It’s the culmination of another football season, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers try to prevent the Kansas City Chiefs from winning back-to-back Super Bowls. Here at Emburse, we must admit to having a bit of a preference for the Bucs, as they are one of our customers (in fact they’re one of three NFL teams that use Emburse solutions).
While the Bucs have the benefit being the first team ever to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium, both teams traveled significantly throughout the season. In fact, during the regular season, the Chiefs (15,782 miles) traveled just 16 more miles than the Bucs (15,766). This places them right in the middle of the NFL pack for the total number of miles traveled, at 14th and 15th respectively.
Although COVID led to the NFL restricting travel to just 70 people per team this season - about half the normal amount - the logistics of planning and paying for team travel are still as formidable as a linebacker at full speed.
Pro sports franchises’ travel managers need to coordinate a variety of logistical items for their teams, and while it may look like an industry where money isn’t a concern, spend needs to be controlled and accounted for, just like any other organization. Policies need to be created and adhered to, and expenses and invoices need to be tracked and reimbursed. In fact, sports teams need expense management just like any corporation looking to track and control costs. So, what are some of the areas that need to be considered?
Flights and hotels: All pro teams now travel exclusively on charter flights (although the New England Patriots have two Boeing 767s of their own that they use), so there is no need to worry about booking airline tickets for 70 players, coaches and other backroom staff. These contracts are negotiated in advance with the airlines, so are paid for using invoices instead of a corporate card. Although hotel rates are also negotiated in advance with preferred chains (being able to track how much you spend each year can certainly help to secure preferential rates), travel managers will often need to pay for the rooms with a team’s credit card upon arrival.
Upon checkout, the travel managers will also need to cover any incidentals incurred during the stay, such as room service. With such a large number of rooms, hotel folio receipts can understandably become quite unwieldy, so the ability for travel managers to simply import the folios directly into an expense tracking solution can save many hours of manual administrative time from the back-office staff.
Per diems: Despite football players earning a minimum of $480,000 per year, they are still entitled to a $122 per diem on the road to cover all food that’s not provided by the team. Players’ per diems need to be managed, allocated and distributed, often through a prepaid card.
Other travel: Players and coaching staff need to get to and from the airports, as does players’ personal luggage, as well as uniforms, equipment and so on – often several tons’ worth. This requires busses to be rented in each city. As with all other travel arrangements, this is relatively straightforward during the regular season when schedules are set months in advance, but can become quite difficult during the playoff, where travel arrangements can change – or be canceled – based on a single play.
Incidentals: Like all business travelers, pro sports players often have incidentals on the road that they need to pay for – not packing enough underwear for the trip, needing to get a suit button repaired and so on. However, unlike many other travelers, they don’t typically go to the store or do their own sewing repairs. This means that other members of the traveling staff will need to make these purchases, and then expense them for reimbursement and allocation to the individual players’ accounts.
Scouts: While the playing team has all of their flights, hotels and meals taken care of by the back-office team, life isn’t so easy for the teams’ scouts. NFL teams typically have 7-8 scouts, each of whom is often on the road for 100 or more days per year. For these individuals, who often need to book their own flights, cars and hotels, the need to effectively manage travel and dining expenses while on the road is critical, as having to hang on to countless receipts simply isn’t an option. Therefore, they need a solution that allows them to simply capture expenses in real time, and create and submit expense reports from their smartphone. One benefit that scouts do get, however, is great elite status with airlines and hotel chains!
Of course, this is just a small sample of the types of expenses that teams can incur. These organizations often employ many hundreds of non-playing staff throughout the year, who are responsible for everything from travel planning to marketing to turf and stadium maintenance, and will often incur out-of-pocket expenses.
While playing up to 23 games per season is certainly a test of endurance for the players, managing the logistics and the related expenses of a team’s operations can be equally grueling. When Tom and Patrick and their teams face off on Sunday, we’ll be cheering for the Bucs, hoping that we’ve made their season just a bit easier - at least off the field.