What team is the most valuable franchise in all of sports?
The world of professional sports is a billion-dollar industry able to accommodate those athlete mega-contracts. Here’s the franchise that’s worth the most.
Professional sports bring in billions of dollars a year, enabling teams to grant their star athletes multi-million contracts. The National Football League is the richest sports association in the world, raking in $16 billion dollars in revenue last year.
The immense dollar power of the NFL was recently reinforced by the news that Walmart heir Rob Walton has offered to pay $4.65 billion for the Denver Broncos. This is above the average worth of NFL teams, which is $4.14 billion, according to Sportico.
With these mind-boggling numbers, it is reasonable to expect that the most valuable franchise comes from football. What is rather surprising is that the richest team has not won a Super Bowl championship since 1996.
The empire of the Cowboys
The sports organization that has the highest worth is the Dallas Cowboys, which per Sportico is valued at $7.64 billion. This, despite the fact that they last hoisted the Lombardi trophy 26 years ago after defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers. This amount is $630 million more than Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees who trail them at number two among all sports organizations. This is also a far $1.73 billion ahead of the Los Angeles Rams, who are ranked second among NFL teams.
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Jerry Jones + Fan loyalty = Dallas dollars
The success of Dallas can be attributed in large part to the business savvy of Jerry Jones, who bought the team in 1989. Since he and his family took over, there has been a surge in the franchise’s income brought in by sponsorships, merchandise sales, revenue from the Cowboys’ home arena, the AT&T Stadium, among others.
However, credit must also go to its rock-solid fan base, which has stuck with them despite the lack of Super Bowl success. The Cowboys are extremely popular, its Facebook page liked by more 8.3 million, its Twitter account having 4.2 million followers, its Instagram account, 4.1 million. These numbers translate to money spent on game tickets, concession stands, and Cowboys paraphernalia to display their loyalty to America’s team.