Seems like 1957 when the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers were 1 and 2.
As the 2022 Major League Baseball season approaches, Forbes has put out its version of how much a team is worth. Of course, a team is worth only what someone is willing to pay for the business and right now, no MLB teams are on the market. For what it is worth, Forbes has the New York Yankees organization as the most valuable MLB business and claims the Steinbrenner family and the family’s business partners can get more than $6 billion for the property if they decided to sell the business to someone. The Los Angeles Dodgers business is worth $4 billion. Oddly enough, when Walter O’Malley moved his Dodgers business from Brooklyn, New York to Los Angeles in 1957, the Yankees and the Dodgers were baseball’s two most valuable franchises. According to Forbes, both the Yankees and Dodgers baseball operations were money losers yet Forbes claimed that both the Yankees and Dodgers franchises are worth 14 percent more in 2022 than the businesses were worth in 2021.
Large market teams dominate the Forbes top 10 most valuable franchises. Boston is third, the Chicago Cubs franchise is listed as the fourth team followed by San Francisco. Steve Cohen’s New York Mets business comes in at number six. St. Louis, Philadelphia, the Anaheim, California-based Los Angeles Angels and Atlanta round out the top ten. But the bottom five includes two financially stressed franchises. The Oakland Athletics business is at number 27 and the Tampa Bay Rays is at 29. John Fisher is looking for a new stadium in Oakland as part of a major waterfront development project and if that fails, the team could move to Las Vegas. Stu Sternberg is stuck in the Tampa Bay market through 2027 and is seeking a stadium. For what it is worth, the Miami Marlins franchise is the Forbes least valuable baseball business.
Evan Weiner’s books are available at iTunes – https://books.apple.com/us/author/evan-weiner/id595575191
Evan can be reached at evan_weiner@hotmail.com
