It’s a story that Robert Kraft is fond of retelling, since it literally gets better and better with each passing year. When Kraft bought the Patriots in 1994 for $172 million, it was the highest price ever paid for an NFL team. Considering that New England was coming off a five year stretch where the Patriots recorded the fewest wins in the league, Kraft hardly looked like a genius.
And yet, as he is keen to remind audiences now, Kraft is universally viewed to have made one of the shrewdest sports business deals in history.
According to the newly released rankings from Forbes, the Patriots are the second most valuable NFL franchise in the league, at $3.2 billion. In other words, Kraft’s investment (which was too pricey for Donald Trump) has increased in value 18 times over, with no sign of slowing down. Since 2010 alone, the average NFL franchise has seen its value skyrocket 93 percent.
Since Forbes tracks this statistic worldwide, the Patriots can also now call themselves the third most valuable sports team on the planet, trailing only an NFL counterpart, the Dallas Cowboys ($4 billion), and Spanish soccer juggernaut, Real Madrid ($3.26 billion). It’s a dizzying 20-year rise, considering that the other two teams in that discussion were much more successful historically than the Patriots (who didn’t win a championship until January, 2002).
It’s also an indication as to why NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has remained employed through a seemingly unending string of embarrassing league scandals. For every Ray Rice fiasco and Tom Brady court humiliation, Goodell has been able to confidently showcase the NFL’s perpetual cash engine.
Even in the face of a seemingly unattainable goal of hitting $25 billion in NFL revenue by 2027, Goodell can project confidence. The business of professional football has never been better.
For Kraft, the valuation simply increases his joy in the recounting of his initial acquisition of the team. By all accounts, the Kraft Group has no intention of actually selling the Patriots anytime soon. And why would they? By any measurement, the Patriots are New England’s favorite team, who they will pay almost anything to watch.
More than that, the Krafts have been quick to recognize financially advantageous partnerships over the years. That helped to pave the way for Patriot Place (a complex of restaurants and shops adjacent to Gillette Stadium). More recently, the partnership with DraftKings, which was the first between any NFL team and a daily fantasy company, has further catered to a fanbase with an insatiable football appetite.
Challenges will present themselves soon enough. The most relevant threat will most likely be the inevitable retirements of Brady and Belichick. Still, it stands to reason that not only will the Patriots survive their departures, but that the fans won’t stop showing up even if the team struggles (the public is that hooked).
In all likelihood, Robert Kraft will be able to retell one of his favorite stories many more times in the coming years, with an even broader smile as the Patriots’ value continues to increase.
Image via @Haydenhbird
