2022 has undoubtedly been a great year for Real Madrid. After winning LaLiga, the Champions League and becoming the most valuable football team in the world last May, the white team once again won: In Forbes’ new list, which takes into account teams from all sports in the world, it ranks first among soccer teams and 13th when all other sports are taken into account. Additionally, it increases its value compared to the previous year from $4.75 billion to $5.1 billion.
Combined, the world’s 50 most valuable sports teams are worth $222.7 billion.30% more than a year ago, the biggest increase in five years.
The NFL continues to dominate, with 30 of its 32 teams in the top 50, which represents 60% of the list. The last time the NFL had at least 30 teams was in 2014. Last year, they had 26. In 2013, the league had a record 32 teams in the top 50. But then the top three on the list were football teams: Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona. This year, the NFL has six of the top ten and 13 of the top 20 teams on our list. The main reason for the NFL’s success: The richest media deal in sports, worth $112 billion through 2032.
The most valuable team is the NFL team Dallas Cowboys, which is worth 8 billion dollars. and have held the top spot since 2016. Rounding out the top five are the New England Patriots ($6.4 billion); Los Angeles Rams ($6.2 billion); New York Yankees and New York Giants, both valued at $6 billion.
NFL dominance is not a theoretical exercise. Last month, the Denver Broncos were sold for $4.65 billion, a record for a sports team. The second highest sale price was the $3.2 billion price tag of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets in 2019. Even in constant dollars, the Broncos sold for nearly $1 billion more than the Nets.
On the contrary, MLB’s representation has been slowly declining since the 2015 Forbes list, when baseball had 12 teams in the top 50. In recent years, MLB has had no more than eight teams, with at least five in this year’s edition. The last baseball team to change hands was the New York Mets for $2.42 billion ($2.72 billion in 2022) in 2020.
No team from the NHL, Indian Premier League or MLS was in the top 50. New York Rangers, worth $2 billion, is the most valuable hockey team, and Mumbai Indians, worth $1.3 billion, is the most valuable cricket team. Unfortunately, they haven’t made the list because of that our cutoff for this year’s top 50 is 3.1 billion. The most valuable team in MLS is Los Angeles FC, with a reported value of $860 million.
Teams in large, richer markets generally have an edge over the competition when it comes to trade value. For example, California is the most populous state in the United States and has the most sports teams of any state with a total of 15. Unsurprisingly, the Golden State also has the most teams in the top 50, with eight, all residing in the nation’s second- and sixth-largest media markets, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, respectively.
England and New York are second with the most teams, each with four. New York has the largest metropolitan area in the United States, with more than six million residents than Los Angeles.
These are the 50 most valuable teams in the world 2022
Five-year change: 67%
Year of purchase: 1989
Price paid: 150 thousand dollars
Owner: Jerry Jones
Five-year change: 73%
Year of purchase: 1994
Price paid: 172 thousand dollars
Owner: Robert Kraft
Five-year change: 107%
Year of purchase: 2010
Price paid: 750 thousand dollars
Owner: E. Stanley Kroenke
Five-year change: 62%
Year of purchase: 1973
Price paid: $8.8 million
Owner: Steinbrenner family
Five-year turnaround: 82%
Year of purchase: 1925, 1991
Price paid: 500, 150 thousand dollars
Owner: John Mara, Steven Tisch
Five-year turnaround: 76%
Year of purchase: 1997
Price paid: 300 thousand dollars
Owner: Madison Square Garden Sports
Five-year change: 104%
Year of purchase: 1920
Price paid: 100 dollars
Owner: The McCaskey family
Five-year change: 115%
Year of purchase: 2010
Price paid: 450 thousand dollars
Owner: Joe Lacob, Peter Guber
Five-year turnaround: 81%
Year of purchase: 1999
Price paid: 750 thousand dollars
Owners: Daniel Snyder, Tanya Snyder
Five-year turnaround: 83%
Year of purchase: 1979, 2021
Price paid: 20 thousand, 5 thousand dollars
Owner: Jerry Buss Family Trusts, Todd Boehly, Mark Walter
Five-year turnaround: 96%
Year of purchase: 2000
Price paid: 635 thousand dollars
Owner: Johnson family
Five-year turnaround: 70%
Year of purchase: 1977
Price paid: 13 thousand dollars
Owners: Denise DeBartolo York, John York
Five-year change: 42%. Additionally, it increases its value from the $4.75 billion it had in 2021.
Year of purchase: –
Price Paid: –
Owner: club members
Five-year change: 114%
Year of purchase: 1966
Price paid: 180 thousand dollars
Owner: Mark Davis
Five-year change: 39%
Year of purchase: –
Price Paid: –
Owner: club members
Five-year turnaround: 85%
Year of purchase: 1994
Price paid: 185 thousand dollars
Owner: Jeffrey Lurie
Five-year change: 68% |
Year of purchase: 1999
Price paid: 600 thousand dollars
Owner: Janice McNair
Five-year turnaround: 79%
Year of purchase: 2022
Price paid: $4.5 billion
Owner: Rob Walton
Five-year change: 24%
Year of purchase: 2005
Price paid: $1.4 billion
Owner: Glazer family
Five-year turnaround: 79%
Year of purchase: 2009
Price paid: 1.1 billion
Owner: Stephen Ross
Five-year turnaround: 86%
Year of purchase: 1997
Price paid: 194 thousand dollars
Owner: Paul G. Allen Trust
Five-year turnaround: 197%
Year of purchase: 2010
Price paid: 476 thousand dollars
Owner: John Henry, Thomas Werner
Five-year change: 58%
Year of purchase: –
Price Paid: –
Owner: club members
Five-year change: 102%
Year of purchase: 2008
Price paid: 385 thousand
Owner: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Five-year change: 67%
Year of purchase: 1921
Price paid: 100 dollars
Owner: Shareholders
Five-year change: 48%
Year of purchase: 2012
Price paid: $2 billion
Owner: Guggenheim Baseball Management
Five-year change: 62%
Year of purchase: 2002
Price paid: 545 thousand
Owner: Arthur Blank
Five-year change: 62%
Year of purchase: 1933
Price paid: ISK 2,500
Owner: Daniel Rooney Trust, Arthur Rooney II
Five-year change: 64%
Year of purchase: 2005
Price paid: 600 thousand dollars
Owner: Zygmunt Wilf
Five-year change: 44%
Year of purchase: 2002
Price paid: 380 thousand dollars
Owner: John Henry, Thomas Werner
Five-year change: 56%
Year of purchase: 2004
Price paid: 600 thousand dollars
Owner: Esteban Bisciotti
Five-year turnaround: 70%
Year of purchase: 1984
Price paid: 72 thousand dollars
Owner: Dean Spanos
Five-year turnaround: 97%
Year of purchase: 2012
Price paid: 987 thousand dollars
Owner: Dee and Jimmy Haslam
Five-year change: 42%
Year of purchase: 2009
Price paid: 700 thousand dollars
Owner: Ricketts family
Five-year change: 60%
Year of purchase: 1972
Price paid: 14 thousand dollars
Owner: James Irsay
Five-year turnaround: 76%
Year of purchase: 1960
Price paid: ISK 25,000
Owner: Hunt family
Five-year turnaround: 86%
Year of purchase: 1995
Price paid: 192 thousand dollars
Owner: Glazer family
Five-year change: 46%
Year of purchase: 1985
Price paid: $16.2 million
Owner: Jerry Reinsdorf
Five-year change: 57%
Year of purchase: 2018
Price paid: $2.275 billion
Owner: David Tepper
Five-year turnaround: 79%
Year of purchase: 1985
Price paid: $70.2 million
Owner: Gayle Benson
Five-year change: 61%
Year of purchase: 2002
Price paid: 360 thousand dollars
Owner: Wycliffe Grousbeck, Irving Grousbeck, Robert Epstein, Stephen Pagliuca
Five-year change: 32%
Year of purchase: 1993
Price paid: 100 thousand dollars
Owner: Greg Johnson
Five-year turnaround: 71%
Year of purchase: 1959
Price paid: ISK 25,000
Owner: Amy Adams Strunk
Five-year change: 67%
Year of purchase: 2011
Price paid: 770 thousand dollars
Owner: Shahid Khan
Five-year change: 113%
Year of purchase: 2014
Price paid: $1.4 billion
Owner: Terry and Kim Pegula
Five-year turnaround: 65%
Year of purchase: 2014
Price paid: $2 billion
Owner: Steve Ballmer
Five-year change: 52%
Year of purchase: 1935
Price paid: ISK 50,000
Owner: Michael Bidwill
Five-year turnaround: 78%
Year of purchase: 2019
Price paid: $3.2 billion
Owner: Joseph Tsai
Five-year change: 280%
Year of purchase: 2011
Price paid: 100 thousand dollars
Owner: Qatar Sports Investment
Five-year turnaround: 72%
Year of purchase: 2022
Price paid: $5.4 billion
Owner: Todd Boehly, Clearlake Capital
Methodology
The 50 most valuable teams are selected from our ratings of IPL, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL and soccer teams over the last 12 months. For MLS values, we rely on Sportico. Our team values are business values (equity plus net debt) and include the viability of each team’s stadium, as well as the rights fees they earn from their regional sports networks. But the valuation excludes the team’s equity holdings in other sports-related assets, such as the RSN, other sports leagues and mixed-use real estate projects. For valuations that include all sports-related assets, check out Forbes’ annual ranking of the most valuable sports empires.