2012's most valuable sports teams

[Rob Williams]

ESPN has once again made a list of the top ten most valuable sports teams, and no surprise, Manchester United tops the list. You might recall that I posted the same list back in 2009, so let's see how things have changed (note that one is in USD, the other in British pounds):

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...h-list?cc=5901

2009
1) Manchester United (EPL) $1.8B
2) Dallas Cowboys (NFL) $1.6B
3) Washington Redskins (NFL) $1.5B
4) New England Patriots (NFL) $1.32B
5) New York Yankees (MLB) $1.3B
6) Real Madrid (La Liga) $1.29B
7) Arsenal (EPL) $1.2B
8) New York Giants (NFL) $1.18B
9) New York Jets (NFL) $1.17B
10) Houston Texans (NFL) $1.17B

2011
1) Manchester United (EPL) £1.65bn
2) Dallas Cowboys (NFL) £1.13bn
3) New York Yankees (MLB) £1.06bn
4) Washington Redskins (NFL) £960m
5) Real Madrid (La Liga) £900m
6) New England Patriots (NFL) £850m
7) Arsenal (EPL) £740m
8) New York Giants (NFL) £734m
9) Houstan Texans (NFL) £727m
10) New York Jets (NFL) £708m

2012
1) Manchester United $2.23B
2) Real Madrid $1.88B
3) New York Yankees $1.85B
3) Dallas Cowboys $1.85B
5) Washington Redskins $1.56B
6) Los Angeles Dodgers $1.4B
6) New England Patriots $1.4B
8) Barcelona $1.31B
9) New York Giants $1.3B
10) Arsenal $1.29B

If the same metric is being applied in 2012 that was in 2009, it seems like Real Madrid came out of nowhere to settle in at #2. Meanwhile, Manchester United still dominates, and the Cowboys remain the most valuable NFL team. The Yankees continue to become more valuable, sitting comfortably in #3. My beloved Arsenal is holding on for its life in #10.

[Big Red Machine]

Interesting. No Formula 1 teams are on the Top 10 at all? Ferrari and McLaren International, for sure, have assets that should see their net worth easily in the $1billion+ range.

I wonder if this is just accidental ignorance by Forbes, or if this reflects a prejudice against top-level motorsports.

[Rob Williams]

Err... I made a boo boo. Edited the original post, because I accidentally copy/pasted 2011's list, not 2012's.

Here's the Forbes article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbade...-sports-teams/

As for F1, it seems like that starts at #15:

"F1 powerhouse Ferrari ranks No. 15 with a value of $1.1 billion"

Edit: What's ridiculous is that it talks about a top 50 list but I can't find it. The video just talks about the top ten.

[Big Red Machine]

It seems their complete Top 50 is in gallery form and not a list.

Going through the gallery now...

Hmm... after going through that gallery, it's somewhat interesting that so many of those teams are "loser" teams. What I mean is that, despite their worth in terms of dollars, so many of those teams are not really all that successful in terms of on-field performance (wins and losses).

I guess the upshot here is that in pro sports, you win by taking care of business first off the field; taking care of business on the field is NOT necessarily the big priority in most cases as far as the teams on Forbes' Top 50 list are concerned.