LA Rams skyrocket to $4.8B per Forbes, remains 4th among NFL teams

The LA Rams are in a bit of a rut when it comes to the value of the football team. Forbes magazine has recently released its revised 2021 NFL’s Most Valuable Team estimates (subscription may be required) and the LA Rams remain entrenched as the 4th-most valuable team in the NFL. They retain that spot despite appreciating in value from $4 billion in 2020, to a new estimated value of $4.8 billion in 2021.  That increase of 20 percent is the best among the NFL’s 20 top teams.

Only the 21st-most valuable Tampa Bay Buccaneers appreciated in value at 29 percent, and the Washington Football Team matched that 20 percent increase in value. No other NFL team matched or exceeded the Rams’ rate of growth.

If you like the dollars and cents of the NFL, the Forbes article is a treasure trove of fun factoids and details. Forbes writers Mike Ozanian and Christina Settimi do an outstanding job of covering the income section behind the football industry and start with EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization for my non-accountant/finance professional readers) through the course of 32 Equity, and down to the projected revenue growth generated by media contracts.

The article goes on to cite the potential for the NFL to invest in a potentially new company that would be created around the NFL’s investment of their existing NFL Films library, the NFL Network, and the league’s deals with DraftKings, FanDuel, and Caesars Entertainment. For example, the NFL Network generates annual revenues of up to $2 billion currently. Once invested in a new company, other outside investors would be able to leverage their own technologies, marketing distribution networks, and create the possibility of online streaming, advanced accesses through online betting, and various levels of access to analyses and forecasting in the future.

Going forward, the value of NFL teams could become so prohibitive that owner changes would be difficult transactions to negotiate. But there are avenues under discussion to expand the current NFL league of 32 teams and to allow new owners to join the ranks of the existing NFL.