The Dallas Cowboys are the first franchise to reach a $10 billion valuation. All 32 teams are now worth at least $4 billion, and prices are only expected to continue to rise.

_{By means of Justin TeitelbaumForbes Staff}

TThe Dallas Cowboys have been the most valuable team in the world’s richest sports league for 18 years in a row, but America’s Team wasn’t the first franchise to be worth $1 billion, or $2 billion, or even $3 billion. (By Forbes’ (According to calculations, these milestones were first achieved by, in order, the then-Washington Redskins in 2004, Manchester United in 2012 and Real Madrid in 2013.)

If everything really is bigger in Texas, Dallas owner Jerry Jones can certainly appreciate this: The Cowboys are the first sports team to surpass the $10 billion mark, taking their net worth to $10.1 billion. Forbes’ annual list of the NFL’s most valuable teams. That figure represents a 77% increase since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily slowed NFL teams’ growth, and a 15% annual return, outpacing the S&P 500’s 13% over the same four-year period.

The Cowboys may not have won a Super Bowl since 1996, but they now have a $2.5 billion lead over the NFL’s second-most valuable team, the Los Angeles Rams, and a $7 billion gap on the No. 32 Cincinnati Bengals, thanks to Dallas’ nearly $800 million in on-premise revenue through the 2023 season, including ticket sales, sponsorships, merchandise and other club-specific streams. No other professional football team has even surpassed the $400 million mark, with the Las Vegas Raiders and Rams coming closest, and Dallas’ $564 million in operating revenue effectively doubled the second-place Rams’ $286 million.

All of the NFL franchises are firing on all cylinders, though, with roughly $380 million in revenue per team coming from the league’s lucrative new national media rights package, which kicked off last season. The deals — with CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox, NBC and YouTube, plus Amazon’s Thursday night football The deal, which began a year earlier, is expected to generate at least $125.5 billion through 2033.

That kind of guaranteed money now has all 32 NFL teams worth at least $4 billion, with an average of $5.7 billion, up 11% from the record $5.1 billion in 2023. And every team is profitable, with operating income of at least $56 million across the board for the 2023 season, according to Forbes estimates. (In contrast, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the NBA each had at least three teams lose in the most recent season. Forbes (data.) Those economic factors help explain why the NFL’s valuations fall in a relatively narrow band, with the Cowboys worth 2.5 times as much as the last-place Bengals, which is smaller than the spread in Forbes’ most recent lists for MLB (7.6x), MLS (3x), the NBA (3.2x), and the NHL (5.6x).

The future of the NFL’s “Sunday Ticket” package, which moved from DirecTV to YouTube last season, is somewhat uncertain amid an antitrust lawsuit in which the presiding federal judge recently overturned a $4.7 billion jury verdict against the league. (Plaintiffs are expected to appeal.) But after the Washington Commanders sold for a record $6.05 billion last year (including a $200 million earn-out), there are tailwinds that could push team prices up even further.

For one, Netflix will stream two Christmas Day games this season and at least one in 2025 and 2026, adding another competitor to the media bidding war. The NFL is also growing internationally, with five games played overseas in 2024 and flag football making its Olympic debut in Los Angeles in 2028. Meanwhile, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell continues to push for an 18-game regular season after the players’ union reluctantly accepted a 17th game starting in 2021, and the widespread legalization of sports betting is opening up new opportunities. Additionally, several teams in the league are pursuing new stadiums, which typically boost revenue.

In the short term, the NFL, which has historically required that team owners be individuals, could see an influx of private equity money after voting at a special meeting on Tuesday to allow select funds to own up to 10% of a franchise’s equity. That level of investment is far below what MLB (15%), MLS (20%), the NBA (20%) and the NHL (20%) reportedly allow a fund to own, so the impact could be somewhat muted. But the idea is that institutional investors could expand the ranks of potential bidders for teams, a pool that would otherwise shrink as prices continue to climb.

Likewise, in October, the NFL raised the debt limit for teams from $600 million to $700 million, and for team buyers from $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion. That should make it easier for a potential NFL owner to cover the 30% of a team’s equity that the league requires a franchise’s general partner to hold.

While the Cowboys are the first team to reach the $10 billion mark, they certainly won’t be the last.

#1. $10.1 billion

One year change: 12% | Operating result: $564 million | Owner: Jerry Jones

#2. $7.6 billion

One year change: 10% | Operating result: $286 million | Owner: E. Stanley Kroenke

#3. $7.4 billion

One year change: 6% | Operating result: $261 million | Owner: Robert Kraft

#4. $7.3 billion

One year change: 7% | Operating result: $190 million | Owners: John Mara, Steven Tisch

#5. $6.9 billion

One year change: 13% | Operating result: $138 million | Owner: Johnson Family

#6. $6.8 billion

One year change: 13% | Operating result: $144 million | Owner: York Family

#7. $6.7 billion

One year change: 8% | Operating result: $115 million | Owner: Mark Davis

#8. $6.6 billion

One year change: 14% | Operating result: $158 million | Owner: Jeffrey Lurie

#9. $6.4 billion

One year change: 2% | Operating result: $138 million | Owner: McCaskey Family

#10. $6.3 billion

One year change: 4% | Operating result: $160 million | Owner: Josh Harris