Dallas Cowboys Most Valuable: Cowboys Franchise Is The Richest In Entire World Of Sports

Forbes has named the Dallas Cowboys most valuable of sports franchises. At $4 billion, this doesn’t just account for the United States, but the entire world.

According to the magazine, the average NFL team is now worth almost $2 billion, which is up 38 percent from last year. Forbes publishes the monetary worth of each NFL team every year. This year, the Cowboys grew substantially even though they’ve topped the list before — nine consecutive times in the last 18 years to be exact.

Profits in the NFL have skyrocketed, with a record $12 billion in revenue last season. TV broadcast rights alone have earned an extra $900 million in revenue that was evenly split among the 32 teams. Research firm IEG estimates that sponsors were responsible for giving $1.15 billion to the NFL, which is up 8 percent from 2013.

The owner and manager of the Cowboys, Jerry Jones, has done a lot of marketing of his brand. AT&T Stadium is also what makes the Dallas Cowboys the most valuable team. Now worth a whopping $4 billion, the glitzy NFL team brought in $620 million in revenue last year. The average attendance at the stadium was 90,000, with $120 million in premium seating. Stadium revenue generated from other events besides the NFL earned the venue $30 million.

The Cowboys value went up $800 million from last year, a 25-percent increase.

According to the report, many other football teams are highly valued on the lists. Forbes reports that those following the Dallas Cowboys as most valuable are the New England Patriots at $3.2 billion; the Washington Redskins at $2.85 billion; the New York Giants at $2.8 billion; and the San Francisco 49ers at $2.7 billion.

The San Francisco 49ers gained a lot from moving into a bigger stadium funded in part by taxpayers. Their value went up 69-percent from a year ago.

A common denominator in these valuations is that the top five teams are “in big markets and play in cash-rich stadiums run by the teams. The bigger your domain, the greater the opportunity to cash in on the fantasy and reality of the NFL.”

As CNN Money adds in its report, the least valuable NFL team is the Buffalo Bills, which sold for $1.4 billion last year, which jumped 50 percent from last year.

What’s more, even the poorest NFL team is richer than most other categories of professional sports in the U.S.

According to the report, there are only five Major League Baseball franchises and six National Basketball Association teams “worth more than the Bills.”

Is it any surprise at all that the Dallas Cowboys are most valuable in the NFL and the world?

[Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]