Forbes Values Minnesota Vikings At $1.15 Billion

What a difference a few years makes. Well, that and a gigantic, awesome new stadium.

The folks from Forbes Magazine have released their list of the most valuable franchises in professional sports, and the Minnesota Vikings have jumped a lot of teams to find themselves in the top 51 on the list. The list is comprised of entities from all over the world, not just North America.

According to this year's list, the Vikings are worth $1.15 billion, tying them with the Atlanta Braves and the Dallas Mavericks for #49 on the list. That's a far cry from just three years ago, when the team was valued at "only" $796 million.

The NFL dominated the list of the most valuable sports franchises, as 20 of the 32 NFL teams are in the top 51 on the list. They were followed by Major League Baseball (10), the NBA (8), and soccer (7). The NHL had just one team in the Top 51 (the Toronto Maple Leafs), while Formula One racing had one of its teams in the Top 51 as well.

The most valuable team on the list overall is soccer club Real Madrid, which is valued at a whopping $3.26 billion. Not far behind them was the NFL's top representative, the Dallas Cowboys, who were at #2 on the list at $3.2 billion.

Even though the Vikings have increased in monetary value from 2014, their spot on the list has dropped. On the 2014 list, they were at #34 with a value of $1.007 billion.

When Zygi Wilf purchased the Vikings from Red McCombs a decade ago, he paid a sum of $600 million. In a decade, he's pretty much doubled his money. Nice work if you can get it.