NFL asking Super Bowl halftime act to pay to play

Taking advantage of musicians is a pastime many in the world of entertainment have enjoyed and now the NFL is reportedly joining in the fun. The Wall Street Journal reports that the NFL is requesting that this year’s Super Bowl halftime show performer pays to play the event.

The Super Bowl halftime show is much less important than the game itself, but it tends to be just as divisive before and after it happens. The debate on who should play the show, shortly followed by whether or not the show was any good, is one of the bigger sub-stories surrounding the game. This season, the NFL has narrowed the list of potential performers to three names: Rihanna, Katy Perry and Coldplay, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Also of particular note is that the league has asked “some of the acts if they would be willing to contribute a portion of their post-Super Bowl tour income to the league, or if they would make some other type of financial contribution.” In other words, some form of payment in exchange for playing the show.

It’s well known that the league hasn’t paid its performers for the halftime show to this point. The exposure gained from playing the halftime show is huge, and though it’s impossible to nail down how much of that translates to immediate financial benefits, multiple artists have announced tours immediately following their Super Bowl performances.

However, reception to this idea was “chilly,” according to the report. No decision on the act has been made yet, “and it is possible another act could be selected,” which may mean that the league is serious about this and will go outside of those three to find an artist who will agree to their deal, or it could simply mean that it’s not really down to those three named artists at this point.