig, Nov 24 1996: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/nov/24/reinsdorfs-wild-spending-may-cost-selig/
Dodgers hit with record $169M luxury tax after 2nd straight title (AP), Dec 19 2025: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/47360963/dodgers-hit-record-169m-luxury-tax-winning-2nd-straight-ws
Dodgers officially run up $169 million luxury tax bill for 2025, larger than payrolls of 12 teams, Dec 20 2025: https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/article/dodgers-officially-run-up-169-million-luxury-tax-bill-for-2025-larger-than-payrolls-of-12-teams-002439450.html
Dodgers rack up record-smashing $169 million luxury tax bill, Dec 20 2025: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/dodgers-record-169-million-luxury-tax-bill-blue-jays-yankees-cbt/
Mets rack up record $100M luxury tax bill, Dec 23 2023: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mets-rack-up-record-100m-luxury-tax-bill-padres-yankees-dodgers-among-eight-teams-paying-cbt-per-report/

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Stadium Naming Rights: Buying a Place in Every Broadcast

On one Friday in April 1953, a St. Louis ballpark had three names in a single day, and nobody paid a cent for any of them. Decades later the same idea is priced in the hundreds of millions. This episode reads an actual public naming rights contract line by line to see what a sponsor really buys, then follows the money: to a county legislature in Buffalo in 1972, to the Houston Astros and Enron in 1999, and to Miami-Dade County and FTX in 2021. Who owns a stadium's name, who gets paid for it, what happens when the sponsor collapses, and what the research says about whether the price is ever justified.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

Agenda Item 5(O), Resolution approving Marketing Partnership Naming Rights Agreement with Kaseya US LLC, memo: https://www.miamidade.gov/govaction/legistarfiles/Matters/Y2023/230663.pdf
Agenda Item 3(A)(5), Resolution approving allocation from FTX Arena naming rights revenues, July 20, 2021: https://www.miamidade.gov/govaction/legistarfiles/Matters/Y2021/211739.pdf
Resolution approving the Peace and Prosperity Plan, June 2021: https://www.miamidade.gov/govaction/legistarfiles/Matters/Y2021/211427.pdf
Joint statement of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and the Miami HEAT on FTX Arena (November 2022): https://www.miamidade.gov/global/release.page?Mduid_release=rel1668216097621713
Enron and Astros Name New Ballpark 'Enron Field' as Part of 30-Year Facilities Management Contract, press rele: https://web.archive.org/web/20000608195321/http://www3.enron.com:80/corp/pr/releases/1999/ene/30-astrosrelease.html
Same release, second archival copy with typographic apostrophes intact: https://enroncorp.com/corp/pressroom/releases/1999/ene/30-astrosrelease
Philip Bolda, Beer and Opulence: The Day the Ballpark in St. Louis had Three Different Names (2017): https://sabr.org/journal/article/beer-and-opulence-the-day-the-ballpark-in-st-louis-had-three-different-names/
Leeds, Leeds and Pistolet, A Stadium by Any Other Name: The Value of Naming Rights, Journal of Sports Economic: https://www.amminvest.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/A_Stadium_by_Any_Other_Name_The_Value_of_Naming_Ri.pdf
Mark Byrnes, The Ugly Fight Behind One of Football's First Stadium-Naming Rights Deals, June 21, 2016: https://web.archive.org/web/20190822220725/https://www.citylab.com/equity/2016/06/the-ugly-fight-behind-one-of-footballs-first-stadium-naming-rights-deals/482556/
Looking back at the buzz surrounding Bills' Rich Stadium (archive page gallery with dated captions): https://buffalonews.com/news/local/history/article_ca29bf74-b337-4242-97f5-dbd1c43b97f0.html

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Why Cities Help Pay for Stadiums

On one night in March 1984, moving vans carried the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis, hours after Maryland moved to seize the team by law. Eleven years later Baltimore did to Cleveland what had been done to it. This episode follows the relocation threat from Brooklyn in the 1950s to the Browns settlement of 1996, explains how tax-exempt municipal bonds and a 1986 tax law shaped who pays, and sets out what three decades of economic research found about jobs and growth. It also gives the strongest case for public money: the value a team creates for people who never buy a ticket. Benjamin Hartenstone walks through who sits at the table, and why the empty chair matters most.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

26 U.S. Code § 141, Private activity bond; qualified bond: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/141
Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Baltimore Football Club Inc., 624 F. Supp. 278 (D. Md. 1985), Judge Wal: https://static.case.law/f-supp/624/cases/0278-01.json
Indianapolis Colts v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 733 F.2d 484 (7th Cir. 1984), Judge Posner: https://static.case.law/f2d/733/cases/0484-01.json
Sports, Jobs, & Taxes: Are New Stadiums Worth the Cost? (Noll and Zimbalist, June 1, 1997): https://www.brookings.edu/articles/sports-jobs-taxes-are-new-stadiums-worth-the-cost/
The impact of professional sports franchises and venues on local economies: A comprehensive survey (Bradbury,: https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jecsur/v37y2023i4p1389-1431.html
Do Economists Reach a Conclusion on Subsidies for Sports Franchises, Stadiums, and Mega-Events? (Coates and Hu: https://econjwatch.org/articles/do-economists-reach-a-conclusion-on-subsidies-for-sports-franchises-stadiums-and-mega-events
Tax-exempt municipal bonds and the financing of professional sports stadiums (Gayer, Drukker, Gold, Sept 2016): https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/gayerdrukkergold_stadiumsubsidies_090816.pdf
Sports Stadiums poll, January 31, 2017: https://www.kentclarkcenter.org/surveys/sports-stadiums/
Deal clears NFL path to Baltimore... (Jon Morgan, Feb 9, 1996): https://www.baltimoresun.com/1996/02/09/deal-clears-nfl-path-to-baltimore-cleveland-would-get-new-team-in-99-keep-browns-name-colors-owners-must-ratify-today-modells-club-to-start-play-here-this-fall/
Cleveland Gets New Browns In '99 Season (Associated Press, Feb 9, 1996): https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1996/feb/09/cleveland-gets-new-browns-in-99-season/

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The Sneaker Deal That Changed Athlete Endorsements

In 1984 the best basketball players in the world were paid a flat fee to wear somebody else's shoe. Then a rookie who wanted to sign with Adidas was talked onto a plane to Oregon, and an agent from a tennis firm asked a struggling running-shoe company for three things: a product with his client's name on it, a percentage of every sale, and a written promise to market it. Benjamin Hartenstone follows the Michael Jordan and Nike contract from the market that came before it to the first-year sales that nobody forecast, separates the "banned" shoe legend from the one letter that documents it, and lays out who claims credit, and on what evidence.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

Rentmeester v. Nike, Inc., No. 15-35509 (9th Cir. Feb. 27, 2018), opinion by Judge Watford: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-728/64696/20180924172244042_Ninth%20Circuit%20opinion.pdf
NIKE, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal year ended May 31, 2023: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320187/000032018723000039/nke-20230531.htm
All-Star weekend in 1985 yielded perfect springboard for Jordan, Nike (Shaun Powell, Feb. 13, 2019): https://www.nba.com/news/jordan-week-1985-all-star-nike-air-jordan-breakout
How Nike landed Michael Jordan (Darren Rovell, Feb. 15, 2013): https://www.espn.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/2918/how-nike-landed-michael-jordan
Michael Jordan's agent tries to set record straight on original Nike deal (Darren Rovell, May 4, 2016): https://www.espn.com/espn/print?id=15463041
Red and white Air Jordan XXXI a tribute to originals, 'Banned' legend (Darren Rovell, July 20, 2016): https://www.espn.com/espn/print?id=17116192
'Air' takes leaps but stays true to Nike's actual chase of Michael Jordan (Nick DePaula, Apr. 14, 2023): https://andscape.com/features/air-movie-true-to-nike-chase-of-michael-jordan/
'The Last Dance': Story behind Michael Jordan nearly choosing Adidas over Nike (Jasmyn Wimbish, May 15, 2020): https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-last-dance-story-behind-michael-jordan-nearly-choosing-adidas-over-nike-explained-in-doc/
Footwear Execs Are Still Arguing Over Who Actually Brought Michael Jordan to Nike (Brendan Dunne, 2015): https://www.complex.com/sneakers/a/brendan-dunne/michael-jordan-nike-phil-knight-deal
This Is How Big Air Jordans Were When They First Came Out (Brendan Dunne, Apr. 11, 2017): https://www.complex.com/sneakers/a/brendan-dunne/air-jordan-1-og-sales-numbers

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How Expansion Fees Buy a Seat at the League Table

In June 2016 Bill Foley agreed to pay the NHL five hundred million dollars for a Las Vegas team that had no players and no name, and the league handed the money to the thirty clubs he would be competing against. This episode explains why. Benjamin Hartenstone follows the expansion fee from the Dallas Cowboys' six hundred thousand dollars in 1960, and the fight song that secured the last vote, to Bob McNair's record seven hundred million for Houston in 1999, to Vegas and Seattle. Along the way: what dilution means, why players get the jobs but not the fee, what a new owner actually receives, and how the expansion draft became part of the price.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

2023 NBA-NBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement (Art. VII s.1(a)(2)(iii); Art. VII s.2(g); Art. XL): https://ak-static.cms.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2023/06/2023-NBA-Collective-Bargaining-Agreement.pdf
NHL-NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement (2013), Art. 50.1(b)(ii): https://cdn.nhlpa.com/img/assets/file/NHL_NHLPA_2013_CBA.pdf
Las Vegas awarded NHL franchise (June 22, 2016): https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-expands-to-las-vegas-281010682
Seattle NHL expansion approved by Board of Governors (Dec 4, 2018): https://www.nhl.com/news/seattle-nhl-expansion-approved-to-be-32nd-team-play-in-2021-22-302581450
NBA Board of Governors approves exploration of expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle (March 25, 2026): https://pr.nba.com/nba-board-of-governors-potential-expansion-las-vegas-seattle
How the Dallas Cowboys Were Born in 1960: https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/how-the-dallas-cowboys-were-born-in-1960
Dallas Cowboys team history: https://www.profootballhof.com/teams/dallas-cowboys/team-history
Houston Texans team history: https://www.profootballhof.com/teams/houston-texans/team-history
NFL Franchise Goes to Houston (Research Starters; Salem Press reference essay): https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/sports-and-leisure/nfl-franchise-goes-houston
AP, Houston awarded NFL's 32nd franchise and companion LA reaction story (Oct 6, 1999): https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/1999/1006/99996.html

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The NFL–AFL Merger: Turning Rivals Into Partners

In April 1966, a Dallas Cowboys executive and the founder of the American Football League met in a parked car at a Dallas airport. Both leagues were growing, both had television money, and both were being drained by the same thing: bidding against each other for players. Benjamin Hartenstone follows the money from Lamar Hunt's "Foolish Club" to Joe Namath's record contract, the kicker whose signing nearly wrecked the peace talks, Al Davis's raid on NFL quarterbacks, the June 1966 agreement and its eighteen million dollar indemnity, and the antitrust exemption Congress passed that autumn, twelve days before New Orleans was awarded a team. Who won, who paid, and what fans got in return.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

15 U.S. Code § 1291 (Sports Broadcasting Act as amended by Pub. L. 89-800, § 6(b)(1), Nov. 8, 1966, 80 Stat. 1: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1291
The NFL-AFL Football Merger of 1966: https://history.house.gov/HistoricalHighlight/Detail/36507225872
General History – Chronology (1960 to 1979): https://www.profootballhof.com/football-history/general-history-chronology-1960-to-1979
The AFL-NFL merger was almost booted... by a kicker (excerpt from the book The Little League That Could): https://www.nfl.com/news/the-afl-nfl-merger-was-almost-booted-by-a-kicker-09000d5d81206b90
NFL and AFL announce merger, June 8, 1966: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-8/nfl-and-afl-announce-merger
Joe Namath spurns NFL to sign record deal with AFL's New York Jets, January 2, 1965: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-2/joe-namath-afl-nfl-rivalry-new-york-jets
The story of New Orleans being awarded the Saints: https://www.neworleanssaints.com/news/the-story-of-new-orleans-being-awarded-the-saints-17995409
Lamar Hunt and the Foolish Club: https://www.chiefs.com/news/lamar-hunt-and-the-foolish-club-15093803
The Road to the Merger, parts 1–4: https://www.chiefs.com/news/the-road-to-the-merger-part-1-the-light-bulb-came-on
Fifty years ago this day, the NFL and AFL became one mighty league (Eric Edholm): https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/fifty-years-ago-this-day--the-nfl-and-afl-became-one-mightly-league-150823227.html

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The ABA–NBA Merger and the Television Deal That Lasted Decades

In June 1976 the NBA absorbed four teams from the dying American Basketball Association. Two other teams were left out. Kentucky's owner took a cash buyout. The owners of the Spirits of St. Louis, brothers Ozzie and Daniel Silna, with their lawyer Donald Schupak, took something stranger: one-seventh of each surviving team's national television money, with no end date. Benjamin Hartenstone traces how that clause was built, why the four teams thought it was cheap, how it grew into hundreds of millions of dollars, and what the NBA and its teams reportedly paid in 2014 to end it. A story about leverage, definitions, and the real price of the word forever.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

Former ABA teams, NBA and Spirits of St. Louis announce conditional settlement: https://pr.nba.com/nba-aba-spirits-settlement/
Spirits of St. Louis Basketball Club, L.P. v. Denver Nuggets, Inc., 84 A.D.3d 454, 922 N.Y.S.2d 349 (N.Y. App.: https://static.case.law/ad3d/84/cases/0454-01.json
Weltman v. Silna, 879 F.2d 425 (8th Cir., 19 July 1989): https://static.case.law/f2d/879/cases/0425-01.json
Weltman v. Silna, 739 F. Supp. 477 (E.D. Mo., 25 May 1990); aff'd 936 F.2d 358 (8th Cir. 1991): https://static.case.law/f-supp/739/cases/0477-01.json
Robertson v. National Basketball Ass'n, 72 F.R.D. 64 (S.D.N.Y., 30 July 1976) (Carter, J.): https://static.case.law/frd/72/cases/0064-01.json
Caldwell v. American Basketball Ass'n, 825 F. Supp. 558 (S.D.N.Y., 14 June 1993): https://static.case.law/f-supp/825/cases/0558-01.json
Frank Deford, One Last Hurrah In Hyannis: https://web.archive.org/web/20080723140432/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1091257/index.htm
Ray Kennedy, profile of Commissioner Larry O'Brien: https://web.archive.org/web/20090213002722/http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1091716/index.htm
Darren Rovell, Silna brothers feature: https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212057/http://a.espncdn.com/nba/s/2001/1213/1295194.html
Darren Rovell, Can best deal of all time get even better?: https://www.espn.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/1525/can-the-best-deal-of-all-time-get-even-better

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Why Teams Build Businesses Around Season Tickets

A season ticket looks like a discount for loyal fans. It is really a small financial contract, and teams have spent sixty years learning how to stretch it. Benjamin Hartenstone follows the money that arrives before the games do: from the Green Bay Packers' waiting list of more than 155,000 names, to the Astrodome's leased skyboxes, to Joe Robbie's ten-year club seat contracts in Miami. Then to Charlotte in 1993, where marketer Max Muhleman turned a free thank-you gift into the permanent seat license and helped win an NFL franchise. Plus what resale marketplaces, the San Francisco Giants' 2009 dynamic pricing experiment, and flexible memberships did to the oldest deal in the ticket office.

Hosted by Benjamin Hartenstone. Beyond the Scoreboard is a Narratique original.

Selected research sources:

Form 10-K for fiscal year ended June 30, 2022: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1636519/000163651922000009/msgs-20220630.htm
Season Ticket Waiting List: https://www.packers.com/tickets/season-ticket-waiting-list
Season Ticket Holder Policies: https://www.packers.com/tickets/season-ticket-holder-policies
Packers set ticket prices for 2026 season (Feb 27, 2026): https://www.packers.com/news/packers-set-ticket-prices-for-2026-season
Ten years on the Packers' season-ticket waiting list ... 60,000 spots to go (Darren Rovell, May 26, 2016): https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/15728703/ten-years-green-bay-packers-season-ticket-waiting-list-60000-spots-go-nfl
Max Muhleman, who revolutionized seat licensing and helped bring pro sports to Charlotte, dies at 88 (AP, Dec: https://www.foxsports.com/articles/nba/max-muhleman-who-revolutionized-seat-licensing-and-helped-bring-pro-sports-to-charlotte-dies-at-88
The Creator of Personal Seat Licenses Hates Them As Much As You Do (Aaron Gordon, Dec 28, 2015): https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-creator-of-personal-seat-licenses-hates-them-as-much-as-you-do/
October 26, 1993: Carolina Panthers are born (Bryan Strickland, Oct 26, 2017): https://www.panthers.com/news/october-26-1993-carolina-panthers-are-born-11633336
The Super Bowl that tore a family apart, forever changed stadium deals (Michael Rosenberg, Nov 23, 2015): https://www.si.com/nfl/2015/11/23/miami-dolphins-super-bowl-joe-robbie-stadium
Showtime! April 9, 1965 (exhibit The Astrodome at 50: Origins): https://astrodomememories.org/exhibits/show/astrodome-origins/showtime--april-1965

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