Mr B wrote:El Turco wrote:That's not just Cowboys, American leagues do a very good job showcasing historically successful franchises. Same way they have a franchise in a village in Wisconsin and it is one of the most popular teams in the league. Steelers have a fanbase waay outsizes its market size because of their success in 70s, they sucked between early 80s and late 90s but it didnt matter. Knicks are second or third most valuable franchise in the league and they've sucked almost as long as Cowboys without as good a legacy.
They just know how to market legacy, one of the many reasons why American sports teams always are almost always more valuable than soccer teams despite much lower viewership.
That’s true however Micah is right about how it’s odd that a team can go almost 30 years without any real success and yet their fan base grows more than any other team (in any sport). Even teams that have won SB’s more recently don’t have the draw that the Cowboys do. It’s really hard to explain. I mean people like to call the Patriots “America’s Team” however do you think their fanbase would grow to the level of what the Cowboys have done if they go the next 30 years without any significant success (or really any success at all)?
I’m not saying this is a good thing either. It’s just weird.
I dont know if Cowboys' fanbase increased more exponential than population increase. There were lot of people who bandwagoned Cowboys when they were kids in 90s, now those people are in their 30s, 40s+ at the height of their spending power but you dont see them as much in newer generations.
Valuation is not all about fan base size, wealth of your metro area, your stadium, sponsorships, trends etc all matter, pretty much everything's about monetizing. For example second most valuable NFL team is Rams but there is no way they are the second most popular team. ManU and Real has followers that probably exceeds the entire population of U.S yet they are not even in top 10 in valuation. As I said Americans are just amazing at monetizing sports.
I dont think it is that weird either, just about every league has a butt of a joke popular team, NBA has Knicks, MLB has Mets--for years had Red Sox and Cubs on top valuation--NHL has Maple Leafs and of course NFL has Cowboys.