Just asking b/c some of you might know.

Who is the wealthiest NFL owner? Or what's the richest franchise? I'll bet it's Paul Allen with the Seahawks -- he's like the 7th or 8th-rishest person on the planet. It could be W.C. Ford in Detroit or Chad Johnson (of Johnson & Johnson) of the Jets, they're both mega-loaded.

Which is the poorest franchise? Is it the city of Green Bay, WI ? Wilson in Buffalo, or Bud Adams, Oilers/Titans ? Mike Brown, Cincinnati?

And which division has it's 4-team total as the highest/richest? Just guessing but I'll bet it's in the AFC. I'll guess the AFC North is the poorest division, b/c Art Modell used to claim his franchise was the poorest (but he may have been lying -- Modell lied a lot) & the champion Steelers always claimed they weren't especially rich, which may have been an obvious excuse for not meeting the cap for many yrs.

I'll throw out some to which I do know the answers to see if some of you trivia buffs know too.

Name the only NFL owner who :

Was born outside the US of A?

Who was a former NFL player ? (Strong Hint: his team is still around but not in the same city, no it's not Georgia Frontiere :rolleyes: )

The owner born outside the US I think is Tisch, the Giants (partial) owner.

For some reason it sicks in my head that Bob McNair used to play in the NFL too, but I coudl be wrong.

And you are right, Paul Allen is the wealthiest NFL owner.

Jerry Richardson of the Panthers was an NFL player, I believe.

The Skins have the highest value right now. The NFC East should have the highest value. The Skins, plus the major markets of NY and Philly, plus the front-running follower-having Cowboys...

Paul Allen is the 7th richest man in the world, it isn't even close.

The richest franchise? The Redskins were the first team to be valued at over one billion dollars this year. Forbes ranked their worth at $1.3 billion, then the New England Patriots, then the Dallas Cowboys, both have since crossed over $1 Billion in value. Forbes also calculates revenues, operating incomes, stadium deals and a variety of other metrics in compiling team valuations.


As far as poorest from a revenue standpoint, the last hard numbers were reported in 2003. The poorest three?

30. Minnesota Vikings $542
31. Atlanta Falcons $534
32. Arizona Cardinals $505

As you can see, those numbers are not accurate, the Vikings and Falcons worth has skyrocketed. That same year, the average price for an NFL franchise was $625 million dollars. So, my opinion is the New Orleans Saints. They received their share of the television contracts, but lost revenue in so many other areas. It is also not a truism that the richest teams don't play in the big markets.

The Redskins and the Cowboys are worth a combined $2.4 billion dollars. Adding the Eagles and Giants to that list and you've got the most valuble division on paper, but it also begs the question, what are the Cowboys doing in the NFC East?

Again, the numbers are outdated with last financial number available for the entire league posted in 2003, it would make it the NFC Central with Minnesota, Chicago, Green Bay, and Detroit. None of these franchises has posted a Super Win in many years and that is what drives a franchises core value.

Pittsburgh increased their worth exponentially through their win to $820 million, the Ravens did post their financial statement recently and they are worth $776 million under new owner Steve Bisciotti. It's not the AFC North, of that I'm certain.

I'm stumped on the foreign born owner, you got me there.

Yes, Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson was a former NFL player, Baltimore Colts. Justin got it right.

And Broncos owner Pat Bowlen was born in Canada.

That's true too, the Skins are the most valueable, & the NFC East is the richest division. That means the richest team doesn't always make it to the SB, although this yr, Paul Allen, the richest owner, certainly did. This indicates just how important team memorabilia sales impact a team's total worth, then the stadium deals. Usually the total teams-trademarked items sales go like this: 1st -- whoever won the last SB, 2) Raiders, or (tied) 3) Dallas Cowboys, which explains why those #2 & 3 teams won't license their trademarks with the rest of the NFL, they would lose $.

Thanks to ghost & everyone for the research.

Everyone at the SB party was arguing over these things. I still think the cap is linked to FA, can't have one without the other. The whole idea of a cap was to prevent rich teams from stealing star players from poorer ones by outbidding them, sort of like the self-destructive tendency of MLB these days. But then again, is MLB a "team sport" anymore? HCs in the NFL are infinitely more important to the team concept & impact the W-L rcd, while in MLB they are less important. Yet they make more $ -- it just seems stupid. Baseball has too much $ & makes a lot less sense, but what did I expect from a sport where rich owners can still buy the pennants?

It also explains why cap hogs like TO take the very negtive strategy that they do -- if the cap is a finite amount, you can only increase your slice of the pie by diminishing other players' slices, so TO goes after the next-highest salaried player on his team to "justify" his demanded raises, Garcia in SF, McNabb in Philly, setting up a personal website just to diss them. He was dumb enough to think his popularity extended to the ticket-buying public supporting him, but I think he got a wakeup call about that this yr. when the blog commentaries were running 5-1 or higher against him, & his & Rosenwhore's critics were running 8- or 9-1 anti-TO or pro-banning TO. This is why Skip[ Bayliss called him "Team Obnliterator" last wk. on ESPN -- it fits. He turned it into a zero-sum, all or nothing kind of decision with Philadelphia, & Reid called his bluff, he ended up with nothing, & got booted. He could come back with Denver as predicted I guess, but with a lot lower salary, & if he sh*ts in the team chili again, it's not a stretch to predict that his career will be over permanently.

31. Atlanta Falcons $534

this has a lot to do with Blank not owning the stadium too.

The Vikings were very poorly run under Red McCombs. He also spent less than any owner in the league for something like the last 5 years he owned the team

he also didn't own his stadium either.

You ever see those idiot sportscasters that always say the obvious but try to make it look intelligent and smart? Well, here is my attempt at that.

You want to know about Owners eh? Well, they are very difficult people to digest, because they are so complicated in what they do. They go out and buy the team, then they got to pay the bills for the team. In a sense, it is almost as if they own the team. They pay for stadium faculty, team trainers, heck, even the players themselves get thier checks from the owners. That's why no one knows much about owners. They don't play for the team, they own it. They don't score TDs, they pay the player that does.


Inspired by Bill Lambier, Detroit Pistons broadcaster, and his Lamb's Lowdown before the game. He actually had a pre game plan to outscore the opponents once.

Potential 07 season being an uncapped year = Paul Allen turning the Seahawks into a more insane version of the Yankees...

In the past... that'd be a good thing, now, not so much.

Still, pretty funny to imagine that happening.