Forbes recently released their annual most valuable teams rankings, and the Pittsburgh Steelers came in as the 17th-most valuable team in the NFL, with an estimated worth of $5.3 billion. The Steelers, who have an operating income of $129 million, saw a 15% increase in profits in the last year.
The Steelers are the most valuable team in the AFC North — ahead of the Cleveland Browns ($5.15 billion), Baltimore Ravens ($5 billion) and Cincinnati Bengals ($4.1 billion), who were last in the league.
The Dallas Cowboys one again were ranked atop the list for the 18th straight year with an estimated value of $10.1 billion. The Cowboys are the first sports team to cross the $10 billion threshold.
The Los Angeles Rams ($7.6 billion), New England Patriots ($7.4 billion), New York Giants ($7.3 billion) and New York Jets ($6.9 billion) rounded out the top 5.
“All NFL franchises are riding high, however, with roughly $380 million in revenue per team coming from the league’s lucrative new national media rights package, which kicked in last season,” Forbes wrote. “The agreements—with CBS, ESPN/ABC, Fox, NBC and YouTube, plus Amazon’s Thursday Night Football deal, which started a year earlier—are set to pay at least $125.5 billion through 2033.”
All 32 NFL teams are now worth at least $4 billion, at an average of $5.7 billion, up 11% from 2023’s record $5.1 billion. And every team is profitable, with operating income of at least $56 million across the board for the 2023 season, according to Forbes estimates.
With massive new media deals and sports betting revenue skyrocketing, each team in the NFL took home more than $400 million in media and sponsorship revenue from the NFL in the 2022-2023 season, according of Visual Capitalist. The data was from Forbes and compiled by JP Morgan Asset Management.
Overall, the league generated over $20 billion in revenue in the 2022-2023 season. The Steelers earned $548 million in revenue, the 15th-most among NFL teams.
In NFL terms, Steelers owner Art Rooney II is on the “low end” among NFL owners. Rooney was ranked the 30th-richest NFL owner in the league by the 33rd Team. Rooney is ahead of only Cincinnati Bengals owner Mike Brown. The Green Bay Packers are ranked 32nd, but they’re the only team that doesn’t have a traditional “owner.” The Packers allow fans to purchase shares of the team through stock.