Robert Kraft's gutsy $175 million investment in the New England Patriots has paid off big time

In 1992, Robert Kraft owned Foxboro Stadium, then home of the New England Patriots and rejected a $75 million offer to buy out the lease which would have allowed the team to move. Instead, Kraft paid a then-NFL record $175 million to buy the team and keep it in the Boston area.

It was a gutsy move for a team playing nearly a decade's worth of bad football in an outdated stadium. The purchase price is the equivalent of about $300 million in today's dollars. The team is now the second-most valuable team in the NFL, valued at $2.6 billion according to Forbes.com's latest valuations.

In 2000, the Patriots were considered just a slightly above average team with a value of $464 million compared to the average NFL team ($423 million). Since then, the value of the Patriots has increased 460% while the average NFL team has increased 237%, and there are reasons to think the team is actually worth more than $2.6 billion.

Not bad. Not a bad investment at all.