| The NFL retired players want the NFL to match baseball’s (MLB’s) retirement plan. The NFL retirement plan covers only 21% more people/players NFL 9,560 covered vs MLB’s 7,540, baseballs expenses are higher, travel expenses for the far longer season are much higher, MLB salaries are higher $2.8 million vs $1.25 million average, MLB average pension benefits funded are three times higher than NFL benefits $36,700 average vs NFL’s $12,165. Baseball’s gross income is approximately $4.3 billion while the NFL’s gross is over $6 billion. There is no excuse not to have the NFL retirement benefits matching Major League Baseball’s.
COMPARISON RETIREMENT PLANS MLB VS NFL FROM LATEST FORM 5500 IRS/DEPT OF LABOR REPORTS
1) Total Pay out annual benefits MLB $88.9 Mil vs. NFL $43.33 Mil
2) Average annual benefit MLB $36,700 vs. NFL $12,165
3) Monthly benefits paid (nearly) MLB $7 Mil vs. NFL $3.6 Mil *****
4) 10 yr player at 62 gets MLB $175,000 vs. NFL $32,000
5) Percent total salaries of benefits MLB 5.5% vs. NFL 2.2%
6) Participants included (21% diff.) MLB 7,540 vs. NFL 9,560
7) Active players covered MLB 1,200 vs. NFL 1,800
8) Investment income MLB $92.1 Mil vs. NFL $54.7 Mil
9) Assets available for benefits MLB $1.4 Bill vs. NFL $1.2 Bill ***
10) Current liabilities MLB $2.3 Bill vs. NFL $1.04 Bill
11) Ave player salary MLB $2.8 Mil vs. NFL $1.25 Mil
12) Median salary MLB $1.1 Mil ** vs. NFL $631,675
13) Exec. Director Pay MLB $1 Mil vs. NFL $5.99 Mil??
14) Plan actuary fee MLB $538,733 vs. NFL $492,951
15) Two year legal fees (2003+2004) MLB $309,726 vs. NFL $5.6 Mil
16) Number monthly benefits checks MLB 2,419 vs. NFL 2,864 or (3,500 Mellon Bank)
17) Employer contributions MLB $109.6 Mil vs. NFL $67.9 Mil
18) Both Plans meet the minimum funding requirements of ERISA.
19) Both plans are defined benefit plans despite the misinformation given out by the NFLPA. Both Plans mark form 5500 page 2 item 8(a) Characteristics Code, as 1B and 1G exactly the same.
· *If the NFL paid out $88.9 Mil as MLB does the average annual benefit would be $25,400 instead of the sub-poverty level benefit of $12,165.
· **Florida Marlins median salary $1.1 Mil, Yankees median salary $5.8 Mil.
· ***Upshaw stated in a May 16, 2006 telephone conference call that the “net assets available for benefits” had grown from the $841,761,127 in the financial statement to over $1.2 billion now.
· **** MLB's investment income appears to be more than NFL's.
***** NFL’s $3.6 million a month excludes disability payments of approximately $19 million.
· NFL pays their Exec Director 3 times as much and gets back less than half as much as MLB. Donald Fehr was paid $1,002,064 in 2004. Upshaw's compensation is deliberately difficult to track in the "creative" report labeling Grantors Trust, etc.
· Pension plans too numerous to list here (including MLB, GE & Congress) improve their benefits after beneficiaries start drawing benefits for cost of living and other adjustments debunking another NFLPA-NFL pension myth.
· MLB goes back and improves their benefits regularly too.
· The MLB numbers are now from 2004 and the NFL’s from 2005 so the comparison is still even worse than it appears here.
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