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The Street

Colin Salao

The 20 Most Valuable Sports Teams

Sportico NFL MLB NBA the Dallas Cowboys

Professional athletes may seem like they’re making jaw-dropping money as some are signing contracts worth over half a billion dollars. But that’s largely because the sports teams that employ them have continued to see their values shoot up.

Live sports have remained a key component in the ever-changing media landscape, bridging the gap between cable television and streaming. This has helped increase revenue, which brings majority of the revenue for many of the sports leagues around the world.

The NFL signed a ten-year deal that ends in 2033 worth over $100 billion, the NBA is seeking about $7 to $8 billion per year for its next media rights deal starting, and even leagues like Major League Soccer have cashed in as well.

On top of that, sports teams are their own massive brands themselves, benefitting from ticket and merchandise sales and even ownership of the arena in their cities.

Forbes and Sportico are two outlets that track the franchise valuations of the professional sports teams around the world. Valuation isn’t always set in stone as some teams have not had a sale to determine valuation in decades. Others that have been sold recently are much easier to determine, like the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, who were sold to Matt Ishbia for $4 billion earlier this year.

The two outlets have differing valuations for the franchises which differs their overall rank -- a team like Miami Dolphins ranks 19th on Forbes, but is all the way down to 28th on Sportico.

But there are a few trends that cross through both outlets. One is that NFL franchises have the highest value, with the Dallas Cowboys topping both lists at $8 billion for Forbes and $7.64 billion for Sportico.

Several NBA and MLB franchises also make the list, alongside European football clubs in the English Premier League and La Liga.

Here is the list of 20 of the most valuable sports franchises and their ranks on both Forbes and Sportico:

The Dallas Cowboys are the highest valued professional franchise across all sports.
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Dallas Cowboys - NFL

Forbes: $8 billion, 1st

Sportico: $7.64 billion, 1st

New England Patriots - NFL

Forbes: $6.4 billion, 2nd

Sportico: $5.88 billion, 9th

Los Angeles Rams - NFL

Forbes: $6.2 billion, 3rd

Sportico: $5.91 billion, 8th

Washington Commanders - NFL

Per May 2023 signed sale agreement: $6.05 billion; Would be 4th on Forbes, 6th on Sportico

Note: The Washington Commanders and owner Dan Snyder agreed to sell the franchise to Josh Harris in May for $6.05 billion, the largest sale of a franchise in NFL history.

Prior to sale, Commanders were valued at $5.6 billion by Forbes (9th) and $4.78 billion by Sportico (14th).