The World’s 10 Most Valuable Sports Teams (With Arsenal in 7th?)

By: Daryl | January 19th, 2009

Forbes released its list of the world’s 10 most valuable sports “franchises” (in quotes because I’ve never liked that word) last week. It’s mostly American teams – six from NFL, plus the Yankees – but there are three European soccer teams in there too: Man Utd, Real Madrid and.. Arsenal?

Yep. Despite the fact that they can’t afford a decent defensive midfielder and waste money on Emmanuel Eboue’s wages, Arsenal are apparently the 7th most valuable sports team in the world.

Forbes Top 10 after the jump…

1. Man Utd (Prem) $1.8bn
2. Dallas Cowboys (NFL) $1.6bn
3. Washington Redskins (NFL) $1.5bn
4. New England Patriots (NFL) $1.32bn
5. New York Yankees (MLB) $1.3bn
6. Real Madrid (La Liga) $1.29bn
7. Arsenal (Prem) $1.2bn
8. New York Giants (NFL) $1.18bn
9. New York Jets (NFL) $1.17bn
10. Houston Texans (NFL) $1.17bn

My first reaction was to be happy to see three “proper football” teams on the list. Like it was a small victory in the neverending football vs football war.

But on second thoughts, this is just more evidence that the beautiful game – and especially the Premier League – is slowly but surely turning into the NFL. I’ll point to the Game 39 proposal as exhibit A.

Forbes aren’t 100% clear on how values have been calculated, but it seems to be all about television revenue, sponsorship, merchandising and big assets like stadiums. Basically, billionaire owners don’t enter into the equation because it’s not about spending power, it’s about earning power.

And if anyone’s surprised that Man Utd cam out on top… just take a look at this and all will become clear.

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ish

nfl has way more money pumped in to it since it has way more advertising, sponsorship and is generally seen as a souless sport by many.
If football in europe wanted to earn way more they would simply give naming rights to stadiums, have way more ad's and generally destroy the heart of the game. Luckily many teams in the world, chelsea and barce are the ones i know but i think nearly the entire bundesliga as well, have supporter owned naming rights in that the stadium and naming rights are owned by the supporters.
I think if they did a top 50 we would see a much higher representation of asocc. football clubs since many have high earnings but not super high, hell even chelsea who are still in the red have very high earnings but due to high player wages and huge debt they are in the red. Bayern is another with massive worth yet their ticket costs are cheaper then many relegation battling EPL teams(tottenham, cheap shot).
Johnny

Nice pic Daryl. lol

However, I figure these owners are wiping with a substantially higher denomination.
martin

You can't just make up your own list, what's it based on?
Alex

houston texans???...6 of 10 are NFL teams???...and isnt "football" more popular than NFL football worldwide??? dam!
Pseudinho

I'm surprised the Chicago Cubs didn't make that list. With historic Wrigley Field, the majority of their games on national tv, and basically selling out every home game with 40K fans. 81 games of 40K fans. I also think the Chicago Bears could have been on that list and Barcelona. This would have been my list.

1. Manchester United
2. New York Yankees
3. Dallas Cowboys
4. Real Madrid
5. Chicago Cubs
6. Washington Redskins
7. Barcelona
8. Los Angeles Lakers
9. New York Giants
10. Chicago Bears
Albo

Ummmmmmm, never mind :-)
Tell'em to keep spending then...
Ronald

" Knock On wood " lol.

Also Real Madrid Won La Liga last year if im correct Albo.
LorenzoRosanero

Albo - the Giants won the Super Bowl last year against the Patriots.
Ronald

Albo : Ummmmmm, New York Giants Won the Superbowl last year >_>
Albo

The funny thing is that the only team in the list to have won something last year is Man-U.
The rest sucked in direct proportion to their wasted money.
The sad thing is that many hungry people could have gotten help with all those wasted billions.
old apple

gross
b

plus the texans have a small payroll, while getting to share in all of the nfl's TV and merchandising money.

arsenal has a similarly responsible payroll, while being a globally recognized brand. huge worldwide sales of t-shirts and keychains, a big stadium that's full every week...it all adds up.
Daryl

According to the Forbes article, the Houston Texans have the NFL's biggest stadium naming rights deal at $300m.

Imagine if Man Utd auctioned the naming rights for Old Trafford?
LorenzoRosanero

How in the world are the Houston Texans on this list? That just baffles me.
Drabik

I wonder what the worldwide popularity list would look like. Probably would see more football teams and less baseball / american football.
matt

the houston friggin texans? wow.