CNN —
The Dallas Cowboys have become the first professional sports team to be valued at more than $10 billion, according to Sportico’s 2024 NFL rankings released Tuesday.
The Cowboys, owned by Jerry Jones, are valued at $10.32 billion, by far the most valuable franchise in the league, up more than $1 billion from their previous estimate of $9.2 billion in February.
Jones, 81, bought America’s Team in 1989 for an estimated $140 million (about $355 million in 2024) and built the organization into a financial powerhouse. He also served as the team’s general manager, overseeing its early success and building one of the most dominant teams of the 1990s, winning Super Bowls in the 1992, 1993 and 1995 seasons.
But the Cowboys have struggled to recreate that magic in recent years, winning just five playoff games in the 28 years since they last hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. Most recently, Dallas suffered an embarrassing loss in the wild-card round of the 2023 playoffs to the Green Bay Packers despite being the No. 2 seed in the NFC and featuring MVP runner-up Dak Prescott.
It’s been a relatively quiet offseason, despite Jones declaring that he and the team are “all in” on the 2024 season. But the Cowboys remain hugely popular, projected to generate $1.2 billion in revenue in 2023, according to Sportico, 50% more than the NFL’s second-ranked team, the Los Angeles Rams.
The Rams are valued at $7.79 billion, jumping ahead of the New York Giants into second place but not quite as high as Dallas. The New England Patriots remain in fourth place, valued at $7.31 billion, despite their struggles on the field and the departure of Bill Belichick, and the San Francisco 49ers round out the top five at $6.86 billion.
The team with the highest improvement since last year’s rankings is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who rose 12 spots to 16th with a 33% increase in value of $5.5 billion. The team with the highest drop is the Los Angeles Chargers, who dropped four spots to 22nd.
According to Sportico research, the average NFL team value is $5.93 billion, up 15.4% from last year, and the NFL remains the world’s most financially successful league in terms of team value across all sports.
The Cincinnati Bengals are the least valuable team in the league at $4.71 billion. Of the top 100 most valuable sports teams, released by Sportico in February, only 15 non-NFL teams are worth more than the Bengals’ most recent estimate.
