As America’s most popular sports league, all NFL franchises are worth boatloads of money. According to CNBC, the average NFL team is valued at a whopping 6.49 billion dollars.
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Every franchise has a value of more than $5 billion, but only nine franchises possess an above-average valuation. The remaining 23 teams reside below the $6.49 billion threshold.
Out of these, fifteen are valued at $6 billion or more. This leaves us guessing who among the rest of the eight teams is the least valuable one. The answer is the Cincinnati Bengals. The only team of the remaining 8 to have played for a Lombardi Trophy in the 2020s.
With a valuation of $5.25 billion, Joe Burrow’s organization barely beats out the Arizona Cardinals ($5.3 billion) for the lowest in the league, per CNBC. For stats geeks, the process of determining any team’s value isn’t just about winning and losing on the gridiron.
Mike Ozanian, a senior CNBC reporter said that the determining factors are established by gathering information that puts together a huge financial puzzle. The answer lies in the revenue generation.
“What we have to do is figure out what the revenue is for every team, what the operating expenses are for every team, to figure out what the EBITDAI is for every team. And then once we do that, we can then go ahead and look at which teams have the most revenue, because it’s revenue that determines team value because teams are bought and sold on multiples of revenue.“
As the Bengals take the bottom spot, the position at the other end of the spectrum is filled by the Dallas Cowboys. They are the NFL’s most valuable team ($11 billion) by a wide margin. At $8 billion, the Los Angeles Rams own the league’s second-highest mark, but interestingly are closer in value to the Bengals than the Cowboys.
The New England Patriots ($7.49 billion), New York Giants ($7.85 billion) and Las Vegas Raiders ($7.8 billion) round out the top five most valuable teams. While the highest-valued teams amount to a staggering number, even the least valuable NFL teams are closer in the race of numbers than anticipated.
Which other NFL teams are bottom-five in value?
The Bengals may be the least valuable team, but they – and the Cardinals – would still cost a pretty penny to acquire. Part of the reason they sit below the fray is their lack of revenue. Arizona ($543 million) and Cincinnati ($546 million) pull in less revenue than every other NFL franchise except the Detroit Lions ($546 million).
Based on their lower-end revenue, the Lions unsurprisingly also find themselves amongst the five least-valuable NFL franchises. They hold the fourth-lowest valuation ($5.4 billion), and slot just ahead of the Buffalo Bills ($5.35 billion). The New Orleans Saints ($5.5 billion) are the final organization in the bottom five:
- Cincinnati Bengals ($5.25 billion) – 32nd
- Arizona Cardinals ($5.3 billion) – 31st
- Buffalo Bills ($5.35 billion) – 30th
- Detroit Lions ($5.4 billion) – 29th
- New Orleans Saints ($5.5 billion) – 28th
The Saints are the only organization in the bottom five of valuation to not rank bottom five in revenue. Their $569 million is the ninth-lowest of any team.
