Cowboys hold top spot with record-breaking $11 billion – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

America's Team is once again the most valuable team in the NFL.

The Dallas Cowboys rank No. 1 on CNBC's 2024 NFL valuation list at $11 billion, $3 billion more than any other franchise. It's the first time an NFL franchise has been valued at more than $10 billion, after the Cowboys were valued at a record-breaking $9 billion in 2023.

The Los Angeles Rams ($8 billion) are second in CNBC's rankings, while the New England Patriots ($7.9 billion), New York Giants ($7.85 billion) and Las Vegas Raiders ($7.8 billion) complete the top five.

The rest of the top 10 is largely dominated by large U.S. markets with the San Francisco 49ers ($7.4 billion), New York Jets ($7.35 billion), Miami Dolphins ($7.1 billion), Philadelphia Eagles ($7 billion) and Chicago Bears ($6.4 billion).

All 32 NFL teams are valued at over $5 billion. The Cincinnati Bengals have the league's lowest valuation at $5.25 billion, a significant jump from the team's $3.5 billion valuation in 2023.

Overall, the average value of an NFL franchise today is $6.49 billion.

Mike Ozanian, formerly of Forbes and now chief sports reporter at CNBC, said the process of determining a team's value goes far beyond wins and losses on the field.

“The CNBC NFL ratings list is created by gathering information that allows us to put together a huge, huge financial puzzle,” Ozanian said in an exclusive interview. “We have to figure out what each team's revenue is, what each team's operating expenses are to figure out each team's EBITDAI. And once we've done that, we can look at which teams have the highest revenue, because revenue determines team value because teams are bought and sold at multiples of revenue.”

About 65 percent of all NFL revenue is split evenly among the 32 franchises. To stand out from the crowd, Ozanian says “entrepreneurial” teams that are best at generating unshared revenue stand out.

“It doesn't matter if you lose every game on the field, if you get to the Super Bowl, if you're in a small market like Buffalo or Green Bay or a big market like New York and Chicago – everyone gets an equal share of what will be about $357 million per team in 2024,” Ozanian said of how the NFL's revenue is split. “So what determines the order of value, how these teams are ranked, is who has the best revenue that is not split evenly. And that tends to be revenue from stadium sponsorships, stadium advertising, those very fancy luxury suites and other forms of hospitality that you have in your stadium.”

Ozanian said everything is bigger with the Cowboys, like Texas, and that it all goes back to when owner Jerry Jones bought the team.

Jones recognized that Visa and Coca-Cola were league-wide sponsors and struck deals with their rivals, American Express and Pepsi, to allow those companies to enter the NFL market. Although Jones ran into trouble for working with non-league partners, he ultimately prevailed and provided a blueprint for sponsorship deals that helped make the Cowboys the league's most valuable franchise.

“That was the beginning of this great vision that Jerry had for the NFL in general and the Dallas Cowboys in particular,” Ozanian said. “With the sponsorships, he really took the NFL to a new level.”

Ozanian also noted differences between teams that share not only local markets but also the same stadium.

The Rams are ranked second, while the Los Angeles Chargers are ranked 26th ($5.83 billion), even though both teams play their home games at SoFi Stadium. In East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Giants are three spots and $500 million above the Jets.

As Ozanian points out, the discrepancy in LA is due to ownership. Rams owner Stan Kroenke financed SoFi Stadium, giving the Rams an 85/15 split of stadium revenue with the Chargers.

“The Rams are basically the landlords and the Chargers are the tenants,” Ozanian said.

The Giants and Jets now have a 50/50 partnership with their stadium.

“The Giants and Jets, unlike the Rams and Chargers, share the operation of MetLife Stadium,” Ozanian said. “They don't own it, but they operate it jointly. In other words, the revenue and expenses for all non-NFL events held there are split evenly between the two.”