The NFL is completely dominant, soccer #2, the NBA is not representin', and the Austin IceBats were nowhere to be found.
To save you the time from scrolling through Forbes' retarded Bleacher Report style slideshow, I transcribed some of the rankings for you.
Here's the Top 10:
1. Manchester United - 1.86 billion
2. Dallas Cowboys - 1.81 billion
3. NY Yankees - 1.7 billion
4. Washington Redskins - 1.55 billion
5. Real Madrid - 1.45 billion
6. New England Patriots - 1.37 billion
7. Arsenal - 1.19 billion
8. NY Giants - 1.18 billion
9. Houston Texans - 1.17 billion
10. NY Jets - 1.14 billion
The next 12 are all worth over 1 billion dollars...
11. Philadelphia Eagles
12. Baltimore Ravens
13. Ferrari (racing)
14. Chicago Bears
15. Denver Broncos
16. Indianapolis Colts
17. Carolina Panthers
18. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
19. Bayern Munich
20. Green Bay Packers
21. Cleveland Browns
22. Miami Dolphins
- 1.0 billion dollar value cutoff -
23. Pittsburgh Steelers
24. Tennessee Titans
25. Seattle Seahawks
Remaining teams of interest:
31. Boston Red Sox
37. McLaren (racing)
47. NY Knicks (first NBA team)
48. LA Lakers
Some observations:
- All 32 NFL franchises made the Top 50 list. The 32 teams divide 3.8 billion dollars in broadcasting rights, not to mention revenues garnered from marketing, tickets etc. This is the most powerful league in the world by a large margin. Teams that were selling for 70 million in the 1980s are now worth, on average, a billion dollars.
- How many of us would have lost this bar bet: I bet you that the Houston Texans are one of the 10 most valuable sports properties in the world.
- Soccer landed eight teams on the list. I writhe in fake injury in acknowledgement of this fact.
- MLB landed six teams on the list. I wonder if it would have been twice that number 30 years ago?
- The NBA has only two teams on the list - New York and LA. Tying it with Formula One racing.
- Manchester U is considering selling shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which would likely project their value in excess of 2 billion dollars