It’s not much of a secret that sports franchises are doing very well for themselves but Forbes’ newest figures on the world’s most valuable sports teams reveals some rather staggering figures.
While numbers in the billions start to lose their impact when shown in a list, this little factoid hammers home just how much cash sports owners are raking in right now:
The world’s 50 most valuable sports teams are now worth $1.75 billion on average, up 31% from 2014. The minimum valuation to make the cut is $1.15 billion, versus $856 million a year ago, thanks largely to the soaring worth of NBA and MLB teams.
With evaluations like that, it’s no wonder that Mikhail Prokorov is looking for ways to become sole owner of the Nets right now.
Real Madrid found itself at the top spot of the world’s most valuable sports teams for a third straight year according to Forbes (although the value of the franchise actually dropped by 5%). The Spanish team is worth a reported $3.26 billion.
Compared to last year, the rest of the top five most valuable sports franchises remained the same, although they did shuffle positions. Barcelona fell from second place to fourth and Manchester United fell from third to fifth. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys jumped from fourth and fifth respectively to tie at second place.
However, while three soccer teams found themselves in the five most valuable sports teams in the world, the NFL was most prominently represented on the Forbes list. Of the top 50 most valuable sports teams, 20 NFL teams were accounted for (compared to 12 for the MLB, 10 for the NBA and 7 for soccer).
None of the top ten most valuable sports franchises were very surprising, but it is entertaining to note that, for all of their failures on the basketball court recently, the Los Angeles Lakers ($2.6 billion) and the New York Knicks ($2.5 billion) are still listed as the world’s most valuable NBA teams.
Check out the rest of Forbes’ figures here.
The ten sports franchises that managed to do better than anyone else are as follows:
1. Real Madrid – $3.26 billion
2. The Dallas Cowboys – $3.2 billion
2. The New York Yankees – $3.2 billion
4. Barcelona – $3.16 billion
5. Manchester United – $3.1 billion
6. Los Angeles Lakers – $2.6 billion
6. New England Patriots – $2.6 billion
8. New York Knicks – $2.5 billion
9. Los Angeles Dodgers – $2.4 billion
9. Washington Redskins – $2.4 billion
