Currently the average NFL franchise has a value of $9.5 billion, which represents an increase of 34% over the course of one year. The factors affecting how investors assess professional football are private equity, assured media revenue, and the fact that there are only 32 teams.
The owners of the NFL might have seen one of the biggest increases in their private wealth over the past year, and only a small part of that increase was due just to selling more tickets. According to Forbes’ 2026 valuation of NFL franchises, the average value of an NFL franchise is now $9.5 billion, which represents a 34% increase on the previous year’s figure of $7.1 billion. If you take the average league value and multiply it by the 32 teams in the league, you get an estimate of $76.8 billion in extra franchise value for a single year. The Dallas Cowboys themselves have a value of $17 billion having generated almost $1.28 billion in annual revenue. The Cincinnati Bengals, who finish at the bottom of the league, are still valued at $8 billion.
That brings up a financial issue which is important long beyond the world of football. Although NFL teams are still businesses, it seems that more and more investors are ready to treat them as if they were scarce alternative assets. They produce regular cash flows, have huge barriers to entry, attract institutional buyers, and have a fixed supply which cannot easily adjust when demand increases. The NFL could be turning its 32 franchises into something that is more like an asset class.
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One reason why NFL franchises are able to command such high valuations is that the economics associated with them are unusually well protected. The Green Bay Packers, because of their publicly owned structure, have one of the few detailed views into the financial affairs of the NFL and for their most recent financial year recorded national revenue of $453.2 million, an increase of 4.8% compared with the previous year. When this amount is applied to all 32 teams, it shows that more than $14.5 billion passes through the NFL’s national revenue system before the individual teams take into account local ticket sales, sponsorships, merchandise, premium seating and other sources of income.
Media rights are a key part of that system. The NFL’s long-term distribution deals with Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox and NBC currently go on until the 2033 season. As Forbes points out, the league has the opportunity to leave those major television agreements and renegotiate them after the 2029 and 2030 seasons, which could result in another reset of the value of NFL content. What this means is that an NFL owner acquires something which an ordinary private company cannot easily copy. Although he is buying a local team, he is in effect also becoming a participant in one thirty-second part of a huge national entertainment system.
This means that the league’s average valuation has now reached about 13.4 times its trailing revenue, as compared to 8.3 times in 2022. In simple terms, investors are currently prepared to grant about $13.40 of enterprise value for every $1 of annual team revenue, whereas four years ago that figure was only about $8.30. Although the businesses have grown, the amount that investors are willing to pay for that growth has increased at an even faster rate.
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The next one is ownership itself. In 2024 the owners of the NFL decided to allow approved private equity funds to buy passive minority interests in the franchises. These private equity funds as a group can own up to 10 per cent of a team, individual investments usually have to be at least 3 per cent, and approved funds can have interests in as many as six NFL teams. That is important since a highly valuable asset can still face a valuation issue even when very few people are allowed to buy it. Allowing institutional capital access increases the number of potential buyers without significantly increasing the number of franchises.
For example, Arctos Partners agreed in August to buy a 10 per cent share in the Atlanta Falcons as a result of a deal which valued the team at about $10.6 billion. The firm already had investments linked to the Buffalo Bills, the Cleveland Browns and the Los Angeles Chargers. Ronald Diamond, the founder and chairman of Diamond Wealth Strategies, gave a clear statement on the basic investment principle to InvestmentNews: “Scarcity matters. There are only 32 NFL teams and 30 NBA teams. These assets rarely come up for sale.” InvestmentNews
The scarcity has an unusually strong effect. It is possible to have another technology startup, another apartment development, or another private equity fund, but an additional NFL franchise can only exist if the league chooses to set up one. According to Forbes, 23 of the NFL’s 32 teams have been under the control of the same individual or family for at least 20 years, and the league has not yet shown any intention of expanding past 32 teams. Since there are now more buyers, they are all vying for a property where the amount available hardly changes. That is a textbook example of scarcity economics.
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There is in fact actual evidence from transactions that supports the increase in NFL valuations. This month the Khosla family completed their purchase of the Seattle Seahawks for $9.612 billion, which is the highest amount ever paid for an NFL franchise; the previous record had been the acquisition of the Washington Commanders for approximately $6.05 billion in 2023. Forbes estimated that Seattle generated $659 million in revenue last season; the transaction therefore took place at about 14.6 times trailing revenue. Four years before that, Rob Walton’s acquisition of the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion was carried out at approximately 8.8 times revenue.
That is important since private assets depend greatly on comparable transactions; when a real buyer pays almost $10 billion for Seattle, the owners and investors can use that transaction to set the price for the next franchise or minority interest. Thus, higher transactions can lead to a feedback effect in which one deal establishes a new benchmark which in turn affects the next. On the other hand, there is a powerful counterargument. NFL teams are very illiquid assets. The Forbes values are estimates and not the actual daily market prices, and since there aren’t many instances of sales by owners, it is impossible to know with certainty how much each team would bring. If media rights growth slows down, financing becomes more costly or eventually buyers decide not to continue raising the valuation multiples, then investors will be at risk.
The fact that NFL franchises can be regarded as an asset class does not mean that their prices are limited to rising. Their economic situation might well be the reason for the unusually high valuations. The league has revenue sharing, a salary cap, national media contracts, loyal consumers and limited competition. It is because of these features that an NFL team is fundamentally different from a typical privately owned company. The importance of the Seahawks’ transaction lies in the fact that at least one buyer was willing to commit nearly $10 billion to that argument.
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That next test doesn’t have to take place on a football field. Investors ought to keep an eye on any future private equity transactions, the sale of minority stakes and any deal involving a controlling franchise that exceeds the $10 billion mark. Moreover, the league’s possible media renegotiations in 2029 and 2030 might also have a significant effect on future cash-flow expectations. Expansion might matter even more.
Should the NFL one day decide to increase the number of franchises, it would result in the creation of new assets and thereby slightly undermine the scarcity argument; but if it stays at 32 while billionaires, family offices and private equity firms continue to bid for ownership, the reverse situation could occur. The NFL teams would still be considered businesses, but the value of these teams would become increasingly based on a principle which finance is very familiar with: that is, a large amount of capital competing for an asset which is almost never made available. That could well be the most important financial figure in professional football.