What if the big advertisers drop them instead of wanting to pay less? Budweiser and Pepsi have already felt the need to make statements...
I know very little about how the NFL works, but I think it survives on corporate advertising, TV, and fan money. If that is true, then I don’t see how they can keep going the way they are going.
All the contracts you mentioned, there are tons of lawyers that will be happy to help renegotiate or get out of the contracts on the part of those that advertise. Even if the lawsuits are not won the cost would be hard for the NFL to eat. I know if I was a big time advertiser that does not agree with what they are doing, I am talking to my lawyer about getting out of contracts. Those companies didn’t sign on for this.
The TV contracts...if advertisers are not interested and enough people drop their NFL packages and stop watching they will want out as well. Long term contracts are great, but many people have legally broken contracts.
We will see, I am amazed the NFL allowed it to come to this, many people will never see football the same.
Large (National) Ad buys are usually made month by month or perhaps season by season, but there is usually something like an escape clause or provision for termination. The advertisers make those contracts with the TV Networks, not the NFL directly. A lot of advertisers will have a flexible payment schedule with floors and ceilings based
upon the ratings for the games their ads appear during. If ratings fall, this will affect the TV network revenues. The Networks are locked into their contracts, but if there is a significant drop in ratings, they will start screaming at the NFL to do something...
Teams will have their own local deals with local companies for stadium signage, sponsorships, or endorsements that amount to several millions of dollars (in some cases, [Dallas Cowboys] 10’s of millions) every season. Those deals would have their own escape clauses.
This could get quite noticeable for the team owners very quickly...