By Brett Knight and Justin Teitelbaum, Forbes Staff.
For the ninth straight year, the Dallas Cowboys are the world’s most valuable sports team, worth an estimated $10.1 billion—the first to cross the 11-figure threshold and $1.3 billion beyond their closest competition. But there is plenty of movement among the top 50 teams, with 12 NBA franchises now flooding the ranking, double the six on last year’s list and led by the Golden State Warriors, worth an estimated $8.8 billion and No. 2 overall.
To be fair, that increase is due in part to a change in the timing of Forbes’ list, but basketball’s march up the financial leaderboard also reflects real gains by the NBA’s teams. The league’s 30 franchises were worth $4.4 billion on average this year, a 15% increase over 2023 and a staggering 596% jump from a decade ago (a 21% compound annual return). No other sport represented among the 50 most valuable teams comes close to that appreciation.
The influx of NBA teams comes at the expense of Major League Baseball, which lost two teams in the top 50 (the Chicago Cubs and the San Francisco Giants); Formula 1, which had both of its outfits fall out (Ferrari and Mercedes); and the NFL, which is now missing the Buffalo Bills. (Because of a tie at No. 50 this year between the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, six new teams join the ranking while only five teams depart.)
The NFL, however, continues to dominate the list with 29 franchises—58% of the top 50. Soccer, which had eight clubs in the top 50 a decade ago, including the top three spots, now has six teams spread across four leagues, with Real Madrid of Spain’s La Liga leading the way at $6.6 billion, tied for 12th overall.
While Europe’s elite soccer teams may have unbeatable global reach, nothing tops the commercialization of American pro sports, starting with their media deals. The NBA’s national TV agreements, signed in July and taking effect next season, are reportedly worth $76 billion over 11 years, translating to an average annual payout of $230 million per team. Each NFL team, meanwhile, will receive roughly $380 million per year on average across the life of the league’s national media rights package, which altogether is set to pay at least $125.5 billion through 2033.
Consider that Atlético Madrid of La Liga—which is not among the world’s 50 most valuable sports teams but ranked 13th among soccer clubs on Forbes’ 2024 list—had $382 million in revenue last season, from all sources, according to Forbes estimates. Or simply look at Manchester City, which has piled up four straight titles in England’s powerful Premier League plus the 2023 Champions League trophy. The club is now worth $5.1 billion—tying it at No. 31 in the world ranking with the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, who are only the fifth-most-valuable franchise in their home market, behind the Rams, Lakers, Clippers and Dodgers.
Combined, the 50 most valuable teams are worth just under $289 billion, or an average of roughly $5.8 billion, up 13% from 2023. The cutoff is also at record levels, rising 16% to $4.3 billion from last year’s $3.7 billion. In fact, this year’s last-place team would have been No. 1 just seven years ago, when the Cowboys led the ranking at $4.2 billion.
