Overseeing a Fiscal Future As vice president of club finance for the NFL, Will Dorrance ’11 helps govern the NFL’s economic model.

By Jessica Luck
August 21, 2024

When Will Dorrance ’11 was studying accounting at W&L, he had no idea his current job even existed. He came across a posting from the Office of Career and Professional Development for an internship with the NFL’s internal audit department and thought it sounded like an interesting opportunity. Fast-forward a few years, and today Dorrance works as vice president of club finance, in a department that serves as the financial liaison between the NFL commissioner’s office in New York City and the 32 NFL teams and their CFOs.

The department is charged with maintaining and improving the economic model of the NFL, which is directly tied to the organization’s salary cap system. The system allows for competitive balance among teams, which Dorrance likens to an “any given Sunday mindset, where a team can go from the worst team one year to the best team the next year.” Also under Dorrance’s team’s purview is helping NFL teams finance their stadiums – either building new ones or renovating current ones – by loaning teams up to $300 million or otherwise arranging debt on their behalf. The work includes factoring in next-generation stadium financing and determining what stadium needs will look like 15 years from now and deciding what’s the right amount of investment for the NFL today.

“Every day is different, and the work is really interesting,” Dorrance says.

One of the biggest job perks, Dorrance says, is the people he gets to work with – such as one of his mentors, former Vice President of Special Projects for the NFL Pete Abitante ’78 – because the NFL culture is one of working hard but giving back. Dorrance helped start the NFL Community Teammates program, which brings together hundreds of employees at each of the three NFL offices in the U.S. to volunteer for a different cause each month, such as the Ronald McDonald House that aids pediatric cancer patients and their families or the Boys and Girls Club.

“It’s really rewarding to work with people who are so good at what they do but at the same time are really good people as well,” Dorrance says.

A varsity soccer player all four years at W&L, Dorrance knows firsthand how beneficial being part of a team is and the kind of bond sports creates among people from all backgrounds.

“There’s an immense amount of pride that people have in their teams, and it brings people together in a way that few things do,” Dorrance says about the NFL. “It doesn’t matter about politics or background. You just get 80,000 people cheering together in support of their team. It’s a pretty cool experience.”