Even though Major League Baseball’s season has been postponed indefinitely —though there is some hope on that front — MLB’s teams are worth more than they ever have been before, according to Forbes’ annual list.
With the average MLB team raking in $50 million in profits last season, the league was still profitable even though attendance and attention from the masses were down in 2019.
The most valuable team in MLB? The franchise George Steinbrenner paid $8.8 million for in 1973: the New York Yankees. With a valuation of $5 billion, a nine percent rise from a year ago, the Yanks take the top spot in MLB, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers ($3.4 billion), Boston Red Sox ($3.3 billion), Chicago Cubs ($3.2 billion) and San Francisco Giants ($3.1 billion).
The Yankees have been the most valuable team in MLB since 1998, the first year Forbes began estimating franchise valuations.
At the other end of the spectrum are the Miami Marlins ($980 million), Kansas City Royals ($1 billion), Tampa Bay Rays ($1 billion), Cincinnati Reds ($1 billion) and Oakland Athletics ($1.1 billion).
Though the rise in value may seem surprising given the current state of the economy and world, it isn’t as shocking when you consider how American sports franchises have been rising in worth over the last decade. From 2010 to ‘19, the average NBA team has 476 percent in value, with the average MLB team growing 262 percent, the average NHL team growing 192 percent and the average NFL team growing 179 percent.
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