Forbes released its annual list of NFL team values on Monday, and the Dallas Cowboys are on top for the 14th consecutive year with a value of $8 billion.
The Dallas franchise is well ahead of the New England Patriots (valued at $6.4 billion), Los Angeles Rams ($6.3 billion), New York Giants ($6 billion), and Chicago Bears ($5.8 billion), which round out the top five franchises.
The Cowboys are the first-ever sports franchise to reach the $8 billion valuation mark, according to Forbes.
The Cowboys earned the record high valuation in part by also being the first-ever NFL team to generate over $1 billion in revenue last year, thanks to a bevy of lucrative sponsorships.
Last April, Dallas announced a partnership with Blockchain.com to become the exclusive digital asset partner of the team, making the Cowboys the first NFL team to partner with a cryptocurrency firm.
The following September, the Cowboys and Molson Coors announced a 10-year, $200 million extension to remain the team’s sole supplier of alcoholic beverages.
In 2021, the Cowboys pulled in over $220 million in stadium advertising and sponsorship revenue, more than double that of any other NFL team.
The Cowboys’ $8 billion valuation is 23% more than last year’s, but all NFL teams saw their values increase. The average value of an NFL franchise is now $4.47 billion, 28% more than just a year ago.
Fresh off their third consecutive playoff berth, the Buffalo Bills saw the most significant increase in their team value over the last year. The Bills’ value has jumped 50% since 2021 to $3.4 billion, moving them from their position as the least valuable franchise among the league’s 32 teams last August to now the 29th most valuable.
The Cincinnati Bengals now occupy the spot of the league’s least valuable team at $3 billion, despite an improbable run to the Super Bowl last season.
Forbes determines team value by looking at equity plus net debt and adding the economics (including non-NFL revenue that accrues to the team’s owner) of the team’s stadium but not the value of the stadium real estate itself.
This is not the first time the Dallas franchise has topped valuation rankings. The team was ranked the most valuable sports franchise in the world in an analysis released last month by Sportico, with a valuation of $7.64 billion.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told NBC Sports in May that he would expect to bring in more than $10 billion if he were ever to sell the franchise.