Colts to receive $55 million in fees from relocation of Chargers, Raiders, and Rams

One of the biggest stories of the NFL off-season is that a number of NFL franchises chose to move away from their previous home cities to find greener pastures elsewhere. The Rams moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles, the Chargers are moving from San Diego to Los Angeles this off-season, and the Raiders are set to move from Oakland to Las Vegas in the next couple years.

While each team has its reasons to move, doing so comes with a cost. ESPN’s Darren Rovell is reporting that the 29 NFL teams not moving will each receive a gross total of $55.2 million over the next 11 years. While each team will pay taxes on the revenue, they will not have to share the money with the players as the funds will not be included in the revenue sharing pot.

The Rams and Chargers are each paying $645 million over the next ten years, while the Raiders are paying $378 million over ten years beginning in the year they move to Las Vegas. The Rams and Chargers do not have to pay each other as they are both moving to Los Angeles so their fees will be split among the remaining 30 teams. The Raiders fee will be split between all of the other 31 teams, including the Rams and Chargers.

This is roughly $5 million per year for the next 11 years that each team can simply add to their bottom line. If you ever wanted to know whether there was an incentive for NFL owners when they’re voting to approve or deny these moves, now you know.

What we don’t know is how each franchise plans to put this money to work. For the Colts, I will steal David Fucillo’s idea over at Niners Nation, maybe Irsay could used these dollars to subsidize cutting the price of soda, beer, and hot dogs?