Literature Review

National Football League
Business
The NFL industry is the Mount St. Helen of professional sports in retrospect to all measures, specifically their profitability (In a league of its own, 2006). The NFL industry acts as either in the form of a Cartel or an oligopoly type of structure comprised market with 32 independently owned franchises. The NFL requires that each of the owners must “act in the collective long-run interest of the league,” all the team owners, players, and their fans (Thorton, January 1996). The commissioner, who represents the NFL Corporation and the league, poses as the central point of management, liaison, and/or mediator between all the parties involved in this market. This role requires a certain type of leadership in order for the industry to be successful. Having the right person appointed to this position is crucial considering that the revenue, for not only the corporation, but for each franchise in the league because the revenue is shared.

Management
The $9.5 Billion industry is a centrally managed under the guidance of a “commissioner” who is the equivalent to a CEO of any firm. He has the responsibility to manage all the aspects of league to include its market growth, establishing and enforce the game rules, season schedules, player salary cap limits, and the shared revenue among the 32 franchises. More importantly, he must ensure that the league economic strength to be operating as survivalists with constant leadership and promotion to the franchise owners to have a “league-think” first bases mentality (Vrooman, 2012 ).
The commissioner is elected through a balloting system where each of the leagues entire 32 franchise owners must vote on the recommended individuals for the position. The individual may be interviewed by all owners beforehand, and the process can take as long as possible until one person on the ballot receives the majority of the votes (Pasquarelli, 2006). Managing this large and enclosed market takes a great deal of emotional intelligence, charisma, and key personality traits to accomplish such tasks. Yet, the key to managing such an organization is to have the ability to communicate.
The ability to obtain a high level of emotional intelligence incorporates a vast understanding of self-awareness and management, social awareness, and relationship management is crucial to being successful (Durbin, 2012 ). However, this leadership position must be held by an individual who is naturally a charismatic and a transformational leader. To be an effective leader with this type of oligopoly structure requires getting each franchise owner to act as participative leaders. Having strong interpersonal and masterful communicative skills is vital when trying to gain the acceptance and the following from each of the franchise autocratic leaders. Shared Revenue
The NFL in 1961 started utilizing a revenue sharing system that embraces the partnerships with all franchises. The system is separated into two separate revenue components- the first is through licensing and sponsorship agreements, and the second is through television broadcasting deals and actual playing of games on the field. Licensing and sponsorship agreements accounts for about a third of the total shared revenue. In 2009, this brought in $2 billion dollars from the licensed retail apparel alone (Klayman, 2010). This second category of the revenue sharing is responsible for the majority of the total revenue shared between the league and its individual franchises” (Moorhead, 2006). In 2012, approximately two-thirds of over $9.5 billion in revenues was shared among the 32 franchises.
The majority of shared revenue is comprised of the regular season “gate sales,” more commonly referred to as ticket sales, and the broadcasting of games. When two teams play each other during the regular season, the NFL policy is that the two teams then split the revenue. This revenue includes season tickets and