It turns out that winning is good for a franchise. Who knew?
The K.C. Chiefs have gone up in total franchise valuation since the last time Forbes Magazine made their annual rankings of the most valuable sports teams last summer. At present, the list has the Chiefs ranked at No. 43 overall with the NBA’s Houston Rockets and Ligue 1’s Paris Saint-Germain F.C.
It’s reasonable to expect the Chiefs value to climb for the next several years, not only because of the immense popularity of the NFL (and their efforts to grow the brand and sport overseas in new, emerging markets throughout Europe and into Mexico City, for example) but also because they happen to be a flagship franchise for the future of the league. The experience at Arrowhead and the coaching acumen of Andy Reid form a nice foundation for a team that features the heroics of Patrick Mahomes and other future Hall of Famers on offense.
To date, the Chiefs have one Super Bowl title with this current regime, but they’re going to be contenders for the next several years and Brett Veach, as the team’s general manager, has the team positioned for another deep postseason run in 2021. That sort of global publicity is going to go a long way toward lining Clark Hunt’s pockets even more than they are.
Forbes states the franchise value has gone up 63 percent in the last five seasons, which points toward the upward momentum of the NFL and the team itself. This year’s valuation is also $200 million more than last year, when the Chiefs were at $2.1 billion. What was interesting then is that the team was listed as the same value after winning a Super Bowl as they were before the Super Bowl. Only this year did the valuation go up after two consecutive years at $2.1 billion.
Still no one should feel bad for Hunt or any other billionaire owner at this point. The rich get richer, but at least the fans can have fun cheering all the while. This team is going to increase in value (and bring home a lot more hardware) for years to come.