Top 10 Richest US Sports Teams of 2012

A rather dishevelled me outside the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Dallas, Texas.

1.    Dallas Cowboys $1.81 billion

2.    New York Yankees $1.7 billion

3.    Washington Redskins $ 1.55 billion

4.    New England Patriots $1.37 billion

5.    New York Giants $1.18 billion

6.    Houston Texans $1.17 billion

7.    New York Jets $1.14 billion

8.    Philadelphia Eagles £1.12 billion

9.  Baltimore Ravens $1.07 billion

10.Chicago Bears $1.07 billion

Source: Forbes

The richest sports team in the world is English football team Manchester United at $1.86 billion.

It would be great to get the breakdown of just how these clubs take in such high revenues:

Ticket sales

Sponsorship

TV money

Merchandise

Prize money

And then to actually see how much of a profit they make when you take off:

Wages/salaries

Travel & accommodation

Fixed costs of stadia

Administration costs

The business of US Sports teams: New York Yankees

With David Beckham's success at LA Galaxy and the proposed Manchester City franchise in New York, I want to have a look at the business side of American sports teams.

I'll come back to it when I have time to do some proper research and delve a bit deeper. In the meantime, here is a fascinating article on one of the most famous US sports teams: New York Yankees, the record holding winners of Baseball's World Series.

http://businessmodelinstitute.com/new-york-yankees-redefined-baseball's-business-model/

I want to look at the Cubs (the family that own them appeared on Undercover Boss USA), New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bulls, Atlanta Braves, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat. They are all deemed to be successful, and for example the Cowboys built a new stadium which I have been outside and it was impressive. But how did they get the finance? Or will we find that US sports teams are similar to rich European football clubs in that they rely on rich sugar daddies or oligarchs...