George is going up
The Yankees top all MLB teams with a $1.03 Billion dollar valuation, which is just about enough to finance their underachieving payroll. Behind them at $617M are the Boston Red Sox. If you combined the Red Sox and the and the least valuable team (Tampa Bay Devil Rays at $209M), hey still wouldn’t be worth as much as the Yankees. Here’s the full list of MLB franchise values.
On average, team values increased by 15% year over year for the second consecutive year. The Washington Nationals and the Toronto Blue Jays had the biggest increase in valuations at 42% and 34%, respectively. It’s no coincidence that both teams have significantly increased their payrolls this season.
If you want to know which sport is truly the national pastime, just look at the valuation of the NFL franchises. The Arizona Cardinals (by all accounts a worthless franchise) has a valuation of $673M, which would be 2nd in a MLB list. The average value of an NFL franchise is $819M while the average value of an MLB franchise is $376M.
Links:
[Forbes.com]: The Business Of Baseball
[Forbes]: NFL Team Valuations
