Buying a professional sports franchise these days truly takes a village — and a lot of money.
As we noted earlier this month, the New York Giants have increased in value by 15.3 million percent since Tim Mara plunked down $500 to buy them back in 1925.
They are now worth approximately $7.3 billion, reports Forbes. In fact, Forbes reports that all NFL teams are skyrocketing in value.
All 32 NFL teams now worth at least $4 billion, at an average of $5.7 billion, up 11% from 2023’s record $5.1 billion. And every team is profitable, with operating income of at least $56 million across the board for the 2023 season, according to Forbes estimates.
The Giants are fourth among NFL teams in value behind Dallas ($10.1 billion), the Los Angeles Rams ($7.6 billion) and New England ($7.4 billion).
The reason for the sharp increase in value among NFL teams is attributed to the lucrative television deals the league has put in place that will carry on for the next decade.
All NFL franchises are riding high, however, with roughly $380 million in revenue per team coming from the league’s lucrative new national media rights package, which kicked in last season. The agreements — with CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox, NBC and YouTube, plus Amazon’s Thursday Night Football deal, which started a year earlier — are set to pay at least $125.5 billion through 2033.
It’s become a big boy business and the NFL knows it. It’s almost impossible for an individual who is not a multibillionaire 10 times over to buy an NFL franchise alone.
This past week, the league voted to allow private equity funds to buy into teams. The maximum ownership piece is not to exceed 10 percent, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell didn’t rule out expanding that number.
