Dallas Cowboys Continue to Rule the Roost as Most Valuable Franchise

The Dallas Cowboys have continued their dominance as the most valuable National Football League (NFL) franchise by being top of the annual rankings for the fifth straight year according to Forbes Magazine.

The team are worth $1.85 billion, denture up 2% from last year. Team owner Jerry Jones and his Cowboys continue to find ways to leverage their powerful brand. In 2008, they launched Legends Hospitality Management, a stadium-logistics business run in partnership with the New York Yankees and Goldman Sachs. The $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium opened in 2009 with a splash thanks to its 160-foot wide scoreboard and seating for up to 100,000 for special events.

Cowboys Stadium continues to be a gold mine for Jones. The 320 suites and 15,000 club seats at JerryWorld generate $115 million in revenue annually. Sponsorship revenues are $50 million even with the Cowboys inability to ink a naming rights partner for the venue. The Cowboys earned $119 million in operating income last season, the most in the NFL for a second straight year.

The Forbes Magazine annual rankings als showed the NFL’s 32 teams have an average value of $1.04 billion, 4 percent more than last season. Team values dropped an average of 2 percent to $1.02 billion in the 2010 Forbes ranking, the only decline since the survey started 13 years ago.

The Washington Redskins are second in franchise value at $1.55 billion, followed by the New England Patriots at $1.4 billion. The New York Giants at $1.3 billion and the New York Jets at $1.22 billion round out the top five.

Average team revenue rose 4 percent to $261 million during the 2010 season, Forbes said. While operating income fell 8.1 percent because of higher costs for stadium operations, training facilities and marketing, the NFL’s new labor agreement will give owners a bigger portion of overall league revenue, the survey found.

Owners will pay between 47 and 48 percent of total revenue to players under the new collective bargaining agreement, down from 51 percent under the previous accord.

The value of the top 10 teams rose an average of 4 percent in the latest ranking because revenue-sharing payments by the biggest franchises to low-revenue clubs drop under the new labor deal, Forbes said.

All 32 NFL teams rank among the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world, according to Forbes.