Eight hundred seventy-five million dollars. Say it out loud. Let it roll around on your tongue for a minute. Try some different inflections: eight hundred seventy five million dollars. Eight hundred seventy-five million dollars. Whatever, it pretty much sounds great no matter how you say it. I'm sure there's some sad comment on me, America and humanity in general in there somewhere, but this is a football blog, not a late-night college bull session (though admittedly the two are easily confused).
But yes. The annual Forbes numbers are out, and they say that, based on 2010 figures, the Cincinnati Bengal are worth a cool $875 million. That's down from the $905 million (btw great tune) they were worth last time around, but hey, what's $30 million among friends?
Of course, that's not the whole story. Click that "operating income" tab and boy do those Bengals climb! Operating income is Forbes' stand-in for profit, and by that measure the Bengals are No. 5. Forbes puts the Bengals' operating income at $44.7 million in 2010.
The Bengals also rank No. 5 in the league in terms of smallest debt/value ratio at 11%. Only the Chicago Bears and the Bengals rank in the top 10 in terms of both operating income and lowest debt/value ratio. Overall, here's how things break down for Cincinnati, again based on '10 numbers:
Value: 25
Revenues: 24
Operating Income: 5
Debt/Value: 5