10 Most Valuable NFL Teams: How Media Rights And A Super Bowl Affected The 2021 List

The annual NFL team valuations rankings from Forbes were released Thursday. The report highlighted the league’s resiliency during the pandemic thanks to strong media rights deals.

What Happened: The average value of an NFL team was up 14% to $3.5 billion, according to the latest report from Forbes.

The NFL saw its media rights rise 82% annually in new deals totaling $111.8 billion that kick in beginning in 2022. Media rights were awarded to Walt Disney Co DIS, Fox Corp FOX, Comcast Corp CMCSA, ViacomCBS VIAC and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.

Each NFL team currently gets $220 million this season from the media deals. That figure is set to rise in 2022 and will hit $377 million by 2032.

Another reason for the rise in valuations is the NFL teams equity stakes in the National Football League venture arm 32 Equity. Each NFL team put in $1 million in 2013 to start the fund with an additional $3 million invested after.

Teams don’t get payouts from the fund, but the valuation of the fund adds around $100 million per team to the rankings.

32 Equity owns stakes in Fanatics, Genius Sports GENI, Sportradar, Skillz Inc SKLZ, Clear and Hyperice.

Related Link: Genius Sports And DraftKings Announce NFL Sports Betting Partnership: What Investors Should Know

The Top 10 Most Valuable NFL Teams: For the 15th consecutive season, the Dallas Cowboys top the Forbes list and saw its revenue total of $800 million significantly higher than other teams.

Here are the top 10 most valuable NFL teams:

1. Dallas Cowboys: $6.5 billion, +14%
2. New England Patriots: $5.0 billion, +14%
3. New York Giants: $4.85 billion, +13%
4. Los Angeles Rams: $4.8 billion, +20%
5. Washington Football Team: $4.2 billion, +20%
6. San Francisco 49ers: $4.18 billion, +10%
7. Chicago Bears: $4.08 billion, +16%
8. New York Jets: $4.05 billion, +14%
9. Philadelphia Eagles: $3.8 billion, +12%
10. Denver Broncos: $3.75 billion, +17%

The Rest of the List: The biggest percent gainer in valuation was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team was valued at $2.94 billion, up 29% from the prior year. A Super Bowl win and the addition of Tom Brady boosted valuation with the report saying the team had record-breaking ticket sales and merchandise sales.

The Buffalo Bills were ranked last on the list worth $2.27 billion, up 11% from the prior year.

Michigan’s Detroit Lions were valued at $2.4 billion, ranking 30th out of 32 teams.