Sports is big business and as a whole, there is not much better business than the NFL. Forbes released its annual ranking of the most valuable sports franchises and the Bengals come in at number 43. On the grand scale that is impressive but not when you look into the numbers and see the Bengals rank 27 out of all the NFL franchises.
The most profitable franchises should be no surprise to anyone that has a good picture of global sports. Real Madrid and the Barcelona soccer club both are valued at over 3 billion. In fact, the top 3 most valuable are soccer (football) clubs.
The top U.S. franchise is the Yankees who are reportedly worth 2.5 billion.
The Bengals come in at just under that billion dollar mark with a valuation of $924 million. Compare that to the top NFL team (Dallas Cowboys at 2.3 billion) and you see why the Bengals are often in favor of the revenue sharing model in the league.