Getty Images
National Football League (NFL) franchise the Dallas Cowboys have topped Forbes’ annual list of the world’s most valuable sports teams for the fourth consecutive year.
The study, which is based on enterprise values and pre-existing commercial deals, values the Cowboys at US$5 billion, with Major League Baseball’s (MLB) New York Yankees second on the list at US$4.6 billion, and Spanish soccer giants Real Madrid in third with a valuation of US$4.24 billion.
Rounding out the top ten are Barcelona (US$4.02 billion), the New York Knicks (US$4 billion), Manchester United (US$3.81 billion), the New England Patriots (US$3.8 billion), the Los Angeles Lakers (US$3.7 billion), the Golden State Warriors (US$3.5 billion), the New York Giants (US$3.3 billion) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (US$3.3 billion).
The NFL dominates the overall list with 26 teams in the top 50. A major contributor was the league’s lucrative media rights deals with the likes of CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN and DirecTV, which saw each team receive more than US$260 million last year.
Way behind the NFL was the National Basketball Association (NBA), which had nine teams on the list. Eight European soccer clubs featured, while there were seven MLB franchises. No National Hockey League (NHL) team made the cut.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been credited with driving up the franchise’s value since purchasing it for US$150 million in 1989. He secured lucrative sponsorship agreements and broke away from the NFL’s shared merchandise revenue system, enabling the Cowboys to sell their own products. He also launched Legends, a hospitality and venue management firm, in partnership with the Yankees and opened a US$1.5 billion training complex.
Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor at Forbes Media, said: “The values of teams in major sports leagues are booming thanks to sky-high TV deals, both local and national.
“And with revenue growing faster than player salaries, franchises are more profitable than they have ever been.”
The NFL continues to dominate the annual Forbes list, as eight European soccer clubs feature.
National Football League (NFL) franchise the Dallas Cowboys have topped Forbes’ annual list of the world’s most valuable sports teams for the fourth consecutive year.
The study, which is based on enterprise values and pre-existing commercial deals, values the Cowboys at US$5 billion, with Major League Baseball’s (MLB) New York Yankees second on the list at US$4.6 billion, and Spanish soccer giants Real Madrid in third with a valuation of US$4.24 billion.
Rounding out the top ten are Barcelona (US$4.02 billion), the New York Knicks (US$4 billion), Manchester United (US$3.81 billion), the New England Patriots (US$3.8 billion), the Los Angeles Lakers (US$3.7 billion), the Golden State Warriors (US$3.5 billion), the New York Giants (US$3.3 billion) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (US$3.3 billion).
The NFL dominates the overall list with 26 teams in the top 50. A major contributor was the league’s lucrative media rights deals with the likes of CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN and DirecTV, which saw each team receive more than US$260 million last year.
Way behind the NFL was the National Basketball Association (NBA), which had nine teams on the list. Eight European soccer clubs featured, while there were seven MLB franchises. No National Hockey League (NHL) team made the cut.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been credited with driving up the franchise’s value since purchasing it for US$150 million in 1989. He secured lucrative sponsorship agreements and broke away from the NFL’s shared merchandise revenue system, enabling the Cowboys to sell their own products. He also launched a stadium management firm in partnership with the Yankees and opened a US$1.5 billion training complex.
Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor at Forbes Media, said: “The values of teams in major sports leagues are booming thanks to sky-high TV deals, both local and national.
“And with revenue growing faster than player salaries, franchises are more profitable than they have ever been.”
