Buffalo Bills among NFL’s 3 least valuable teams
By Connor Price
The Bills are the only team of the three that doesn’t shock me. The other 2 teams are probably the Texans or the Jaguars, right?
Wrong.
Forbes recently released a list of The World’s 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams of 2017:
"“The cutoff to qualify among the world’s most valuable sports franchises is higher than ever, up 18% this year to $1.75 billion. There are 36 franchises worth at least $1 billion that did not make the top 50. Credit soaring TV contracts for the rising franchise values, as well as labor deals with players that almost ensure profitability barring outrageous spending on payroll by an owner.”"
TV contracts are one of the biggest reasons why player contracts are exploding. The NBA signed a new TV deal that went into effect, and we are seeing players get 40+ million dollars a year contracts.
"“No sports league is as profitable as the NFL where the average team earned an operating profit (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $91 million and no one banked less than $26 million. The boffo profits helped 29 NFL teams rank among the 50 most valuable franchises”"
This is insane to me. Out of all of the English and Spanish soccer clubs, foreign baseball teams, and even American baseball teams, the NFL still reigns supreme.
The only three NFL teams who didn’t make the cut are the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, and the Detroit Lions. Two of those three teams made the playoffs within the last two years. The Bills being the odd man out. No surprise here, the Buffalo Bills just completed their 17th season in a row without a playoff berth, but we all knew that. Change the record.
The top five sports teams:
- Dallas Cowboys (2nd year in a row) – $4.2 billion
- New York Yankees – $3.7 billion
- Manchester United – $3.69 billion
- FC Barcelona – $3.64 billion
- Real Madrid (unseated by Dallas two years ago) – $3.58 billion
You may be wondering where our best friends from New England are. The Patriots just missed the top five, placing 6th with a value at $3.4 billion.
The New York Jets placed 13th with a value at $2.75 billion. Miami is slotted at the 25 spot with a value projected at $2.38 billion.
America loves their NFL, and apparently, some other areas of the world do as well. It will take a major natural disaster for an American sports team to be unseated of the first place spot. The Cowboys, Yankees, and Patriots value will go nowhere but up as they expand their fandom to various countries around the world.
Soccer is known as the world’s most popular sport, but that’s not where big money is. Yes, three out of the top five teams are soccer clubs, but look past that, and the next highest club is 15th (Bayern Munich) and then 35th (Manchester City). The NFL is a business and can be run like a business. Soccer it not and can’t be because of the lack of salary cap. Financial Fair Play will come into play in 2018 for soccer clubs across the world, but there are a plethora of loopholes around that.
The NFL is built to last at the moment, and it is only a matter of time before all 32 teams enter the top 50 including the Buffalo Bills.
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Do you think the Buffalo Bills will be in the top 50 most valuable sports teams next year? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!