In its annual ranking of the NFL’s most valuable franchises, Forbes makes the best argument for St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke's possible motivations for wanting to move the franchise to Los Angeles.
“The commonality among the NFL’s most valuable teams is that they are in big markets and play in cash-rich stadiums run by the teams," the magazine notes in its rankings, released Monday. "The bigger your domain, the greater the opportunity to cash in on the fantasy and reality of the NFL."
The Rams are not one of these teams, but the franchise isn’t last in value, as it was in 2014. St. Louis is ranked 28th out of 32 franchises, with an estimated value of $1.45 billion. The average value of an NFL franchise is $1.97 billion, so the Rams are still 26.4 percent below the league average. According to Forbes, team values are assessed by “enterprise values (equity plus net debt) and reflect pending moves into new stadiums."
The magazine did note that Kroenke wants to build “a privately financed, open-air $1.8 billion stadium on a 238-acre complex formerly occupied by Hollywood Park racetrack and adjacent to The Forum in Inglewood, California.”
Trailing Kroenke’s team are the Cincinnati Bengals ($1.44 billion), Detroit Lions ($1.44 billion), Oakland Raiders ($1.43 billion), and Buffalo Bills ($1.4 billion).
The Raiders and San Diego Chargers have partnered on a proposed stadium in the L.A. suburb of Carson, California. (The Chargers are ranked 22nd, with a value of $1.525 billion.) In an ironic twist, the teams hired the firm Legends to market the Carson stadium project; Legends is owned by the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys—and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is supportive of Kroenke’s Inglewood project.
The Jacksonville Jaguars, purchased by Shahid Khan in 2012, after Kroenke used his right of first refusal to buy the Rams, are ranked 27th at $1.48 billion. Khan has spent more than $100 million in three years on improvements to Everbank Stadium, home of the Jaguars.
Jones’ Cowboys are the most valuable team in the NFL at $4 billion. The team's followed by the New England Patriots ($3.2 billion), Washington Redskins ($2.85 billion), New York Giants ($2.8 billion), and San Francisco 49ers ($2.7 billion). The 49ers had the largest increase in value from 2014 to this year (69 percent), after completing its first season in a new stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Overall, team values increased 38 percent in the past year. "The gain was fueled by a $39 million increase in national revenue for each of the league’s 32 teams," Forbes noted.
