America’s Team is once again the NFL’s most valuable team.

The Dallas Cowboys are No. 1 on CNBC’s list of 2024 NFL valuations at $11 billion, $3 billion more than any other franchise. It’s the first time an NFL franchise has been worth more than $10 billion, after the Cowboys had a record $9 billion valuation in 2023.

The Los Angeles Rams ($8 billion) rank second in CNBC’s rankings, while the New England Patriots ($7.9 billion), New York Giants ($7.85 billion) and Las Vegas Raiders ($7.8 billion) round out the top five.

The rest of the top 10 is largely dominated by large US markets, with the San Francisco 49ers ($7.4 billion), New York Jets ($7.35 billion), Miami Dolphins ($7.1 billion), Philadelphia Eagles ($7 billion) and Chicago Bears ($6.4 billion).

All 32 NFL teams are valued at more than $5 billion. The Cincinnati Bengals have the lowest valuation in the league at $5.25 billion, a significant jump from the team’s $3.5 billion valuation in 2023.

The average value of an NFL franchise today is $6.49 billion.

Mike Ozanian, formerly of Forbes and now a senior sports reporter for CNBC, said the process of determining a team’s value goes far beyond winning and losing on the field.

“The CNBC NFL Valuations list is determined by gathering information that allows us to put together a huge, huge financial puzzle,” Ozanian said in an exclusive interview. “What we have to do is figure out what the revenue is for each team, what the operating expenses are for each team, figure out what the EBITDAI is for each team. And once we do that, we can then look at which teams have the most revenue, because it’s revenue that determines team value, because teams are bought and sold based on multiples of revenue.”

About 65% of all NFL revenue is split evenly among the 32 franchises. To differentiate themselves from the rest, Ozanian says “entrepreneurial” teams that do the best job of bringing in non-shared revenue stand out.

“It doesn’t matter if you lose every game on the field, if you go to the Super Bowl, if you’re in a small market like Buffalo or Green Bay or a big market like New York and Chicago — everybody gets an equal share of that, which is going to be about $357 million per team in 2024,” Ozanian said of the NFL’s revenue sharing. “So what determines the pecking order in value, how these teams are ranked, is who does the best job of getting revenue that’s not shared equally. And that’s typically revenue from stadium sponsorships, stadium advertising, those very luxury suites, other forms of hospitality in your stadium.”

Ozanian said that with the Cowboys, like Texas, everything is bigger, and it all goes back to when owner Jerry Jones bought the team.

Jones saw that Visa and Coca-Cola were league-wide sponsors and struck deals with their rivals, American Express and Pepsi, as a window for those companies to enter the NFL market. Although Jones got into some “hot water” working with non-league partners, he ultimately prevailed, providing a blueprint for sponsorship deals that helped the Cowboys become the league’s most valuable franchise.

“That was the beginning of that great, great vision that Jerry had for the NFL in general, and the Dallas Cowboys in particular,” Ozanian said. “It’s with the sponsorships that he really, really took the NFL to another level.”

Ozanian also noted differences between teams that not only play in the same market, but also in the same stadium.

The Rams are No. 2, while the Los Angeles Chargers are No. 26 ($5.83 billion), despite both teams playing their home games at SoFi Stadium. In East Rutherford, New Jersey, the Giants are three spots and $500 million above the Jets.

As Ozanian points out, the LA discrepancy stems from ownership. Rams owner Stan Kroenke financed SoFi Stadium, giving the Rams an 85/15 split of stadium revenues over the Chargers.

“The Rams are essentially the landlords and the Chargers are the tenants,” Ozanian said.

The Giants and Jets, on the other hand, have a 50/50 partnership with their stadium.

“The Giants and the Jets, unlike, say, the Rams and the Chargers, split the operation of MetLife Stadium,” Ozanian said. “They don’t own it, but they do work on it. So, in other words, the revenue and expenses for all the non-NFL events that are held there are split evenly between the two.”