In 2023, the 32 teams of the National Football League (NFL) generated a total revenue of approximately 20.2 billion U.S. dollars. This shows an increase of nearly two billion U.S. dollars over the previous year. How does the NFL compare to other major sports leagues? The NFL is the most profitable professional sports league in the United States. Between 2001 and 2019, the total revenue of all 32 NFL teams steadily increased, reaching 15 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. This figure dropped to approximately 12.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, however, shot back up in 2021 to exceed pre-pandemic levels. In comparison, the revenue generated by Major League Baseball (MLB) teams amounted to around 11.34 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, while the revenue of the National Basketball Association (NBA) was 10.58 billion U.S. dollars in the 2022/23 season. NFL revenue streams In the list of most watched TV programs in the U.S., football games dominate the top spots. Duly, the NFL has a diverse array of lucrative revenue streams, such as sponsorships, media partnerships (both broadcasting and digital), ticket sales and concessions. As of February 2024, media deals between the NFL and networks in the United States alone accounted for over 10 billion U.S. dollars annually. Meanwhile, NFL league and team sponsorships provided nearly 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2022. Which team generates the most income? In 2023, the five-time Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys topped the rankings of NFL teams with the highest revenues. That year, the Cowboys were the only team to generate more than one billion U.S. dollars in revenue. The Las Vegas Raiders ranked second with approximately 779 million U.S. dollars in revenue. Meanwhile, the team with the most Super Bowl titles of the last 20 years- the New England Patriots- sat in fourth place with 712 million U.S. dollars in revenue.

In 2023, the Dallas Cowboys were the only NFL franchise to report revenue of over one billion U.S. dollars. In that year, America's Team generated revenue of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, the Detroit Lions generated less than half that amount. The Dallas Cowboys As well as being the NFL franchise with the highest revenue, the Dallas Cowboys was also the most valuable NFL franchise. As of August 2024, the franchise was valued at 10.1 billion U.S. dollars. This success off the pitch, however, has not translated to on-field success in recent years. Despite winning an impressive five Super Bowl titles, the last of these was back in 1995. While the Cowboys made it to the playoffs in the 2022 season, they lost out to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round. NFL revenue streams Sponsorships, media, partnerships, ticket and concession sales are some of the most important revenue streams for the NFL. In 2023, the revenue of all 32 NFL teams totaled 20.24 billion U.S. dollars, the highest figure to-date. Meanwhile, NFL league and team sponsorship generated 1.88 billion U.S. dollars that same year. Some of the main sponsors for the league include Verizon, Pepsi, and Nike.

The national revenue distribution of the National Football League to each team more than doubled between 2012 and 2023. In the 2023 season, the national payout to each NFL franchise amounted to over 400 million U.S. dollars for the first time.

Total attendance at National Football League (NFL) games reached a record 18.85 million fans across the regular season in 2023. This high came represented continued growth in attendance following the significantly low turnout in the 2020 season when many games were played behind closed doors as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Attendance at NFL games Over the last few years the total attendance at regular season games of the National Football League has consistently been at more than 18 million per season. The NFL is composed of 32 teams and each team plays a minimum of eight home games during the regular season for a total of 256 games per season. The average attendance at National Football League games was at around 69,500 in the 2023 season.

Dallas Cowboys drew record crowds In 2023, the Dallas Cowboys drew the most spectators to their home games with a total attendance of more than 748 thousand. The Cowboys also had the highest average attendance that season with around 93,600 people attending each home game. The average price for a ticket to an NFL game was at 120.94 U.S. dollars in 2023. On average, tickets to Las Vegas Raiders games were the most expensive (168.83 U.S. dollars), while tickets for Arizona Cardinals games were the least expensive, with an average price of 98.54 U.S. dollars.

Sponsorship spending on the National Football League (NFL) and its teams has increased annually since 2010, reaching a record 2.49 billion U.S. dollars worldwide during the 2024 season. Nike is one of the league’s main sponsors, providing uniform and apparel to all 32 NFL teams since 2012 – the two parties agreed a long-term extension to their rights partnership in 2018. Why are sponsorship deals worth so much? Sponsors are prepared to spend large amounts of money to get their brand displayed on big screens and pitch-side hoardings in stadiums across the NFL. Attracting the attention of supporters within the stadiums is one aim, but the primary motive for the investment is to have the brand exposed to the millions of TV viewers worldwide – the average television viewership of an NFL regular-season game in the United States during the 2024 season was around 17.5 million. Sports sponsorship across the U.S. The NFL is by far the most popular sport in terms of TV viewership in the United States: NFL games accounted for the vast majority of the top most-watched sporting events in the United States in 2023. It is no surprise, then, that the NFL generates more money from sponsorship deals than both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB). Figures for the NBA increased significantly during the 2017-2018 season as it began allowing shirt sponsorship for the first time.

In the 2022 season, roughly 12.5 billion U.S. dollars of the revenue generated in the NFL was national revenue. Meanwhile, team sponsorships made up 1.8 billion U.S. dollars of the revenue generated by the league in that season.

The Dallas Cowboys had the highest total home attendance during the NFL regular season in 2023, with 748,755 spectators attending their eight regular season home games. Meanwhile, the Chicago Bears had the lowest home attendance figures during that same season. The only other NFL team to exceed 700,000 spectators in 2023 was the New York Jets.

How much do fans pay for beer at an NFL game?

For many attendees, no football game is complete without concessions such as hotdogs, hamburgers, and cold beer. Prices for beer vary across NFL stadiums; one beer sold for 66 cents per ounce at Dallas Cowboys games during the 2023 season. Meanwhile, the team with the highest price per ounce of beer that season was the Philadelphia Eagles.

The stars of the Lone Star State

The Cowboys were deemed “America’s Team” in 1978 after having won two Super Bowls that same decade. Although the team has not won another title since defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1996, the Cowboys remain a financial success. The annual revenue of the Dallas Cowboys amounted to nearly 1.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, and the team’s franchise value totaled nine billion in 2023.

The average revenue multiple per franchise in the National Football League followed a generally increasing trend between 2006 and 2023. In 2023, the average revenue multiple of a National Football League franchise was 8.99.

The estimated revenue from gate receipts as a percentage of total revenue in the NFL fell steadily from 2013 to 2022. In the 2023 season, the revenue from gate receipts increased slighly over the previous year to total 14.67 percent of the league's total revenue.

The biggest sponsorship category in the National Football League (NFL) during the 2024 season was ticketing. Sponsorship from this industry generated over almost 300 million U.S. dollars in revenue during that year. Sponsorship spending in the NFL has increased annually since 2010.

Since 2016, the National Football League (NFL) has hosted regular season games at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. In the 2019 edition of the also called "NFL Mexico Game", the revenue reached an estimate of more than 1.2 billion Mexican pesos. This represented an increase of nearly 10 percent in comparison with the 2017 edition.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 hit the sports industry hard - many professional leagues across the globe suspended their seasons and hundreds of thousands of jobs were put at risk as public sporting events across the world were cancelled. Analysis suggests the New England Patriots could lose more than 376.54 million U.S. dollars as a result of lost ticketing revenue of postponed games due to the crisis.

The average operating income of an National Football League (NFL) franchise was 142.47 million U.S. dollars in 2023. With an operating income of 564 million U.S. dollars, the Dallas Cowboys topped the list of NFL teams with the highest operating incomes during the 2023 season. Are NFL franchises set to get even more valuable? The NFL has reached new heights in terms of average operating income, but figures are forecast to increase further over the next few years. In 2022, Amazon secured exclusive rights to show Thursday Night Football on its streaming services, with an estimated contract valuation of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. The competitiveness of the sports broadcasting market has increased significantly due to the arrival of modern streaming services. According to figures from 2022, average television viewership of the NFL regular season was at approximately 16.7 million Show me the money! Operating income refers to how much of a team’s revenue will become profit after deducting operating expenses, such as wages. Across all the major sporting leagues worldwide, the NFL has historically topped the rankings for total wage spend. Within the league, the NFL team with the highest player expenses during the 2022/23 season was the Los Angeles Rams with a payroll of approximately 330 million U.S. dollars.

The COVID-19 pandemic that spread across the world at the beginning of 2020 was not only a big threat to public health, but also to the entire sports industry. Several professional sports leagues, including the NBA and NHL, as well as most professional soccer leagues in Europe, took the decision to postpone or suspend their seasons in order to mitigate the spread of the disease. As yet, no decision has been made about the fate of the new NFL season which is due to start in September 2020. Estimates suggest that NFL clubs would stand to lose 100 million U.S. dollars each in local revenue if the season is played without fans in the stadium.

In the 2023 season, the revenue of the Dallas Cowboys rose to 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 1.13 billion U.S. dollars from the previous season. This made the Cowboys the highest-grossing franchise in the National Football League (NFL). What is the history of the Dallas Cowboys? The Dallas Cowboys are a professional football franchise in the NFL. The franchise joined the league in 1960 as an expansion team and has become one of the most successful teams in the league both financially and in terms of on-field success. The team is owned by Jerry Jones, who bought the franchise for approximately 150 million U.S. dollars in 1989. The Dallas Cowboys have appeared in the playoffs 36 times in franchise history, reaching the league’s championship game — the Super Bowl — eight times. Five out of eight times, the team won the Super Bowl, most recently in 1995. Do the Dallas Cowboys attract a large home crowd? As well as being the league leaders in terms of revenue, the Dallas Cowboys also had the largest regular home attendance in the NFL in 2023, recording a total attendance of over 748 thousand spectators during their regular season home games that season. The team’s home games are played at AT&T Stadium, which opened in 2009 and has a seating capacity of 80,000. The size of the Cowboys brand can also be measured by its lofty rank as the largest franchise value in the NFL.

This graph depicts the average operating income multiple per franchise in the National Football League from 2005 to 2010. In 2005, the average operating income multiple of an NFL franchise was 26.6.

This graph depicts the operating income multiple of all National Football League teams in 2010. The operating income multiple of the Detroit Lions franchise was 393.4.

While the Dallas Cowboys may have last tasted Super Bowl success back in 1996, the Texas outfit is still by far the most valuable franchise in the National Football League. Latest estimates value the franchise at 10.1 billion U.S. dollars, some two billion U.S. dollars more than its nearest rival, the Los Angeles Rams. Cowboys lead the way off the pitch... In 2024, the Cowboys’ franchise was valued at nine billion U.S. dollars, whilst the average franchise value in the NFL stood at around 5.6 billion U.S. dollars. In 2023, the Cowboys generated 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in revenue, the most of all NFL teams. The franchise also ranked top of the list of most valuable sports team brands worldwide, just ahead of other household names such as the New York Yankees and Real Madrid. Along with the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys have been crowned Super Bowl champions a total of five times. The Cowboys' Golden Era came in the 1990s, when the team claimed three Super Bowl Rings between 1993 and 1996. ...while the Patriots dominated on the pitch The Boston-based New England Patriots were the third most valuable franchise in the league, valued at 7.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. The team, who plays its home games at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, dominated the Super Bowl this century, with all six of their titles coming under head coach, Bill Belichick, since 2002. During this period of success, the team was led by legendary quarterback, Tom Brady, who held the record for most career playoff wins - his 35 career playoff wins are more than double that of his closest rival on the list, Joe Montana. It is unsurprising, then, that the now-retired quarterback also featured top of the list of players with the most passing yards in NFL history. Indeed, he was only one of four players in NFL history with more than 70 thousand passing yards, the other three being Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees.

The statistic depicts the national and local revenue of the Green Bay Packers, franchise of the National Football League, in 2016 and 2017. In its 2018 fiscal year, the national revenue of the Green Bay Packers was 255.9 million U.S. dollars.

The revenue of the Carolina Panthers, a franchise of the National Football League, increased by 44 million U.S. dollars in 2023. In the 2023 season, the revenue of the Carolina Panthers totaled 574 million U.S. dollars.