Total Value: The sum of the enterprise market value of an MLB franchise combined with the equity value of team-related businesses and real estate holdings.

Team Value: MLB franchise valuation, derived from metrics by which baseball team transactions occur, including aggregating local and national revenues and factoring in a team-specific multiplier. This represents the fair-market value of the team itself, excluding related businesses held by its owners. It includes the value of each franchise's 3.3% interest in MLB Advanced Media, the league's digital arm, which is acquired/dispossessed in tandem with the sale of a team, as well as its 3.3% interest in the league's investment arm, Baseball Endowment L.P. (BELP).

Team-Related Businesses and Real Estate Holdings: The value of a franchise or franchise owner's equity in team-related businesses—that is, both those on the team's balance sheet and held in distinct corporate entities—as well as government-assessed real estate related to venue, practice facilities and adjacent developments. Examples include the Boston Red Sox parent entity's 80% interest in the New England Sports Network (NESN), holdings through the Atlanta Braves' six subsidiaries of all or a portion of 31 parcels of land adjacent to their ballpark, and minor league teams owned by the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies.

Teams' stakes in regional sports networks are included in the related business category. Historically, those equity stakes held significant value, but they have declined significantly in recent years as cash flows have deteriorated. Sportico only assigned value to the equity stakes in a handful of RSNs, including ones owned by the Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and New York Yankees.

For franchises that do not own their stadia, the value of a team's lease—often with advantageous terms negotiated with municipal or state authorities—is captured in the Team Value category.

Total Team Revenue: Cumulative amount of National Revenue and Local Revenue. These figures are net of sales tax and payments or receipts derived from the MLB revenue-sharing system, and before stadium debt/PILOT payments. It does not include revenue from related business like the Braves' Battery real estate development.

National Revenue: Each franchise's equal proportion of league-shared revenue, derived predominantly from MLB contracts with media and advertising partners. Sportico includes these revenues at a gross level, while some teams report them on a net level on their income statements after deducting for player benefits and the cost to run the league office. These revenues consists of:

(i.) National media (broadcast deals with Fox Corp., SiriusXM radio, Walt Disney Co., Warner Bros. Discovery, Apple and Comcast; distributions related to MLB Extra Innings pay-per-view; sum total of international and other broadcast agreements).

(ii.) League sponsorship (e.g., Chevrolet, FanDuel, Gatorade, Geico, Mastercard and T-Mobile) and licensed merchandise royalties.

(iii.) Distributions and dividends related to Major League Baseball Advanced Media and MLB Network (a cable television channel two-thirds-owned by the league, and affiliated film and production entities).

(iv.) Distributions related to league-operated events (i.e., All-Star Game and World Series).

Local Revenue: Revenue generated by each franchise independent of league distributions. This is comprised of dozens of revenue streams captured within three broad categories:

(i.) Stadium, which includes: ticket sales; parking; team's net share of concessions; and non-baseball ("third-party" or "marquee") events when venue is controlled by team.

(ii.) Sponsorship, which includes naming rights, advertising, corporate partnerships and local merchandising (distinct from league licensing royalties in National Revenue).

(iii.) Media, which includes local TV and radio (e.g., for the New York Mets: SNY and WHSQ 880 AM).

Full Transparency

Sportico is committed to transparency, including provision of detailed methodology and sourcing information below. For any additional questions, please contact sports valuations reporter Kurt Badenhausen at kbadenhausen@sportico.com, who led in the composition of this report.


Fair Market Franchise Valuations

To derive the market value of the 30 MLB franchises, Sportico calculated each team's revenue relying on publicly available information and financial records—and interviews with those knowledgeable of team finances, including sports bankers and attorneys who actively work on MLB transactions. We traded candor for anonymity. This information was vetted by multiple team or parent company CEOs, presidents, chief financial officers and media relations personnel, as well as industry experts and investors.

Revenue totals were then subject to a team-specific multiplier, which, based on interviews with multiple sports bankers, remains the only reliable manner by which transactions occur, due to dramatic fluctuations of earnings before interest, taxes and amortization (EBITA), year-over-year, based on player spending, farm system costs and special expenses.

The team-specific multipliers were based on multiple factors, including: historical sales, market (size, saturation and interest by prospective owners), strength of brand, on-field performance (historical and recent), terms of facility lease, debt burden and additional obligations, as well as expected future team and league economics. These ranges varied from 4.2 times revenue (e.g., Marlins) to 9.25 times revenue (Yankees). The Mets were sold in 2020, and the purchase price was just over 6.5 times revenue, while the Baltimore Orioles' sale to David Rubenstein last year was just over 5.5 times revenue.

Revenue was calculated based on analyses of data from industry sources and reports, as well as interviews with experts and those with knowledge of team and league finances (detailed below); together, this comprised hundreds of inputs of confirmed and estimated information from dozens of sources.

We calculated revenue for the 2022 through 2024 seasons, but only used the 2024 season to apply the valuation multiples.


MLB Franchise Review and Comments

Among the 30 MLB franchises, multiple teams or their parent companies participated with Sportico by providing or validating information, while others did not comment or respond. Franchises were provided the opportunity to comment on Sportico's financial estimates.


Financial and Industry Sources

Team and league financial information was derived from the following sources: municipal bond disclosures (pertaining to Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners and Washington Nationals); Fitch Ratings and S&P Ratings (both of which contained financial data pertaining to the same three teams—Mets, Yankees and Nationals); and team-specific municipal or state disclosures (Kansas City Royals' disclosures to the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority; Milwaukee Brewers' disclosures to the Southeast Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District; Pittsburgh Pirates' disclosures to the Sports & Exhibition Authority Pittsburgh and County of Allegheny; and the Miami Marlins' disclosures to the Florida Secretary of State).

Additional financial, corporate and structural information was derived from Security and Exchange Commission disclosures (Atlanta Braves; and Rogers Communications—Toronto Blue Jays); the 2017-2021 and 2022-26 MLB-MLBPA Collective Bargaining Agreements; and through analyses of historical team sales from 1999 to 2024, based on Sportico research.

Industry data sources include the Association of Luxury Suite Directors (for club and luxury suite capacity, occupancy and pricing); Team Marketing Report (fan spending and sponsorship information); individual team and sponsor websites; S&P Global Market Intelligence (subscriber, revenue and cash-flow data pertaining to regional sports networks); and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's Discretionary and On-Demand Service data (pertaining to broadcast outlets owned by the Blue Jays' parent company).


Government Sources

To assess team-owned real estate with consistency, Sportico included government property appraisals. Sources included: City of Boston Assessing Department (Massachusetts); City and County of San Francisco, Office of Assessor-Recorder (California); City of St. Louis Assessor's Office (Missouri); Cobb County Board of Tax Assessors (Georgia); Cook County Assessor's Office (Illinois); Denver Assessor's Office (Colorado); Harris County Appraisal District (Texas); Harris County Houston Sports Authority (Texas); Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor (California); Massachusetts Secretary of State; Minnesota Ballpark Authority; San Diego Public Facilities Authority (California); Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (Ontario); San Diego County Assessor (California); and Tarrant Appraisal District (Texas).

• Boston Red Sox: The Red Sox valuation includes the baseball-related assets held by its parent company, Fenway Sports Group, such as the 80% stake in NESN and FSG Real Estate. FSGRE oversees the assets and development of properties owned by FSG, including the MGM Music Hall—the 5,000-seat performing arts center connected to Fenway Park—and real estate around the stadium. In 2020, it entered a joint venture with WS Development and '47 Brand to redevelop certain real estate parcels.

• Colorado Rockies: The mixed-use commercial/residential real estate project adjacent to Coors Field, McGregor Square, was led by Rockies owner Dick Monfort, but it is a separate entity and has distinct ownership from the Rockies. McGregor Square would not be part of a sale of the franchise, according to multiple sources. The current LP stake in the Rockies on the market does not include any equity in the development. As a result, the project is not included as a related business for the franchise.

• Los Angeles Dodgers: The Dodgers' Related Business category includes valuation assessments for investments held by their venture capital entity, Elysian Park Ventures; and property encompassing and adjacent to Dodger Stadium. This includes the proportional value of the acreage held though a 50/50 joint venture with the team's previous owner, Frank McCourt.

• New York Yankees: The Yankees' Related Business category includes, among other investments, valuation assessments of its current ownership interests in YES Network (26%) and Legends (18-19%). It also factors in the 8% interest in AC Milan and 10% in New York City FC and its future stadium held by Yankee Global Enterprises, as well as 10% in A1 Padel.

• San Francisco Giants: A valuation assessment of the Giants' participation in the 28-acre commercial real estate development adjacent to its ballpark, Mission Rock, which broke ground in 2020, is included in the franchise's Related Business value category. Further development of the joint venture with Tishman Speyer will positively impact the future valuation of the franchise.

• Toronto Blue Jays: The Blue Jays' Related Business category includes an assessment of the dollar-value amount directly attributable to the team of sports-specific broadcast outlets (TV and radio) owned by its parent company, Rogers Communications. The franchise's Related Business category also includes the assessed value of its venue, Rogers Centre, excluding its footprint, which is government-owned.