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

Team Value: NHL franchise valuation, derived from metrics by which hockey-team transactions occur, including aggregating local and national revenues and factoring in a team-specific multiplier. This represents the value of the team itself, excluding related businesses held by its owners.

Team-Related Businesses and Real Estate Holdings: The value of a franchise owner's equity in team-related businesses that are distinct corporate entities, as well as government-assessed real estate related to venues, practice facilities and other properties.

This category excludes value derived from enterprises determined as too attenuated from the hockey team's operations, which fall into three categories:
(i.) Rent from non-hockey, outside-of-arena operations, such as the Oilers' ICE District venture.
(ii.) Licensing fees paid by non-hockey third parties to a team's sister company for the use of intellectual property.
(iii.) Team owners' investment in businesses unrelated to franchise operations.

For franchises that do not own their arenas, 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 and local revenue. The coronavirus pandemic significantly impacted revenue during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. The 2021-22 season was much closer to normal, although some teams, including the Canadian franchises, opened the season with capacity restrictions at their arenas. The 2022-23 was season was the first one not impacted by COVID-19 since 2018-19. Revenues include playoffs and non-NHL events, such as concerts, when teams operate or own their buildings. All figures are net of revenue sharing and in U.S. dollars using the currency exchange rate as of Nov. 3, 2023.

The NHL's U.S. national media rights agreements with The Walt Disney Company and WarnerMedia, LLC will expire following the 2027-28 season. The NHL's agreement with Rogers Communications (Canada) expires following the 2025-26 season. The NBA's agreements with The Walt Disney Company and WarnerMedia, LLC expire after the 2024-25 regular season.

National Revenue: Each franchise's equal proportion of league-shared revenue, derived predominantly from NHL contracts with media and advertising partners; it represented roughly 17% of total team revenue last year. For the 2022-23 season, this consisted of:

(i.) National media rights, including broadcast deals with Walt Disney, WarnerMedia, Rogers Communications, Quebecor Media, SiriusXM, Sports USA and TuneIn.

(ii.) League sponsorship revenues e.g., Adidas, Apple, Enterprise, Fastenal, PepsiCo, SAP and many others.

(iii.) Net revenues and royalties from NHL Enterprises LLC, NHL Network, NHL digital properties and more than a dozen media partnerships outside of North America. These distributions cover licensing, film, international properties and media rights.

Excluded from this calculation is income derived from NHL expansion fees. The NHL's 32nd franchise, the Seattle Kraken, made the final installment payment of its $650 million expansion fee in 2021.

Local Revenue: Revenue generated by each franchise independent of league distributions, comprising in aggregate more than 80% of total team revenue for the 2022-23 season. Local revenue is comprised of:

(i.) Arena, which includes ticket sales; premium seating (luxury suite leases and club seating); parking; team's share of concessions; and non-hockey (third-party) events.

(ii.) Sponsorship, which includes naming rights, advertising, corporate partnerships, local merchandising (and distinct from league licensing royalties, which are included in national revenue).

(iii.) Media, which includes local TV and radio, for which teams often control advertising inventory.

Full Transparency

Sportico is committed to transparency, including provision of detailed methodology and sourcing information below. For any questions, please contact sports valuations reporter Kurt Badenhausen at kbadenhausen@sportico.com.


Fair Market Franchise Valuations

To derive the estimated enterprise value of the 32 NHL franchises, Sportico calculated each team's revenue, relying on publicly available information and financial records—as well as interviews with those knowledgeable of team finances, including eight sports bankers and lawyers who actively work on NHL transactions. In the interest of accuracy, we traded candor for anonymity. This information was vetted with multiple team owners, team financial and operating officers, media relations personnel and former team executives, 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 most common manner by which transactions are judged in sports, due to dramatic fluctuations of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), year-over-year, based on salary cap spending and special expenses.

The team-specific multipliers were based on numerous factors, including historical sales, market (size, saturation and interest by prospective owners), strength of brand, on-ice performance (historical and recent), terms of facility lease, debt burden, and expected future team and league economics. These ranged from a 4.5 times revenue multiple to 7.5 in the case of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Sportico's revenues and valuations take into account league revenue sharing. In the NHL, 10 teams pay into revenue sharing under a complicated formula that targets 6.05% of hockey-related revenue to be distributed to low revenue clubs. The pool is supplemented with gate receipts from playoff games. Low revenue teams received nearly $300 million last season, with the pool dented by the NHL's revenue shortfall during COVID-19. Those clubs should pocket $400 million annually within the next couple of seasons.

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 as detailed below. Together, this comprised hundreds of inputs of confirmed and estimated information from dozens of sources.


NHL Franchise Review and Comments

Among the 32 NHL franchises, 13 teams participated with Sportico by validating financial information, while others did not respond. The National Hockey League would not comment on individual team finances.


Financial and Industry Sources

Team and league financial information was derived from the following sources: Securities and Exchange Commission filings for Madison Square Garden Sports Corp., as well as those of related entity Madison Square Garden Entertainment; the 2013 NHL-NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement, which was extended in 2020, including a Memorandum of Understanding, through the 2025-26 season; and analyses of historical team sales from 2011 to 2023, 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; Chris Bigelow of the Bigelow Companies (per capita spending on stadium concessions); the Marquette University Law School (historical sports facility lease information); S&P Global Market Intelligence (subscriber, revenue and cash flow data pertaining to four regional sports networks); The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's Discretionary and On-Demand Service data (pertaining to two separate TV outlets owned or partially owned by the Toronto Maple Leafs' parent entities); and multiple synopses related to Sinclair Broadcast Group's purchase of 22 sports-specific cable TV outlets in 2019.

Government Sources

To assess team-owned real estate with consistency, Sportico included government property appraisals. Sources included: City and County of Denver Property Appraisal System (Colorado); Cook County Assessor's Office (Illinois); Dallas Central Appraisal System (Texas); District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue; Montreal's property assessment office (Quebec); City of Boston Assessing Department (Massachusetts); City of Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment (Pennsylvania); BC Assessment (British Columbia); City of Winnipeg Assessment and Taxation Department (Manitoba); Clark County Assessor's Office (Nevada); Los Angeles County Property Assessment Informational System (California); Ottawa Real Estate Board (Ontario); Edmonton Assessment and Taxation Branch (Alberta); and Toronto Real Estate Board (Ontario).

Many of the NHL related-business values are for ownership stakes in arenas and surrounding real estate. Below are notes on 10 teams with caveats.

• Boston Bruins: The related business value includes its 20% stake in NESN ownership of the TD Garden and surrounding real estate by Delaware North, which is controlled by the Jacobs family.

• Chicago Blackhawks: The related business value includes its 25% stake in NBC Sports Chicago and 50% interest in the team's joint venture with Jerry Reinsdorf for the United Center and its real estate.

• Colorado Avalanche: Stan Kroenke and his family own both the Avalanche and NBA's Denver Nuggets. The team's related business value is derived from a 50% interest in Ball Arena and its real estate. Sportico did not assign any value to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment's money-losing RSN, Altitude Sports and Entertainment.

• Edmonton Oilers: The Oilers' related business covers its 100% ownership of OEG Digital Gaming, which operates the club's digital, subscription and gaming operations, including sponsorships in those categories as a separate company. It also operates the Oilers' popular 50-50 raffle business. The valuation includes the sports-related components of its $2 billion mixed-use development, ICE District, located outside of Rogers Arena, including the ICE District Plaza, parking garage outside Rogers Place, Connect Podium and OEG headquarters.

• New York Rangers: The Rangers' related business value includes stock held by the Dolan family in Madison Square Garden Entertainment, which could sell in a transaction in tandem with the team itself, a part of a separate publicly traded company, Madison Square Garden Sports Corporation. The equity value of Class A stock in the two related entities (as of close of trading on 11/03/2023), as well as the estimated value of Class B stock in those companies held by the Dolan family, pursuant to information in SEC disclosures—were assessed, reduced proportionally to account for business segments related to the basketball team, and included.

• Philadelphia Flyers: The team is owned by Comcast subsidiary Comcast Spectacor. Its related business contribution includes the value of Wells Fargo Center, which is also owned by Comcast Spectacor, but the city of Philadelphia owns the land on which the building sits.

• Toronto Maple Leafs: The valuation of the team's interest in regional sports media includes two components: (i.) Equity ownership of Leafs Nations Network (formerly, Leafs TV); and (ii.) the value that the Leafs represent to team co-owner Rogers Communications, Inc.'s cable TV network, Sportsnet One, based on analyses of financial and programming data. Team-related property (split where applicable with sister entity, the NBA's Toronto Raptors, and two real estate development joint-venture partners, Cadillac Fairview Corporation and Lanterra Developments) were assessed.

• Vegas Golden Knights: The related business value includes the team's 15% ownership stake in T-Mobile Arena. It also includes their training facility and AHL team, Henderson Silver Knights, along with interests in ice rinks in the Las Vegas area.

• Washington Capitals: The valuation equally splits ownership's stake in Monumental Sports Network and Capital One Arena with its sister entity, the NBA's Washington Wizards; both teams are controlled by Ted Leonsis. The city owns the land on which the arena was built. MSE's AHL team and ice rinks business is also included in the valuation.