How is it possible that NFL franchises are commonly cited as the most valuable in sport when Real Madrid, Liverpool, Barcelona and Manchester United surely have far bigger brands/ global reach and play far more games? Are U.S. teams simply better at fleecing their fans? And is this what is heading our way with the American ownership in the Premier League? — Dan I.
There are quite a few answers to this, and I won’t pretend to suggest I’ve covered them all here. But let’s give some of the big ones airtime.
The most obvious point is the relative lack of downside risk in the
NFL. There are 32 teams in professional American football’s top flight, and the competition’s format means none of them can be relegated at the end of a season, no matter how badly they perform. That, from a financial perspective, provides an earnings floor that simply doesn’t exist in football/soccer.
We don’t get much insight into the finances of the NFL other than from the annual accounts of the league’s only publicly owned franchise, the Green Bay Packers, but even those help make clear why its franchises have such value placed on them. In the year to March 31, 2025, covering the 2024 season, the Packers received $432.6million (£328.8m) in national revenues — an equal share that all 32 teams receive. That is just the equally distributed amount; teams make more on top from local revenues, some of them substantially so.
NFL teams also share part of ticketing revenue equally, and merchandise and licensing deals are also organised centrally. It all adds up to one thing that investors love: stability. The NFL’s broadcast deals are huge in their own right but a big attraction to would-be team owners is the fact that they’re also long-term. The NFL’s current agreement runs to 2033, meaning its franchises can model revenues way down the line. Such long-term deals don’t exist (yet?) in football.
Alongside that earnings floor is a cost ceiling: the NFL’s (hard) salary cap. That is rising steadily but is pegged to the league’s revenue growth. In the 2024 season, the salary cap was $255.4million (£194.1m), or just 59 per cent of each team’s share of national revenues. There are many other costs besides player salaries, but the league’s financial model is clearly pointed toward limiting expenditure and making teams profitable.