Owning a sports franchise is the ultimate status symbol for billionaires. It can also be an incredibly lucrative investment if the franchise wins championships and/or has a large and loyal fanbase. Everyone’s heard the story of how Jerry Jones purchased the Dallas Cowboys for only $140 million in 1989. The Dallas Cowboys are now the most valuable sports franchise in the entire world with an estimated value of $4.2 BILLION with a Capital B (up 5% from 2016).
One thing I find particularly interesting about this list of the Most Valuable Sports Teams in the World (in 2017) isn’t the fact that the top 2 most valuable teams are in the U.S., I think it’s interesting that the Top 3 teams all come from different sports. In order from 1 to 3, it goes NFL, MLB, and Premier League (Soccer). I think it’s also very interesting to see how much the Rams’ value went up by moving to Los Angeles. Now, without further ado, here are the top 20 most valuable sports teams in the world in 2017:
1. Dallas Cowboys, $4.2 billion, 5% (NFL)
2. New York Yankees, $3.7 billion, 9% (MLB)
3. Manchester United, $3.69 billion, 11% (Soccer)
4. Barcelona, $3.64 billion, 2% (Soccer)
5. Real Madrid, $3.58 billion, -2% (Soccer)
6. New England Patriots, $3.4 billion, 6% (NFL)
7. New York Knicks, $3.3 billion, 10% (NBA)
8. New York Giants, $3.1 billion, 11% (NFL)
9. San Francisco 49ers, $3 billion, 11% (NFL)
9. Los Angeles Lakers, $3 billion, 11% (NBA)
11. Washington Redskins, $2.95 billion, 4% (NFL)
12. Los Angeles Rams, $2.9 billion, 100% (NFL)
13. New York Jets, $2.75 billion, 6% (NFL)
13. Los Angeles Dodgers, $2.75 billion, 10% (MLB)
15. Bayern Munich, $2.71 billion, 1% (Soccer)
16. Chicago Bears, $2.7 billion, 10% (NFL)
16. Boston Red Sox, $2.7 billion, 17% (MLB)
18. Chicago Cubs, $2.68 billion, 22% (MLB)
19. San Francisco Giants, $2.65 billion, 18% (MLB)
20. Houston Texans, $2.6 billion, 4% (NFL) (via Forbes)
Strictly speaking about finances, it’s pretty darn good to be Jerry Jones, huh?
I don’t know why I’m always fascinated by Forbes‘ annual lists of the ‘most valuable’ or ‘highest paid’ whatever, but I am. I somehow missed when Forbes released their 2017 list of the Most Valuable Sports Teams in the World back in July, and I came across a snippet of it earlier on Luxatic. I’m guessing a lot of you bros out there hadn’t seen this list either, so I hope you’ll forgive me for sharing this news from July.
If you didn’t see your team on that list, you can check out Forbes‘ list of the ’50 Most Valuable Sports Teams in 2017′ by following that link above to see if they’re ranked somewhere between #’s 21-50.