The 10 Most Valuable Sports Franchises in the World

If you’re like most Americans, you’ll probably spend at least some of your time this weekend watching sports on TV. Which means you’ll also spend a lot of your time watching commercials, branded halftime shows, or answering trivia questions sponsored by a certain insurance company.

Yes, the major professional sports leagues, and the major college sports teams, aren’t just about the love of the game. They’re also big business. Very big business.

The National Football League, for instance, had $12 billion in revenues during the 2014-2015 season, according to CNN Money. English’s top soccer league, the Premier League inked a $7.8 billion deal last year for three years of television broadcast rights in the United Kingdom. The league will get another $1 billion from NBC, which has bought the rights to broadcast the six years’ worth of EPL games in the United States.

Indeed, many leagues are now finding large fan bases on the other side of the ocean. The NFL has been holding select regular season games in London in recent years. Meanwhile, European soccer games can be found on US TV dials almost every day of the week.

All of that has helped to build the name recognition and brand values of some of the major sport leagues’ premier teams. Forbes recently went in-depth to find out which 50 sports teams have the most valuable brands. As you might expect, the US has a number of entrants on the list.

Below, we present Forbes’ 10 most valuable sport team brands, along with the team’s league, championship history, and average annual player salary. For European soccer leagues, we used the team’s total number of UEFA Champions League titles, rather than the number of titles for their domestic sports leagues, since many of the following teams are dominant in their home leagues. The average player salary information comes from Sporting Intelligence’s Global Sports Salaries Survey 2015. All figures are in US dollars.

10. New York Knicks

League: National Basketball Association (USA)

Brand Value: $361 million

NBA Titles: 2

Average Annual Player Salary: $5.9 million

9. Los Angeles Dodgers

League: Major League Baseball (USA)

Brand Value: $373 million

World Series Titles: 6

Average Annual Player Salary: $8.0 million

8. Bayern Munich

League: Bundesliga (Germany)

Brand Value: $375 million

UEFA Champions League Titles: 5

Average Annual Player Salary: $7.7 million

7. FC Barcelona

League: La Liga (Spain)

Brand Value: $437 million

UEFA Champions League Titles: 5

Average Annual Player Salary: $8.1 million

6. Manchester United

League: English Premier League (UK)

Brand Value: $446 million

UEFA Champions League Titles: 3

Average Annual Player Salary: $8.0 million

5. Real Madrid

League: La Liga (Spain)

Brand Value: $464 million

UEFA Champions League Titles: 10

Average Annual Player Salary: $8.6 million

4. New England Patriots

League: National Football League (USA)

Brand Value: $465 million

Super Bowl Titles: 4

Average Annual Player Salary: $2.1 million

3. Dallas Cowboys

League: National Football League (USA)

Brand Value: $497 million

Super Bowl Titles: 5

Average Annual Player Salary: $1.8 million

2. Los Angeles Lakers

League: National Basketball Association (USA)

Brand Value: $521 million

NBA Titles: 16

Average Annual Player Salary: $4.8 million

1. New York Yankees

League: Major League Baseball (USA)

Brand Value: $661 million

World Series Titles: 27

Average Annual Player Salary: $7.3 million

To read Forbes’ full list, click here.