You know who the most valuable teams are, but who’s driving the biggest cash flows? Spoiler alert: when it comes to profits in sports, the NFL is king.
The power of a dollar. No, it’s not just a shelved 50 Cent album that should have been the LP home of arguably the most bap-bap-bap diss track in hip-hop history, “How to Rob” — rather, it’s something to reckon with regarding the explosive growth of investment in global sports as our eyes pop Looney Tunes-style.
Every year, outlets like Forbes and Sportico put together their exhaustively-researched lists of the world’s most valuable sports teams. The data points these projects bring to bear are instructive in tracking just how seriously investment in leagues like the NFL, NBA, and England’s Premier League has skyrocketed in the past decade, but what they don’t tend to take into account is a separate sports business metric that speaks to a different type of power the biggest clubs can bring to bear: money in the bank.
Fortunately, there are
Let’s talk the most profitable sports teams on the planet over the past three years, starting with a couple of NFL franchises that have combined to win nearly one out of every five Super Bowls ever to take place.
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Most Profitable Sports Franchises in the World
Based on three-year operating income figures as calculated by Mike Ozanian of Forbes. “Operating income” refers to a team’s effective revenue after all costs and asset depreciations are subtracted.
| RANK | TEAM | LEAGUE | COUNTRY | 3-YR. OPERATING INCOME |
| 1 | Dallas Cowboys | NFL | USA | $1.17B |
| 2 | New England Patriots | NFL | USA | $623M |
| 3 | Tottenham Hotspur | Premier League | England | $414M |
| 4 | New York Knicks | NBA | USA | $404M |
| 5 | Manchester United | Premier League | England | $403M |
| 6 | Houston Texans | NFL | USA | $356M |
| 7 | Golden State Warriors | NBA | USA | $348M |
| 8 | Los Angeles Lakers | NBA | USA | $333M |
| 9 | New York Giants | NFL | USA | $333M |
| 10 | Manchester City | Premier League | England | $329M |
| 11 | Los Angeles Rams | NFL | USA | $318M |
| 12 | Liverpool | Premier League | England | $295M |
| 13 | Washington Commanders | NFL | USA | $290M |
| 14 | Chicago Bulls | NBA | USA | $288M |
| 15 | Chicago Bears | NFL | USA | $288M |
| 16 | Dallas Mavericks | NBA | USA | $282M |
| 17 | Jacksonville Jaguars | NFL | USA | $281M |
| 18 | Boston Celtics | NBA | USA | $269M |
| 19 | Denver Broncos | NFL | USA | $266M |
| 20 | Miami Dolphins | NFL | USA | $260M |
| 21 | New York Jets | NFL | USA | $253M |
| 22 | Pittsburgh Steelers | NFL | USA | $245M |
| 23 | Houston Rockets | NBA | USA | $240M |
| 24 | Philadelphia Eagles | NFL | USA | $239M |
| 25 | Bayern Munich | Bundesliga | Germany | $235M |
Fast Facts About the World’s Most Profitable Sports Teams
- The No. 1 team by profitability, the Dallas Cowboys, also routinely ranks No. 1 on all major annual lists of the most valuable sports teams overall. They boast nearly double the operating income of the No. 2 New England Patriots and nearly triple that of No. 3 Tottenham Hotspur.
- Exactly half of the top 20 most profitable teams are from the NFL, as well as 13 of the top 25.
- Four of the top 12 represent England’s Premier League; Real Madrid ranks either No. 1 (Forbes) or No. 2 (Sportico) among the world’s most valuable soccer clubs but does not crack Forbes’ top 25 in operating income.
- Of the four Premier League clubs on this list, two are majority-owned by Americans with holdings in other major sports: Manchester United (Glazer family; Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and Liverpool (Fenway Sports Group; Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins). Stan Kroenke, who owns the No. 11-ranked Los Angeles Rams, also owns Premier League side Arsenal FC.
