DALLAS — Don't worry, Cowboys fans. At least the team you root for is the richest.
So says a new study from Sidelines, which took a look at the value of each professional sports team in the United States, annual revenue, and the total money spent on player payroll to compile their scores on a scale of 1-10 for each factor. Then, those scores were used to compile the "rich index" to determine which sports franchises had the most wealth.
It should come as no surprise that the Dallas Cowboys were the richest team in the country with a 23.45 score on the rich index.
"The Dallas Cowboys are the richest team in America, worth an estimated $8 billion, they also have the highest average attendance with 86,000 fans traveling to the AT&T Stadium each game day," the study notes. "The Cowboys have a huge annual revenue which exceeds $1 billion and a $162 million payroll, which has increased to $214 million in 2023."
What has been one of the bigger enigmas of the Cowboys' popularity and wealth is how a team that hasn't appeared in a conference title game since 1996 can rank so high on such lists, especially when the last few weeks of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs is when "decision-makers in the country" are watching, according to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
"That’s time for their attention," Jones told "K&C Masterpiece" on 105.3 "The Fan" on Jan. 13. "That’s better than other times of the year. It’s a more prosperous time of the year because people do more with financial decisions. It’s Christmastime. It’s that time. Number two, the game allows you to have intrusive stops that you can give them a little message about a service or a product."
The New England Patriots were the second-richest at Rich index: 17.34, and the New York Yankees from the MLB had a 16.39 rich index.
Fans from other NFC East clubs can't give Cowboys fans grief for being on the list despite the lack of postseason success. Washington, which hasn't won a Super Bowl since the 1991 season, scored sixth place with a rich index of 15.46. The New York Giants were fifth at 15.64, and the Philadelphia Eagles were No. 10 at 14.16.
Football season never ends. Sometimes the drama just shifts from inside the lines to outside the lines for the seven-month offseason.
"People are talking about this game, directly or indirectly, year-round," Jones said. "That’s a huge thing."
Do you think the Cowboys are still America’s team? Share your thoughts with Mark on Twitter @therealmarklane.