LA Rams remain fourth most valuable NFL team per Forbes

In the world of the rich and famous, Forbes listing of the most valuable (fill in the blank with your favorite topic) is as anticipated to the aristocracy as the playoffs are to football fans. The annual Forbes ranking of professional sports teams for 2021 is out once more.  If you were looking for a massive shake-up or shakedown, this isn’t the year for it.

The LA Rams hold their place as the fourth-most valuable NFL team and the 13th-most valuable professional sports franchise for the second year in a row. While that is the same spot and valuation as 2020, it’s a strong showing for the team that just moved across the country to take up a new home city (or rather return to the former home city) as recently as 2016. In terms of the NFC West, the Rams are tops.

Forbes, Finance, and football?

The entire list of professional sports can be found here.  Each year, Forbes magazine publishes the estimated value of the top 50 professional sports franchises.  In the past, Forbes has ranked all 32 NFL teams, assigning each NFL franchise a ranking from the top (1st) to the bottom (32nd). But now, the folks at Forbes magazine are including all sports franchises. In that pool, the LA Rams are now ranked 13th overall.

Forbes continues to be a business/finance monthly publication whose audience is made up of investors, bankers, financiers, and business-related professionals. Since the magazine’s audience is finance-focused, Forbes has turned its auditor eye towards more mainstream topics.

Forbes has covered third-party assessments, estimations, and approximations as part of its core news.  To do so, the magazine has assembled an expert team of professionals who can review financial statements of a company, celebrity, or franchise and attest to how much that enterprise is worth, including the NFL and world sports franchises.

After COVID-19, no fans in the stands, and a bit of financial wizardry to get everyone under the 2021 NFL salary cap, the LA Rams are still thriving.  Should the Rams make good on their efforts to win Super Bowl LVI, they could be moving up on the Forbes list as well.