New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft bid farewell to head coach Bill Belichick in a news conference Thursday, Jan. 11, marking the end of their 24-year partnership. Belichick’s stellar coaching record includes six Super Bowl championships, but Kraft has pocketed far more than all of those championship rings.
Since hiring Belichick in 2000, the value of the New England Patriots has multiplied 15 times.
First, let’s back up to 1994, when Kraft bought the Patriots for about $172 million, saving the team from leaving Foxborough for St. Louis.
Kraft hired Belichick back to the Patriots in 2000 after firing Pete Carroll, who coincidentally also stepped down this week as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks after 14 seasons.
Around the time Kraft hired Belichick, he also received the green light to build the new Gillette Stadium. In Belichick’s first season as the Patriots head coach, Forbes valued the team at about $460 million, slightly above the average NFL franchise value of $423 million.
In 2001, Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe was sidelined with an injury and then-unknown Tom Brady took over. Belichick won his first Super Bowl as a head coach that season. The rest, they say, is history.
“I trusted my instincts to bring Bill back to New England in 2000 after immediately regretting not hiring him after working with him together in 1996,” Kraft said during Belichick’s farewell news conference. “Bill has taught me a lot over those years, and we had high expectations for what we could achieve together.”
“I think it’s safe to say we exceeded them, thanks to you,” Kraft said, gesturing to Belichick.
The dynamic trio of Kraft, Belichick and Brady would score six Lombardi trophies, but Kraft’s biggest victory might be his team’s value.
From $460 million during Belichick’s first year as head coach to $7 billion in his last, the Patriots are the second-highest-valued NFL team in the country, behind Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys.
