http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2014/08/20/the-nfls-most-valuable-teams/
Some of the teams in the NFL are not reaching the high standards that many fans thought they should be doing now. Six teams are not worth $1 billion which includes two markets that would normally be goldmines in the sports industry, San Diego and St. Louis. The NFL is heavily lacking in one of the biggest markets in the entire United States, Los Angeles. The league does not have a team in that area anymore, and the NBA and MLB are the talk of the town with the $2 billion sale of the Clippers after Donald Sterling was kicked out and the steady success of the Dodgers. Could the NFL be losing its popularity in the states and role of the best sport in America?
That is not likely the case, and that might be far from the truth.
The National Football League is actually being the most successful it has been in years. The football teams have seen their value increase by an average of 23% since last year. The average value of the teams are $1.43 billion, the highest value in the last 17 years, and none of the teams are worth lower than $900 million. Even the least valuable team, the St. Louis Rams, at $930 million, is more wealthy than the average NBA ($643 million average) and MLB ($811 million average) franchise, and the team could see a huge jump in revenue in the not-too-distant-future.
Several NFL owners said there will probably be an announcement with two years to two NFL teams moving into Los Angeles and sharing a new stadium. The teams that could be moved and get more valuable are the San Diego Chargers (7th least valuable NFL team and near LA), Oakland Raiders (5th least valuable NFL team with prior success in LA during the 1980s), Jacksonville Jaguars (4th least valued team), and St. Louis Rams (least valuable franchise also with previous LA success).
Going away from the league's least profitable markets, there are plenty of teams that have been super successful. The Dallas Cowboys (worth $3.2 billion (also the second most valuable team in the world only behind Real Madrid which is worth $3.4 billion)), New England Patriots (worth $2.6 billion), Washington Redskins (worth $2.4 billion), and New York Giants (worth $2.1 billion) have seen their value soar at least 30% during the past year. Financially speaking, these franchises are doing very well, and many other teams are also being just as stable as these teams. The value of the New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles,
Chicago Bears, and San Francisco 49ers each rose by at least 30% during
the past year.
These markets and other NFL markets have been growing more and more with broadcasting deals as football is the most popular sport on television, and being popular will pay off. Broadcasting deals with NBC, ESPN, CBS and Fox that begin with the 2014 season will increase revenue by $250 million over the next four
years. Additionally, the league’s one-year Thursday Night Football deal with CBS will add $275 million in revenue to the league this season, and the NFL’s deal with DirecTV - which offers streaming options - should rise substantially from its current $1 billion a year fee to the league given how important the NFL is to the satellite TV provider.
