How Much Is the NFL Worth? (2024)

FAQs

How much is the NFL worth in total? ›

The $163B aggregate value of the league's 32 teams nearly tops the combined value of every NBA and MLB team. The league's most valuable team, the Dallas Cowboys, was worth a not-so-shabby $3.2B in 2014 — now that's up to $9B.

The NFL consists of 32 clubs divided into two conferences of 16 teams each. Each conference is divided into four divisions of four clubs each. During the regular season, each team is allowed a maximum of 55 players on its roster; only 48 of these may be active (eligible to play) on game days.

The calculations utilize a number of statistic and performance evaluations that are provided by Pro Football Focus. Positional valuations use a number of factors including snap counts, PFF grades and statistics to determine the player's primary valuation. Overall values add a special teams component to the valuation.

In fact, calculations done by my organization show that the NFL brand is worth almost $25 billion — that's billion with a B — and is growing. It's unlike anything else we've seen in our work as intellectual property valuation and monetization experts.

Worth more than $5 billion, the world's most valuable sports teams in 2024 can be found in baseball, basketball, and soccer leagues, but American football's NFL reigns supreme. This chart highlights the 15 sports teams with the highest value in the world, according to Forbes data published late last year.

Yet when Brady left, ratings just kept going up and up. It wasn't primarily Brady or Mahomes or Kelce that people were tuning in to see. It's NFL football itself, and no player is bigger than the National Football League. But no one is bigger than Taylor Swift.

That's an average viewership of 21.88 million for the NFL, and 4.318 million for the NBA. The NFL drew an audience more than five times bigger than the NBA's. And remember -- the NBA games weren't televised only on ESPN.

In 2022, the 32 teams of the National Football League (NFL) generated a total revenue of approximately 18.6 billion U.S. dollars, which was an increase of over one billion U.S. dollars from the previous year.

Now you can understand where the NFL's confidence comes from. The point has already been made but lest take a look at average viewership from 2022. The NFL averaged 21.88 million viewers opposed to the NBA's 4.318 million viewers.

The vast majority of NFL players are not millionaires. Most NFL players earn a salary of approximately $480,000 to $600,000 per year, which is what you'd earn on a rookie contract for your first four years in the league.

How much do NFL owners profit? ›

In short, NFL owners even with the worst teams make millions of dollars a season (estimated at least 100 mil). Their stadiums are often used for other events besides pro football games during the season and in the offseason which generates more money for the owners.

The sources of how sports teams and leagues make their money has not changed much over the past 40 years. Tickets, sponsorships and broadcast rights continue to be the main buckets of revenue, while concessions, parking, merchandise and non-team events fill out the income statement.

The richest owners

Despite the Kansas City Chiefs' popularity, Clark Hunt and his family rank second with a net worth of $24.8 billion. Surprisingly, the wealthiest owner is Rob Walton, the heir to the Walmart empire.

While the Cowboys have been at the top for over a decade, the Cincinnati Bengals are at the opposite end of the scale. With a Super Bowl berth in 2021 and an AFC Championship Game appearance in 2022, the Bengals' future is bright even though the team is valued at a league-lowest $3.5 billion.

A reliable figure doesn't exist for how much money the Super Bowl actually makes each year, though most estimates range from a minimum of $300 million to a maximum of $1.3 billion depending on the source.

The majority of the ownership group's wealth came from Rob, as has been confirmed by the latest Forbes rankings of the richest people in the world. Forbes estimates that Rob Walton and his immediate family are worth $77.4 billion, which ranks 19th on the Forbes list.

"The National Football League is the most valuable and profitable team sport in the world."

The result is 66% of the $18.7 billion in 2022 NFL revenue was distributed in equal allotments to the 32 teams. NFL teams only have 10 home games a year, including preseason, but they still generate more than $3 billion a year in ticket and suite revenue, or 17% of their total.

Heading into the 2024 NFL season, the 32 franchises have a combined value of $163 billion.