Where do Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs rank among 50 most valuable sports franchises in the world?
Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs to their second consecutive Super Bowl victory and third overall during his time in Kansas City and that has clearly had an effect on the overall valuation of the franchise. They are now among the top 50 in the world, across all sports, when considering how valuable they are, based on a list by Lev Akabas of Sportico.
The Chiefs are the 33rd most valuable club across all of sports based on that ranking. They are sandwiched between the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers and German soccer behemoths Bayern Munich. They even outrank Manchester City, the English soccer club that is having a dominant run in the English Premier league similar to what Kansas City is having in the NFL.
However, despite having a passionate fanbase and a winning team, they are the least valuable team in their AFC West Division in the NFL. The Las Vegas Raiders are the most valuable team in that cohort, which is not a surprise since they play in the entertainment capital in the world and have a shiny new stadium to go along with it.
The Denver Broncos are leagues away from competing in the same way Patrick Mahomes is doing with the Chiefs but they are still the second most valuable franchise in the AFC West. Just two spots ahead of Kansas City are the Los Angeles Chargers, who presumably benefit from playing in a bigger market and sharing the most technologically advanced stadiums with the Los Angeles Rams.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have a long way to go to beat the teams they defeated to win Super Bowls
Patrick Mahomes has now won three Super Bowls with the Chiefs. Two of them have come against the San Francisco 49ers, including the latest one and last year's victory came against the Philadelphia Eagles. Despite their sporting success on the field, both those opponents are ahead of them in terms of valuation.
The 49ers are among the top 10 most valuable franchises in the world, sitting at ninth. The Eagles are tied at 13th with English soccer giants Manchester United.
Top 15 most valuable franchises in the NFL
Considering just the NFL, the top 15 most valuable franchises in the league are given below.
It shows the dominance of NFL teams in the sporting landscape with more than half of the top 30 most valuable franchises being professional football teams. In fact, such is NFL's dominance that the top 50 teams in the list includes 30 teams from the league.
The only two NFL franchises that are not in the top 50 are the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Cincinnati Bengals, who occupy the 51st and the 53rd spot respectively. It also shows that winning on the field is not enough and having a big market and a solid business plan often helps.
The Bengals were the last team from the AFC, other than Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, to make it to the Super Bowl. Yet, they are ranked the least valuable franchise in the NFL. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who defeated Kansas City to win their latest ring and hand Patrick Mahomes his only Super Bowl loss so far in his career, are also towards the bottom of the pile.
That is why, despite not making the NFC Championship this century, the Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable franchise in the world. Tapping into the football fervor in Texas and also branding themselves as America's Team certainly helps. But it also shows that valuation is not everything as there are very few fans, one assumes, who would refuse to trade places with the Kansas City Chiefs at the moment if that also meant that they would be the World Champions.