A Lesson Worth $10.6 Billion About NFL Stadium Power Involving Kraft and Macklemore
At first sight the controversy involving Robert Kraft and Macklemore appears to be about music and politics, but when you look at the financial aspects it becomes clear that the modern NFL involves team owners exercising control over assets which go well beyond football.
Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, has stated that Gillette Stadium will not permit Macklemore to serve as an opening act at Ed Sheeran’s concerts on September 25 and 26. This decision comes after Macklemore made pro-Palestinian comments during Ed Sheeran’s performance at MetLife Stadium on September 4. Kraft explained that the stadium felt that Macklemore’s recent performances, along with what he referred to as a wider history of antisemitic rhetoric, went beyond the venue’s policy regarding hate speech. Macklemore disagrees with the description of his advocacy as antisemitic.
The political aspect of the dispute has attracted the most attention. As for the financial situation, Kraft owns an NFL team for which Forbes now gives a value of $10.6 billion, and Gillette Stadium also functions as a major concert venue and thus has the ability to affect decisions concerning some of the biggest entertainers. Forbes has estimated that the Patriots earned $784 million in revenue and $186 million in operating income during the most recent season. The combination of owning football teams, controlling the stadiums, having media exposure and offering live entertainment has turned NFL owners into something resembling operators of diversified entertainment platforms.
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Macklemore was due to take part in eight of the remaining ten U.S. dates of Sheeran’s Loop Tour. The tour’s promoter, the Messina Touring Group, stated that several of the upcoming venues had informed them that they would not have concerts featuring Macklemore, which could lead to the cancellation of the shows and “impact hundreds of thousands of fans.” Forbes reported on Macklemore’s allegations and the dispute surrounding the remaining tour dates.
Macklemore stated that Sheeran had told him that Kraft had gotten in touch with other stadium owners and had helped to organize opposition to Macklemore’s continued participation on the tour. While Kraft did confirm his decision about Gillette Stadium, he did not publicly deal with Macklemore’s wider assertion that he had mobilized the other venue owners. In addition, the promoter independently confirmed that several venues had objected to Macklemore staying on the tour.
Sheeran has likewise denied that he was the one who made the final decision. He stated, “Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision; it was not mine.” He also said that the venues had warned that their forthcoming shows could be cancelled if Macklemore stayed, and that he had tried to act as a mediator between the two sides before the promoter reached its decision. Reuters reported Sheeran’s account of how the decision was made.
From a business point of view, the episode takes on unusually great importance. A stadium is more than just the building in which an NFL team plays eight or nine of its regular-season home games; modern stadium finances take into account concerts, sponsorships, premium seating, hospitality, naming rights and other events. When Forbes calculates franchise economics, it includes the revenue from non-NFL events at the stadium which goes to the team owners. It follows that if one has control of a stadium then one also has control of an extremely valuable part of the live-entertainment supply chain.
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The figures associated with the NFL make that power easier to understand. Forbes has estimated that the average NFL franchise is now worth $9.5 billion, which represents a 34% increase on the figure of $7.1 billion from 2025; ten teams have values exceeding $10 billion, and the Dallas Cowboys alone are estimated at $17 billion having generated nearly $1.28 billion in annual revenue. Those figures show how quickly NFL franchises have moved into a class of assets once associated mainly with major corporations and financial institutions.
Although S&P Global Market Intelligence had arrived at slightly different individual valuation figures based on its own method, it still came to the same general conclusion that the value of the NFL has increased significantly as a result of growth in media rights, private capital, ticket revenue and investors paying ever-larger multiples for the scarce franchises. The company stated that the NFL’s shared revenue has exceeded $14 billion.
The Patriots show how greatly that wealth has increased. In 1994 Kraft purchased the team for $172 million; Forbes currently values it at $10.6 billion, which is more than 60 times the original purchase price even without taking into account the cash the team has generated over the decades. It doesn’t indicate that Kraft’s decision about Macklemore was mainly based on financial considerations. While Kraft has stated the reason for his decision was concerns regarding venue standards and antisemitism, Macklemore sees his performances as constituting advocacy for the Palestinians. These positions are strongly contested, and the evidence currently available does not show that economic factors were the motive behind Kraft’s decision.
What the episode shows is the great amount of commercial authority that stadium ownership now has.
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The financial consequences did not stop when Macklemore had left the tour. Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga then pulled out of their forthcoming performances after Macklemore was removed. The reasons they gave were based on their objection to the decision and their support for Macklemore’s ability to express his views. The Associated Press reported on the withdrawals and the growing fallout surrounding the tour.
Fans have also asked for their money to be refunded, though there is still no reliable public information available regarding the number of tickets that have actually been refunded or the total financial impact the controversy will have on the tour. This difference is important because online anger can create a great deal of attention without necessarily resulting in an equivalent financial loss. Business Insider reported on the fan reaction and refund requests surrounding the controversy.
On September 16 Macklemore included a further financial aspect by announcing that he would donate $1 million, money which he said came from his earnings on the tour, to six organisations offering aid to the Palestinians. He also made a public request for Kraft to match this donation. Although the donation does not settle the dispute, it changes what had originally been an argument about a concert appearance into a highly visible exchange involving money, philanthropy and reputation. People reported on Macklemore’s announcement.
The most forceful objection to the view that this shows the NFL having new financial power is the fact that venue owners have always had the right to choose which performers they will host. Since stadiums are private commercial properties governed by contracts, security regulations and concerns about their reputation, it is not itself a new business model for owners to refuse to host performers. The difference lies in the size of the assets in question.
An NFL owner is now in a position to control a franchise valued at over $10 billion, to manage one of the biggest entertainment venues in a major metropolitan area, and to take part in an industry in which the loss of a number of stadium dates could have an impact on hundreds of thousands of ticket holders. The football team and the concert venue are becoming more and more part of the same financial ecosystem. The issue involving Macklemore therefore shows something more extensive than who was correct in a political debate.
NFL stadiums now act as economic bottlenecks in the field of American entertainment. The franchises in the league are moving towards institutional-asset valuations, the stadiums stage global artists outside of the football season, and the people in control of those stadiums are able to make decisions that can almost immediately reshape multimillion-dollar touring operations.
In 1994 Kraft purchased a football team for $172 million. Now, thirty years on, the business associated with the team has become so significant that a dispute about a single opening act can have effects that spread across a national stadium tour. That is probably the aspect of the whole controversy that has the greatest financial interest.