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The English Premier League may garner most of the headlines regarding the value of its soccer clubs, but the NFL is quietly proving to be the top sports league on the planet. Forbes magazine just released its annual list of the most valuable sports franchises and the NFL owns 27 of the top 50 places. The American football league posted 20 of the top 50 teams last year. However, the leagues that suffered the most were the NHL and Nascar as not a single team made the top 50. In fact, the 50th-ranked team is worth $1.48 billion and that is the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL. The number one franchise this year is the Dallas Cowboys NFL squad as it’s worth $4 billion, which is a 25 per cent jump from last year.

The average worth of the top 50 franchises in 2016 is $2.2 billion this year compared to $1.75 billion in 2015. The top 50 is made up of 27 NFL clubs, seven Major League Baseball teams, eight NBA franchises, and eight European soccer clubs. The MLB numbers dropped by five compared to last year while the NBA lost two clubs. However, European soccer jumped by one franchise in the past 12 months. The minimum value to reach the top 50 was the Jaguars’ $1.48 billion, which represents a 20 per cent increase over last year’s 50th-place team. In total, there are 76 sports franchises valued at least at $1 billion across the globe. The most valuable NHL team is the New York Rangers at $1.2 billion.

With the Cowboys topping the list, it’s the first time a soccer team hasn’t been ranked number one since the annual list was launched in 2011. The average NFL club is now valued at approximately $2 billion, which is an increase of160 per cent from 10 years ago when a team average was pegged at $732 million a decade ago. Spanish soccer club Real Madrid was ranked second overall with a value of $3.65 billion which is a 12 percent increase from 2015. Fellow Spanish soccer giants Barcelona sits in third place with a value of $3.55 billion. The New York Yankees MLB club ranks fourth with as value of $3.4 billion, which is an increase of six percent. Fifth place belongs to English Premier League soccer giants Manchester United at $3.32 billion. United was ranked number one in 2011 and 2012 and are the only English franchise in the top 20.

Rounding out the top 10 are the New England Patriots of the NFL who are ranked sixth at $3.2 billion. Seventh place goes to the New York Knicks of the NBA while the NFL’s Washington Redskins are eighth at $2.85 billion. The New York Giants of the NFL are ninth at $2.8 billion and the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers are 10th at $2.7 billion. The biggest gain in the top 50 this year was made by English Premier League club Arsenal who jumped from 36 to 23 with a value of $2.02 billion. The Ferrari Formula One team dropped the most from 32 out of the top 50 with a value of $1.35 billion. The franchise values by Forbes are based on evaluations over the past 12 months for franchises from soccer, F1, Nascar, MLB and the NHL, NBA and NFL.