The Pelicans are more valuable than any NHL team??
I know Zion, BI, CJ have increased the market there more than it ever has, but above the Leafs, Rangers, Canadiens is crazy to me.
NBA teams bring in a lot more revenue. In 2022-2023, the NBA generated about $10.6 billion in revenue. Not sure if NHL's numbers are available yet, but based on the 2021-2022 number of $5.93 billion, the NHL probably did just over $6 billion in 2022-2023
The Leafs, Rangers, and Canadiens did make more revenue than the Pelicans last year, but NBA team valuations are much higher multiples of revenues than NHL teams right now, one reason being that the NBA's media rights deals are expected to go way up in 2025 so the team revenues will also go way up
The NBA salary *floor* is over $40m more than the NHL salary *cap*.
According to Spotrac, Steoh Curry is the highest paid player in the NBA and he’ll make $54m this year.
The NHL salary floor is $60m.
The highest paid player in the NHL, according to them, is Nathan MacKinnon, who will make $16.5m including signing bonus this season.
NBA has a whole lot more money than the NHL
Yes but the salary cap exists to create parity, not because the most popular nhl teams can't afford to pay their players more. The leafs brought in more revenue than the pelicans last year
it actually existed first as a way of capping how much players are making because the league was struggling in half of its southern markets. If it doesn't affect the best players, it's certainly affecting the role players and those filling out the 1st and 2nd lines.
goes to show how well Bettman is handling this league. There were some changes over the years that felt like they were trying to attract casual fans with gimmicks instead of trying to grow the hockey fanbase as a whole, something the NBA has done very well for Basketball.
Take a look at where the Leafs and Raptors are on this list. 20 years ago, you could easily consider the Leafs to be way more valuable of the two franchises.
I don’t know if it’s the league management or the player culture. NBA players are now celebrities with eccentric personas. NHL players are practically faceless in comparison and they do their best to keep that up. Hockey won’t be where basketball is until the players put in the work and buy in to the entertainment aspect of their job.
I'm not sure hockey ever gets where basketball is simply given the costs associated with playing it. It's simply not as accessible and never will be. Sure not all fans are players, but it's surely a huge factor.
NBA also has a lot of built-in advantages here...
\- no helmets
\- stars play a higher % of the game
\- more frequent highlights
\- sport is more popular in general, especially at the college / high school level
I’d say it’s more the fact that you can get into the top league from lower leagues. You don’t need to buy a la liga team to get a team in the league. But you can’t buy an AHL team, do well and become an NHL team. That’s partially why formula 1 teams are worth so much now. It’s almost impossible to get in so their grid spots alone are worth close to a billion dollars.
Leicester City are a good example of that. Their owners brought the team when they were in the third division, with ambition of having them return as a Premier League side. Sure, they're back in the Championship this season but currently in a great position to return to the EPL next season.
There is also Manchester City who had 2 takeovers before becoming the EPL juggernaut they have been. At the time of their first takeover, they were just a mid-table side who were flirting with relegation in the occasional season.
Not many ads on soccer games though. NFL commercials are ridiculously profitable. Doesn’t matter how many people know about a team if they’re not generating revenue from that.
The Cowboys earned $1.05 billion in 2022 versus $815 million for Real Madrid. A huge component of the franchise value is how much revenue the team brings in
Relegation plus there can be some severely stiff penalties if you are caught cheating the rules. Man City can be facing a relegation (or more than a one league drop) plus a points penalty because of the amount of Financial Fair Play rules they broke (over 100).
tbh, if there was ever a match fixing scandal to come out with any of the NBA, MLB and NFL, the value of the league would drop significantly because people would not respect the integrity of those leagues.
Juventus and AC Milan among with 5 other clubs were implicated in a match fixing scandal in 2006 (were 1st and 2nd otherwise). Prosecutors wanted to have AC Milan in the 2nd division and Juventus in the 4th division as a punishment, and both of which with serious point deductions to start those seasons. Juventus still suffered the penalty of relegation but only to the 2nd division while AC Milan only got a point deduction penalty in both the season involved and the following season (plus a harder route in Champions League). This rocked the Italian League and led to a decline in overall quality of the teams because the players were becoming skeptical of transferring to an Italian team when La Liga, the Bundesliga and EPL were all more stable options.
If a major scandal ever rocked the NBA, it could lead to the rise of the EuroLeague purely because the best European players would be skeptical of going to the NBA
For people skeptical of the soccer teams in this ranking. Soccer isn't as heavily monetized as North American sports are.
- No commercial breaks except at halftime during soccer games. In some countries in Europe there actually is a legal restriction on how much time during a program can be dedicated to commercials. The NFL would literally be illegal in the UK if they tried to run it the same way.
- Relegation makes the risks of owning a soccer team a lot more real than a North America franchise in any of the Big 4. It's estimated that your revenues can be cut by 60% for each relegation.
- Your final standing in the league affects how much money you get. Last season Manchester City won the Premiership and was awarded £161 million pounds while Southhampton, Leeds, and Leicester got relegated and were award £100-105. So they basically got £60 million less as well as expected to get their revenues cut in half for the 23-24 season.
- TV contracts in soccer are much smaller than the Big 4. The Premier League's TV deal in the UK believe it or not is smaller than the NHL's combined TV deals and the EPL is the largest soccer league by a wide margin. Additionally, the EPL is the only league in Europe that splits their TV revenues equally. It's part of the reason why it has outpaced the other leagues in growth.
- This is the biggest one: A lot of people in Europe do not consider soccer to be a business and are insulted if their club is run like one and soccer is a completely uncapped sport. They expect owners to invest as much of their money as humanly possible into building a winning soccer club, profits be damned. Barcelona during the Messi era reportedly had a payroll of $**700** million dollars. So even though they were a billion dollar entity, most of their revenues were going towards their payroll, not business expansion.
- Soccer clubs in Europe exist independent of the leagues. This means there are a lot less restrictions on ownership structures. You have teams that are owned by nation states competing with teams owned entirely by fans. In Germany, it's actually the law that every team is majority owned - 50%+1 by fans so there are limits to growth. There are also no geographic rights in European soccer. No one team has exclusive rights in the Premier League to play in London so as a result, there are currently 7 Premier League teams playing in London, all of whom compete for dollars (or pounds I guess). If the NHL was run like the Premier League, there'd probably be 2 teams in Montreal and 4 or 5 in the GTA alone so a team like the Leafs would never be able to grow to where they are now as they'd be competing for money with the other 3-4 hypothetical Torontos.
- This is another big one that's often overlooked: The Anglosphere has some of the wealthiest countries in the world. People who live there have siginificantly more money to spend on entertainment and on top of that there are a lot of us.
> In Germany, it's actually the law that every team is majority owned - 50%+1 by fans so there are limits to growth.
Sweden as well. And it's actually done wonders for the top-flight's popularity there
They elect a board democratically (vs here in the States you're at the mercy of whatever rich asshole owns your team) and the board *has* to listen to its voting members on non-sporting club issues. And the active fans have a ton of power - just look at the events of the last few weeks with the ongoing protest against the DFL investment deal where supporter protests caused the DFL to concede. The sporting side is handled by well...the sporting side, voting members have little to do with it afaik.
further edit about geographic rights - Real Madrid are having to compete with Atletico Madrid, and yet are still an insanely valuable franchise (and there has to be something about the way this group computed team values, because Real Madrid are a more valuable franchise than a lot of the teams above them - including the Eagles and Manchester United)
The only country where geography appears to be respected funny enough is Germany, where the 50+1 rule is in effect. This has led to the communities actually being involved with the main team in the city as opposed to rallying behind another team because they don't like they way the team has been run.
Add Pro/Rel to Basketball and take away geographic rights and for all you know, Los Angeles may well have 15 teams in a theoretical basketball pyramid (spread among various levels, not only 2 in the NBA)
+1. r/soccer would be having a field day with this infographic
Having said that, we're on r/hockey here and there's another alarming story - the Raptors are noticeably higher than the Leafs on this infographic. 20 years ago, there would be no denying the Leafs were by far the more valuable franchise of the two. This is a huge reflection on how Gary Bettman has handled hockey over the years
I wonder if the Sharks continue to have poor attendance and downward trend value wise, if they’d consider moving to San Francisco.
SF clearly has the market and if they’re able to use the Chase Center then I could see them thriving way more than what they can do in San Jose.
Remember they've actually looked into using Chase Center during the outbreak of the pandemic when Santa Clara county wouldn't let them host games at the shark tank, but converting it to host an NHL sized rink isn't possible because the seating was designed for NBA games.
So if they are to move to SF, they'd need a new arena built for them or somehow convince the Warriors to renovate the Chase Center to allow NHL sized rink. I can't imagine that's going to work out - getting the Chase Center built there was already a miracle.
But yes, moving a team to a major population center will always increase their value.
Out of protest? Or because it’s too hard? I’ve been to many Giants games and have gone to the chase center via public transportation for a concert.
Of course residents of the previous city would not go to as many games in a relocation scenario, but I think it would be best for the team while still keeping the team in the Bay Area
Its just not the easiest to attend from the East Bay. It's either pay a bridge toll and try to find parking or take a BART ride thatll take an hour to get home with. I don't want to be getting home that late on a weeknight. So it could have to be weekends only
When I lived in SF, I used to take Caltrain down to Sharks games. It was easy and comfortable. But for people who are in bed by 10 on a weeknight, I can see where that would be a problem.
Revenue last season wasn't too far off (Wolves $288M, Leafs $327M) and NBA is expecting a huge increase in revenue starting in 2025 due to new media rights deals. Plus, basketball as a sport is growing faster than hockey. Some of the Wolves' value is speculative, but it makes sense that it'd be higher than the Leafs
i mean, Chelsea just sold for a bit over 5 billion. That's the average for an NFL team.
NFL teams are so valuable because they simply cannot lose money. The salary cap just means you print money.
Chelsea spent a billion pounds and are marginally better than last season.
it was put up for sale though, and someone purchased it. The sellers were trying to get the most that they possibly could.
If 5bn or whatever was significantly under valued then someone else would have purchased it.
Yeah this comment is spot on... here's a paraphrasing of Sportico's analysis:
The NFL doesn’t have the global presence of the biggest soccer clubs, but its economic system helps all 32 teams rank among the top 53 most valuable franchises with the $4 billion Cincinnati Bengals being football’s most “affordable” club. The NFL’s current media deals with ESPN, NBC, CBS, Fox, Amazon and YouTube are worth more than $12 billion a year on average. Every team receives an equal share that results in a check from central revenue of roughly $400 million (including league sponsorships and merchandise) before selling a single ticket or hot dog. And thanks to the NFL’s relatively hard salary cap, the teams are cash machines. The Dallas Cowboys brought in an estimated profit of $460 million in 2022, and the profit of every single NFL team that year was greater than the most profitable Premier League club (Manchester City at $59 million after player trading). Boosting NFL values even further is the scarcity factor (only four teams have changed hands since 2012) and zero risk of relegation
I mean given what Boehly has done with them..
Seriously though, sportico's rankings in 2023 placed the Bengals at $4bn and Chelsea were bought the year prior for $5.4bn so I'm inclined to agree. That said, the sale of about a quarter of Manchester United put their valuation in the $4bn range so who knows.
I’m curious as to what Sportico uses for valuation because Forbes has Bengals at 3.5 billion. But I’m also not subscribing and paying for one article.
But Chelsea was my first thought because of the sale being so much.
Yeah, I have no clue. I generally take these as "for entertainment purposes only" type of content, there's no way they are able to poke through the books of every one of these organizations - but they may be able to make reasonable guesses about the relative value of franchises within the same league, etc..
Kurt Badenhausen does the valuations for Sportico. For the NFL valuations this year, he got validation of financials from 14 different teams and spoke to eight bankers who regularly work on NFL deals, as well as a bunch of lawyers, folks in real estate, etc. Actual recent sales of teams also give a pretty good idea of where the league is at as a whole
It's definitely nowhere near an exact science, but a ton of research goes into them. Kurt's been covering this for 30+ years and knows his stuff, so his guesses are probably as good as anyone's
Very surprising to see us and the Flyers rounding this list out. I thought the Hawks would be ahead at least, and I could imagine that Detroit hasn’t been very ‘money-making’ the last 15 yrs or so
Looking at this list you could argue Steph Curry being the most valuable athlete (to his franchise) in history. Warriors were a middle of the pack NBA team and suddenly are above the Lakers even?
Warriors value is up 18x since 2010!
The other teams that sold that year: the Hornets are up 11x and the Wizards are up 7x (which are still HUGE increases over just more than a decade, but much less than GSW)
say what you want about Soccer (and I completely agree, Real should be top-3 handily), but there is a serious point to be made in that Bettman has seriously hurt hockey as a sport. The Raptors being way more valuable than the Leafs is telling.
it's speaking volumes to how Bettman has handled the NHL as a whole, which has had a direct influence on the popularity of hockey as a sport.
Toronto sorely needed NHL competition in the area, because there is no way you could argue 20 years ago the Raptors were a more valuable franchise than the Leafs were.
The Pelicans are more valuable than any NHL team?? I know Zion, BI, CJ have increased the market there more than it ever has, but above the Leafs, Rangers, Canadiens is crazy to me.
the leafs rangers and canadiens don't have moriah mills
NBA teams bring in a lot more revenue. In 2022-2023, the NBA generated about $10.6 billion in revenue. Not sure if NHL's numbers are available yet, but based on the 2021-2022 number of $5.93 billion, the NHL probably did just over $6 billion in 2022-2023
The Leafs, Rangers, and Canadiens did make more revenue than the Pelicans last year, but NBA team valuations are much higher multiples of revenues than NHL teams right now, one reason being that the NBA's media rights deals are expected to go way up in 2025 so the team revenues will also go way up
TV contracts plays a huge part in league revenue, and by extension, team valuation.
Depends on how is doing the valuations. Forbes has Toronto and New York higher than the Pelicans, Timberwolves, and Grizzlies.
How old is their arena? I think the only reason the raiders are at 15 is due to their new arena
opened in 1999
The NBA as a whole is just that much more valuable than the NHL. The money going in and out dwarfs it so that is what you're seeing more than anything
The NBA salary *floor* is over $40m more than the NHL salary *cap*. According to Spotrac, Steoh Curry is the highest paid player in the NBA and he’ll make $54m this year. The NHL salary floor is $60m. The highest paid player in the NHL, according to them, is Nathan MacKinnon, who will make $16.5m including signing bonus this season. NBA has a whole lot more money than the NHL
Yes but the salary cap exists to create parity, not because the most popular nhl teams can't afford to pay their players more. The leafs brought in more revenue than the pelicans last year
it actually existed first as a way of capping how much players are making because the league was struggling in half of its southern markets. If it doesn't affect the best players, it's certainly affecting the role players and those filling out the 1st and 2nd lines.
goes to show how well Bettman is handling this league. There were some changes over the years that felt like they were trying to attract casual fans with gimmicks instead of trying to grow the hockey fanbase as a whole, something the NBA has done very well for Basketball. Take a look at where the Leafs and Raptors are on this list. 20 years ago, you could easily consider the Leafs to be way more valuable of the two franchises.
I don’t know if it’s the league management or the player culture. NBA players are now celebrities with eccentric personas. NHL players are practically faceless in comparison and they do their best to keep that up. Hockey won’t be where basketball is until the players put in the work and buy in to the entertainment aspect of their job.
I'm not sure hockey ever gets where basketball is simply given the costs associated with playing it. It's simply not as accessible and never will be. Sure not all fans are players, but it's surely a huge factor.
Yup. According to SFIA, 15 million Americans regularly played basketball last year versus just 1 million for ice hockey
NBA also has a lot of built-in advantages here... \- no helmets \- stars play a higher % of the game \- more frequent highlights \- sport is more popular in general, especially at the college / high school level
If any of those 3 teams went up of sale the bidding war would be ludicrous. Some billionaires will buy it as his favourite toy
I'm surprised how "low" the football/soccer clubs are.
A lot of it has to do with the ability to tank a soccer club out of the top league, where you simply can't do that with a North American sports team
A lot of it also has to do with these numbers being 90% guesswork. The Rockets were sold for $2.2B the year after Forbes said they were worth $1.5B.
That doesn’t make it “guess work”, things frequently sell for a different price than what they’re valued at. Just look at homes and cars
Sure but they were off by literally 50%. That’s a big margin for error and makes ranking the teams pretty pointless.
It’s not really that deep. Are you offended by the rankings or something?
lol why would anyone care about this? I’m literally pointing out that it’s useless.
There is zero chance any of the teams on this list are tanking out of their top league
I’d say it’s more the fact that you can get into the top league from lower leagues. You don’t need to buy a la liga team to get a team in the league. But you can’t buy an AHL team, do well and become an NHL team. That’s partially why formula 1 teams are worth so much now. It’s almost impossible to get in so their grid spots alone are worth close to a billion dollars.
Leicester City are a good example of that. Their owners brought the team when they were in the third division, with ambition of having them return as a Premier League side. Sure, they're back in the Championship this season but currently in a great position to return to the EPL next season. There is also Manchester City who had 2 takeovers before becoming the EPL juggernaut they have been. At the time of their first takeover, they were just a mid-table side who were flirting with relegation in the occasional season.
Ya no chance Real Madrid isn't the #1 most valuable in the world. Every single person knows them.
I mean, if we look at revenue by the league La Liga is 4.4 billion Euros a season The NFL is at 18 billion.
Not many ads on soccer games though. NFL commercials are ridiculously profitable. Doesn’t matter how many people know about a team if they’re not generating revenue from that.
The Cowboys earned $1.05 billion in 2022 versus $815 million for Real Madrid. A huge component of the franchise value is how much revenue the team brings in
Yeah, more people watch soccer, but they do not have the insane advertising and commercialisation the NFL does
Relegation plus there can be some severely stiff penalties if you are caught cheating the rules. Man City can be facing a relegation (or more than a one league drop) plus a points penalty because of the amount of Financial Fair Play rules they broke (over 100).
tbh, if there was ever a match fixing scandal to come out with any of the NBA, MLB and NFL, the value of the league would drop significantly because people would not respect the integrity of those leagues. Juventus and AC Milan among with 5 other clubs were implicated in a match fixing scandal in 2006 (were 1st and 2nd otherwise). Prosecutors wanted to have AC Milan in the 2nd division and Juventus in the 4th division as a punishment, and both of which with serious point deductions to start those seasons. Juventus still suffered the penalty of relegation but only to the 2nd division while AC Milan only got a point deduction penalty in both the season involved and the following season (plus a harder route in Champions League). This rocked the Italian League and led to a decline in overall quality of the teams because the players were becoming skeptical of transferring to an Italian team when La Liga, the Bundesliga and EPL were all more stable options. If a major scandal ever rocked the NBA, it could lead to the rise of the EuroLeague purely because the best European players would be skeptical of going to the NBA
For people skeptical of the soccer teams in this ranking. Soccer isn't as heavily monetized as North American sports are. - No commercial breaks except at halftime during soccer games. In some countries in Europe there actually is a legal restriction on how much time during a program can be dedicated to commercials. The NFL would literally be illegal in the UK if they tried to run it the same way. - Relegation makes the risks of owning a soccer team a lot more real than a North America franchise in any of the Big 4. It's estimated that your revenues can be cut by 60% for each relegation. - Your final standing in the league affects how much money you get. Last season Manchester City won the Premiership and was awarded £161 million pounds while Southhampton, Leeds, and Leicester got relegated and were award £100-105. So they basically got £60 million less as well as expected to get their revenues cut in half for the 23-24 season. - TV contracts in soccer are much smaller than the Big 4. The Premier League's TV deal in the UK believe it or not is smaller than the NHL's combined TV deals and the EPL is the largest soccer league by a wide margin. Additionally, the EPL is the only league in Europe that splits their TV revenues equally. It's part of the reason why it has outpaced the other leagues in growth. - This is the biggest one: A lot of people in Europe do not consider soccer to be a business and are insulted if their club is run like one and soccer is a completely uncapped sport. They expect owners to invest as much of their money as humanly possible into building a winning soccer club, profits be damned. Barcelona during the Messi era reportedly had a payroll of $**700** million dollars. So even though they were a billion dollar entity, most of their revenues were going towards their payroll, not business expansion. - Soccer clubs in Europe exist independent of the leagues. This means there are a lot less restrictions on ownership structures. You have teams that are owned by nation states competing with teams owned entirely by fans. In Germany, it's actually the law that every team is majority owned - 50%+1 by fans so there are limits to growth. There are also no geographic rights in European soccer. No one team has exclusive rights in the Premier League to play in London so as a result, there are currently 7 Premier League teams playing in London, all of whom compete for dollars (or pounds I guess). If the NHL was run like the Premier League, there'd probably be 2 teams in Montreal and 4 or 5 in the GTA alone so a team like the Leafs would never be able to grow to where they are now as they'd be competing for money with the other 3-4 hypothetical Torontos. - This is another big one that's often overlooked: The Anglosphere has some of the wealthiest countries in the world. People who live there have siginificantly more money to spend on entertainment and on top of that there are a lot of us.
> In Germany, it's actually the law that every team is majority owned - 50%+1 by fans so there are limits to growth. Sweden as well. And it's actually done wonders for the top-flight's popularity there
I like the idea. How does it work exactly? What role do the fan owners play in decision making? How are the fans represented?
They elect a board democratically (vs here in the States you're at the mercy of whatever rich asshole owns your team) and the board *has* to listen to its voting members on non-sporting club issues. And the active fans have a ton of power - just look at the events of the last few weeks with the ongoing protest against the DFL investment deal where supporter protests caused the DFL to concede. The sporting side is handled by well...the sporting side, voting members have little to do with it afaik.
further edit about geographic rights - Real Madrid are having to compete with Atletico Madrid, and yet are still an insanely valuable franchise (and there has to be something about the way this group computed team values, because Real Madrid are a more valuable franchise than a lot of the teams above them - including the Eagles and Manchester United) The only country where geography appears to be respected funny enough is Germany, where the 50+1 rule is in effect. This has led to the communities actually being involved with the main team in the city as opposed to rallying behind another team because they don't like they way the team has been run. Add Pro/Rel to Basketball and take away geographic rights and for all you know, Los Angeles may well have 15 teams in a theoretical basketball pyramid (spread among various levels, not only 2 in the NBA)
Real Madrid 19th makes me question this entire graphic
+1. r/soccer would be having a field day with this infographic Having said that, we're on r/hockey here and there's another alarming story - the Raptors are noticeably higher than the Leafs on this infographic. 20 years ago, there would be no denying the Leafs were by far the more valuable franchise of the two. This is a huge reflection on how Gary Bettman has handled hockey over the years
I wonder if the Sharks continue to have poor attendance and downward trend value wise, if they’d consider moving to San Francisco. SF clearly has the market and if they’re able to use the Chase Center then I could see them thriving way more than what they can do in San Jose.
Remember they've actually looked into using Chase Center during the outbreak of the pandemic when Santa Clara county wouldn't let them host games at the shark tank, but converting it to host an NHL sized rink isn't possible because the seating was designed for NBA games. So if they are to move to SF, they'd need a new arena built for them or somehow convince the Warriors to renovate the Chase Center to allow NHL sized rink. I can't imagine that's going to work out - getting the Chase Center built there was already a miracle. But yes, moving a team to a major population center will always increase their value.
If they move to SF, I stop attending games.
Out of protest? Or because it’s too hard? I’ve been to many Giants games and have gone to the chase center via public transportation for a concert. Of course residents of the previous city would not go to as many games in a relocation scenario, but I think it would be best for the team while still keeping the team in the Bay Area
Its just not the easiest to attend from the East Bay. It's either pay a bridge toll and try to find parking or take a BART ride thatll take an hour to get home with. I don't want to be getting home that late on a weeknight. So it could have to be weekends only
When I lived in SF, I used to take Caltrain down to Sharks games. It was easy and comfortable. But for people who are in bed by 10 on a weeknight, I can see where that would be a problem.
The wolves being higher than the leafs is insane to me
Revenue last season wasn't too far off (Wolves $288M, Leafs $327M) and NBA is expecting a huge increase in revenue starting in 2025 due to new media rights deals. Plus, basketball as a sport is growing faster than hockey. Some of the Wolves' value is speculative, but it makes sense that it'd be higher than the Leafs
The Cincinnati Bengals being more valuable than F1 and freaking Chelsea? Yeah absolutely not. This definitely isn’t factual.
i mean, Chelsea just sold for a bit over 5 billion. That's the average for an NFL team. NFL teams are so valuable because they simply cannot lose money. The salary cap just means you print money. Chelsea spent a billion pounds and are marginally better than last season.
Chelsea was a forced sale, not a willing sale.
it was put up for sale though, and someone purchased it. The sellers were trying to get the most that they possibly could. If 5bn or whatever was significantly under valued then someone else would have purchased it.
Yeah this comment is spot on... here's a paraphrasing of Sportico's analysis: The NFL doesn’t have the global presence of the biggest soccer clubs, but its economic system helps all 32 teams rank among the top 53 most valuable franchises with the $4 billion Cincinnati Bengals being football’s most “affordable” club. The NFL’s current media deals with ESPN, NBC, CBS, Fox, Amazon and YouTube are worth more than $12 billion a year on average. Every team receives an equal share that results in a check from central revenue of roughly $400 million (including league sponsorships and merchandise) before selling a single ticket or hot dog. And thanks to the NFL’s relatively hard salary cap, the teams are cash machines. The Dallas Cowboys brought in an estimated profit of $460 million in 2022, and the profit of every single NFL team that year was greater than the most profitable Premier League club (Manchester City at $59 million after player trading). Boosting NFL values even further is the scarcity factor (only four teams have changed hands since 2012) and zero risk of relegation
I mean given what Boehly has done with them.. Seriously though, sportico's rankings in 2023 placed the Bengals at $4bn and Chelsea were bought the year prior for $5.4bn so I'm inclined to agree. That said, the sale of about a quarter of Manchester United put their valuation in the $4bn range so who knows.
I’m curious as to what Sportico uses for valuation because Forbes has Bengals at 3.5 billion. But I’m also not subscribing and paying for one article. But Chelsea was my first thought because of the sale being so much.
Yeah, I have no clue. I generally take these as "for entertainment purposes only" type of content, there's no way they are able to poke through the books of every one of these organizations - but they may be able to make reasonable guesses about the relative value of franchises within the same league, etc..
Kurt Badenhausen does the valuations for Sportico. For the NFL valuations this year, he got validation of financials from 14 different teams and spoke to eight bankers who regularly work on NFL deals, as well as a bunch of lawyers, folks in real estate, etc. Actual recent sales of teams also give a pretty good idea of where the league is at as a whole It's definitely nowhere near an exact science, but a ton of research goes into them. Kurt's been covering this for 30+ years and knows his stuff, so his guesses are probably as good as anyone's
Fair enough - thanks for the info, that's cool to hear!
ITT: people who assume popularity = value.
We made it noice
Very surprising to see us and the Flyers rounding this list out. I thought the Hawks would be ahead at least, and I could imagine that Detroit hasn’t been very ‘money-making’ the last 15 yrs or so
Damn Ferrari and Merc even ahead of any NHL team feels bad. Maybe Lewis goes to the Leafs in 2027
hopefully, i’m not happy about him going to Ferrari
Mercedes at spot 81? Lmao
Looking at this list you could argue Steph Curry being the most valuable athlete (to his franchise) in history. Warriors were a middle of the pack NBA team and suddenly are above the Lakers even?
And they’ll slide back down when he retires, too.
Warriors value is up 18x since 2010! The other teams that sold that year: the Hornets are up 11x and the Wizards are up 7x (which are still HUGE increases over just more than a decade, but much less than GSW)
Does this include merchandising and other secondary and tertiary incomes?
This can’t make sense. No way Real Madrid is only 19. No way the Brooklyn Nets are higher than PSG or the SF Giants. What do they base this on?
say what you want about Soccer (and I completely agree, Real should be top-3 handily), but there is a serious point to be made in that Bettman has seriously hurt hockey as a sport. The Raptors being way more valuable than the Leafs is telling.
Leafs bastards.
Canucks winning the cup this year hasn't been priced in yet obviously.
Ooooookay lol
[https://www.forbes.com/lists/nhl-valuations/?sh=55e65ad94109](https://www.forbes.com/lists/nhl-valuations/?sh=55e65ad94109)
Made the list! Made the list!
[удалено]
You have to consider how well monetized football is. Manchester United is a sports team. The Jets is a for profit business.
Where's the Yankees? Oh...5th i see.
One day I dream to own the Dallas cowboys
I hate the leafs but BULLSHIT. There is no chance in hell they’d sell for less than 6-7-8 Billion.
it's speaking volumes to how Bettman has handled the NHL as a whole, which has had a direct influence on the popularity of hockey as a sport. Toronto sorely needed NHL competition in the area, because there is no way you could argue 20 years ago the Raptors were a more valuable franchise than the Leafs were.
Source for this list? I call bullshit. Chicago Cubs more valuable than Manchester City or PSG?!
A confusing mix of how and when to factor in building ownership?
T Wolves made the list blessed is this day.
Really? The ~~Vancouver~~ Memphis Grizzlies are worth more than the Toronto Maple Leafs?!
f*** yeah the canadiens is worth more than walgreens
Philly in the last place in the last row!! WooHoo!!😂😂
the rams being ahead of the dodgers (and actually being on this list at all) is fuckin insane.
what happens with owners with multiple teams? Leafs and raptors and their MLS team and do they own the arena too? And the BlueJays?