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The Vikings Are Worth A Lot Of Money

The Vikings make the Forbes Top 50 list of most valuable sports franchises in the world

Divisional Round - New Orleans Saints v Minnesota Vikings Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

When the Minnesota Vikings were playing in the Metrodome with their team headquarters at Winter Park, they were a sports franchise that didn’t have a whole lot of value, relatively speaking.

Don’t get me wrong, none of us schlubs could scrape together a billion bucks or so to buy them, but when compared to the rest of the NFL, and other sports franchises worldwide, the Vikings were nowhere near the top in terms of value.

That’s changed.

Forbes came out with their list of the top 50 most valuable franchises in the world, and the Vikings rank 33rd, and if my calculatin’ is correct, the 18th most valuable NFL franchise. Forbes estimates the Vikings are now worth a cool $2.4 billion, or roughly 80% of what Stefon Diggs’ next contract will be, haha.

It’s just another testament to the dramatic reversal of fortune for this franchise, monetarily and otherwise, since the Wilf’s bought the team from Red McCombs back in 2005. In that time, the Vikings have gone from a bargain basement organization operating on a shoestring budget to a world class franchise with a state of the art stadium and new team headquarters in Eagan.

The top 50 list is dominated by NFL teams and the most valuable sports franchise in the world is the Dallas Cowboys, at $4.8 billion Jerry Dollars. The Cowboys are followed by three European soccer teams, and the New York Yankees round out the top five. As far as other teams in the NFC North, Chicago checked in at 17th overall, with an estimated value of $2.85 billion, Green Bay was 26th at $2.55 billion, and Detroit was not on the top 50 list.

Man, those dividend checks for Packers stockholders is going to be pretty sweet.

Oh, wait...never mind. My bad.