It seems like these most-valuable sports franchise lists are coming out on a monthly basis rather than an annual one. The latest list of the world’s 50 most valuable sports entities comes courtesy of Forbes, an American magazine. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the richest franchise on the planet is a soccer team, but it’s not Manchester United of the English Premier League. United has been bumped from the number one position by Real Madrid of the Spanish La Liga.
Real Madrid has been crowned the champions of Europe nine times and is currently valued at a price of $3.3 billion. The club’s revenues reached $650 million, which is the best in the sports world. The team’s $134 million income ranks the second best next to the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). Real, like many other soccer teams around the globe, earn a lot of money from uniform sponsors and this represents $42 million of their revenue each year due to a deal with Adidas. The club also rakes in another $39 million a year from Emirates Airlines.
Manchester United topped the Forbes list last year, but now sit second as the franchise is valued at $3.17 billion. The team is owned by the Glazer family of the U.S. and recently signed a seven-year sponsorship deal with Chevrolet for a cool $559 million. It appears somebody wasn’t too happy with the deal though since the person responsible for arranging it was promptly fired by the automobile maker after it was signed.
Another Spanish club, Barcelona, who were crowned La Liga champions last season, placed third on the most-valuable list with a worth of $2.6 billion. This means the top three franchises are European soccer teams. English Premier League side Arsenal also made it into the top 10 as they came in 10th with a value of $1.33 billion. The six other top-10 teams are all American franchises.
The most valuable pro team in North America is the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball and they came in fourth place overall on the list with a worth of $2.3 billion. The Dallas Cowboys made it to number five at $2.1 billion followed in sixth spot by the New England Patriots at $1.64 billion. A total of 30 of the NFL’s 32 clubs made the top-50 list. On average, each of the 50 teams saw their value increase by 12 per cent from the year before. The average value of each of the 50 franchises is now $1.24 billion.
There are seven soccer teams in total on the list and the same goes for baseball. There are just three franchises from the NBA and the Toronto Maple Leafs, who rank 31st, are the only NHL club to make it. There is also a Formula One team in the group as Ferrari ranks number 21.
