The NFL’s Most Valuable Teams 2025

Football’s 32 golf equipment are price $7.1 billion on common, a 25% year-over-year leap, however the Dallas Cowboys sit tall within the saddle with a report valuation for any sports activities franchise.

Last August, the Dallas Cowboys grew to become the primary professional sports activities crew ever worth $10 billion. But a handful of stake gross sales across the NFL over the previous 12 months—in addition to the $6.1 billion sale of the NBA’s Boston Celtics and the $10 billion deal for the Los Angeles Lakers—have proven that buyers are extra determined than ever to affix the sports activities franchise dogpile, and the Cowboys have now galloped proper previous the $11 billion and $12 billion thresholds on the way in which to their newest monetary first down.

For the nineteenth straight yr, Dallas is the NFL’s most precious crew, price $13 billion, in keeping with Forbes estimates—up 29% from 2024 and double its valuation from just four years ago. And the Cowboys have new firm within the $10 billion membership, with the Los Angeles Rams now price $10.5 billion and the New York Giants shut behind at $10.1 billion.

All 32 NFL groups are price a minimum of $5 billion for the primary time, with the Cincinnati Bengals setting the ground at $5.25 billion—a determine that surpasses all 32 NHL clubs in Forbes’ rating final yr and all however seven franchises throughout the latest NBA and MLB valuation lists. The common crew worth within the NFL now sits at $7.1 billion, a 25% enhance over 2024 and a 104% leap from 2021, and league-wide income climbed to an estimated $21.2 billion throughout the 2024 season, rising 74% over the identical four-year interval.

The Cowboys, nonetheless, are in a league of their very own with estimated 2024 income of $1.2 billion, main each different NFL crew by a minimum of $400 million. In reality, take away the roughly $440 million that each membership obtained from the league workplace—from nationwide media, sponsorship and merchandise, in addition to a pooled portion of league-wide ticket income—and Dallas nonetheless collected almost $800 million in purely native income, greater than the whole income of each different crew besides the Las Vegas Raiders.

Even extra astonishing, the Cowboys posted working revenue of $629 million final season, in keeping with Forbes estimates, that means Dallas made extra in revenue than 16 groups logged in income.

That money-making machine, coupled with the franchise’s huge fan base and enduring legacy, has led some bankers to conclude that, whereas $13 billion looks like a good value for the Cowboys given professional soccer’s present economics, longtime proprietor Jerry Jones would possibly draw even increased bids if he ever determined to place the crew in the marketplace.

It’s not simply Dallas that has an astronomical price ticket, both. Miami Dolphins proprietor Stephen Ross sold a 13% stake in his holding firm (which additionally contains Hard Rock Stadium and Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix) at an $8.1 billion valuation in December, the identical month that the Buffalo Bills fetched $5.8 billion in a deal for 20.6% of the team and the Philadelphia Eagles sold off 8% at an $8.3 billion valuation. Meanwhile, a 6.2% slice of the San Francisco 49ers offered for $8.6 billion in May, and the Chicago Bears reached an settlement this month to promote a roughly 2% stake at an $8.8 billion valuation.

Despite that run of exercise—which additionally included offers at undisclosed valuations for 8% of the Los Angeles Chargers and 15% of the Las Vegas Raiders—the NFL has not seen a management sale since a bunch led by non-public fairness billionaire Josh Harris purchased the Washington Commanders for $6.05 billion in July 2023. That lag is essential as a result of the extent to which the implied valuation in a minority sale displays the true value of a sports activities crew generally is a bit murky. (Traditionally, restricted companions have gotten a reduction—typically 20% to 25%—as a result of they sometimes haven’t any say within the operations of the crew. In current years, nonetheless, tiny slivers of groups have typically been offered at a major premium as a result of the comparatively small buy-in has expanded the pool of bidders.)

Still, bankers imagine that many of the current offers are a minimum of in vary of a management valuation—even in circumstances the place Forbes’ valuations from only a few months prior look comparatively paltry, such because the Eagles (valued at $6.6 billion in August 2024) and the 49ers ($6.8 billion). Notably, after the NFL adjusted its guidelines final August to permit non-public fairness corporations to affix its possession ranks, Ares Management was among the many buyers within the Dolphins deal, and Arctos Partners purchased items of the Bills and the Chargers. As a rule, institutional buyers are usually not identified for letting ego or emotion inflate the costs they’re prepared to pay.

The lure of NFL possession begins with the league’s nationwide media offers, which took impact in 2022 and 2023 and locked in $125.5 billion in income over the subsequent decade. But many across the sport anticipate that quantity to finish up significantly increased as a result of the league can decide out of most of its agreements in 2029 and safe even higher charges, capitalizing on the success the NBA had negotiating an 11-year, $76 billion package with Amazon, ESPN and NBC final yr. The NFL additionally moved this month to amass a ten% stake in ESPN in trade for the NFL Network and different media belongings, together with the TV rights to the RedZone channel.

Meanwhile, the NFL continues to extend its advertising income, approaching $2.5 billion in team sponsorships final season in a 6% rise from the earlier yr, in keeping with analysis agency SponsorUnited. And soccer has loads of room to develop internationally, the place the NFL’s broadcast rights are negligible and groups have solely lately began to dedicate actual sources as a part of the league’s international markets program.

One different clear perk of NFL possession is that it has turn into almost not possible to lose cash within the league, with the 32 groups averaging $127 million in working revenue final season and no crew falling under $21 million, in keeping with Forbes estimates. That type of profitability isn’t assured in different sports activities, reminiscent of MLB, the place Forbes estimates that 11 groups have been within the pink final season.

The results of all of these tailwinds is that Forbes now pegs the typical income a number of within the NFL at 10.7x, spiking from 9x in 2024 and 6.4x five years ago. And because the league scans the sphere for its subsequent huge rating, it might already be within the pink zone: The Giants are looking for a purchaser for around 10% of the franchise.

The Most Valuable NFL Teams 2025

#1. $13 billion

One-Year Change: 29% | Revenue: $1.234 billion | Operating Income: $629 million | Owner: Jerry Jones

#2. $10.5 billion

One-Year Change: 38% | Revenue: $764 million | Operating Income: $244 million | Owner: E. Stanley Kroenke

#3. $10.1 billion

One-Year Change: 38% | Revenue: $707 million | Operating Income: $181 million | Owners: John Mara, Steven Tisch

#4. $9 billion

One-Year Change: 22% | Revenue: $762 million | Operating Income: $222 million | Owner: Robert Kraft

#5. $8.6 billion

One-Year Change: 26% | Revenue: $723 million | Operating Income: $115 million | Owner: York family

#6. $8.3 billion

One-Year Change: 26% | Revenue: $688 million | Operating Income: $117 million | Owner: Jeffrey Lurie