Apparently, there was once a time when you could purchase an NFL football team for $2,500 on winnings from the track. That was back in 1933, when Art Rooney went to the Saratoga Race Course in New York, won at least $2,500 in a parlay of longshot winners, and then used the money to pay the required National Football League franchise entrance fee for a club based in the city of Pittsburgh.My how things have changed.
No longer can degenerate gamblers simply wander down to the track and turn a parlay into an NFL team - unless of course you count the Arizona Cardinals.
That's because yesterday Forbes released its annual study on NFL teams and determined that the average NFL team is now worth $1 billion.
That marks the first time any sports league on earth has surpassed that level. 10 years ago, the average NFL team was worth $288 million.
Here's some interesting data from the report as well:
The top three teams in the Forbes list were the same as last year: the Dallas Cowboys ($1.612 billion), the Washington Redskins ($1.538 billion) and the New England Patriots ($1.324 billion). The Redskins have the highest estimated revenue and operating income at $327 million and $58.1 million, respectively.
Just so you know how good an investment an NFL team is, Jerry Jones purchased the Cowboys for $150 million in 1989.
But here's my favorite tidbit from the report:
While the average team is now worth more than $1 billion, the owners cited the heavy costs associated with stadium construction, as well as high player salaries when they opted in May to terminate their labor contract early with the players union in a move to cut costs.
You mean the heavy costs of stadiums that you're actually having taxpayers primarily pay for? And yeah, I don't see how a team with $327 million in revenue could possibly afford higher player salaries. Heavens, what will the NFL do? I mean, it's only pulling in $7 billion in revenue a year.
It's amazing to me that a league with so much money is tighter with it than the game pants its players wear. Not to mention that the league is trying to do everything possible to find a way to stop giving out guaranteed contracts.
I don't know when, and I don't know how, but eventually there's going to be a player revolt of some kind. Sure, NFL players are very well paid, but the average NFL player ($1.4 million) is woefully underpaid in comparison to the average NBA player ($4 million) and MLB player ($3 million).
Sure, there are more football players on a team, but hey, the NFL has a lot more money than either of those leagues - regardless of how they try and spin. And if the NFL ever gets out of guaranteed contracts, you'll see that $1.4 million number nosedive instantly.
But hey, rather than me ragging the NFL, I should probably try and find some league that I think if I purchase a team in, it'll become worth billions of dollars in 20 years.
My money's on Major League Lacrosse.
NFL average team value tops $1 billion [Yahoo! Sports] via [Deadspin]
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