The Louisville-based company’s stock declined about 9 percent in trading Wednesday morning after it cut expectations for earnings and sales growth for the full year.
Without mentioning NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell by name, Schnatter blamed the league’s “leadership” for allowing “controversy” to push down TV ratings this year, thus hurting the company’s sales.
“This should have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago,” Schnatter said during prepared remarks at the start of the company’s quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts. “…Good or bad, leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership.”
After declining 8 percent during the 2016 season, NFL TV ratings were down another 7.5 percent through the first six weeks of the 2017 season, ESPN reported last month, citing Nielsen data.
Papa John’s is one of the league’s biggest TV advertisers and the most recognized brand associated with the NFL, company executives said on Wednesday’s call.
Schnatter was presumably referring to player protests during pre-game renditions of the National Anthem, though he wasn’t specific.
When an analyst asked how the company managed to grow sales during last year’s NFL season despite declining ratings from 2015, Schnatter said the league had to compete with the presidential election in 2016, but this year’s problems are self-inflicted.
An NFL spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment