It isn’t any secret that owning an NFL team has been the right move for the league’s owners, but it has been more right for some teams than others. For Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who made the controversial decision to move from St. Louis to Los Angeles nearly a decade ago, the dollar doesn’t lie.
In a new ranking by Sportico, the Rams are in the $10 billion club, valued at $10.43 billion. The Cowboys are the only team valued more than the Rams at $12.8 billion. Only the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants share the $10 billion club with Los Angeles.
The Rams have the second-highest valued team, outranking every NFC West rival. The San Francisco 49ers rank the next closest (fifth) at $8.6 billion, followed by the Seattle Seahawks (14th) at $6.59 billion and the Arizona Cardinals (29th) at $5.66 billion.
Back in 2016, the Rams were valued at $2.9 billion, less than a third of their current value, per Forbes. Some might argue that a rising tide lifts all boats thanks to the NFL, but it doesn’t lift all boats equally. The Rams were the sixth-most valued team before the move and now sit as the second-most valued franchise in the league.
Los Angeles Rams’ Stan Kroenke’s Switch Wasn’t Cheap
One could argue that the Los Angeles Rams’ choice to move to LA kicked off an aggressive era, with the team quickly trading up in the NFL Draft to select Jared Goff first overall, hiring Sean McVay a year later, and essentially building two different rosters to reach two different Super Bowls after the move.
The aggressive switch appears to have worked, helping the team leapfrog some of the most money-savvy businessmen in the United States.
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As those who have done it individually know, moving isn’t cheap. It’s one thing to rent a moving truck and drag one’s possessions across state lines, but it’s another to move a multi-billion-dollar franchise.
The team’s owner reportedly paid $650 million to the NFL to allow him to move the team. At the time of the decision, it was reported by Forbes that Kroenke elected to make equal payments in equal installments starting after the 2019 season for the next decade on top of the other associated costs with moving.
Simple math indicates the owner is still paying $65 million per year for the choice to move to Los Angeles. However, a look at the team’s worth in comparison indicates that the initial investment paid dividends in the long run.
Of course, that doesn’t appear to be stopping Kroenke from signing on the dotted line for the initial relocation fee until roughly 2030, when the payment plan is set to end.