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If there is an argument to be made that baseball is no longer America’s Pastime, then the NBA is here to make it. For the first time, the average value of a franchise in the basketball league has surpassed the average value of an MLB franchise.
According to Forbes, the average value of an NBA team is $1.9 billion compared to a $1.7 billion value for an average MLB team.
A big reason for the switch is the value of MLB teams only grew by eight percent last year compared to a 13 percent growth in the NBA and 12 percent growth in the NFL.
That said, the New York Yankees are still the most valuable of any team in either league ($4.6 billion) but coming in just behind them are the New York Knicks with a value of $4 billion despite being one of the worst teams in the NBA.
At the other end of the spectrum are the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins in MLB and the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA. Despite being on the low end in value for their respective league, all four clubs are worth at least $1 billion.
Despite the success of the NBA, it’s still second-fiddle to football by a small margin.
The average NFL team is worth $2.57 billion with the Dallas Cowboys topping the list with a valuation of a $5 billion. Following them are the New England Patriots ($3.8 billion), New York Giants ($3.3 billion), Los Angeles Rams ($3.2 billion) and Washington Redskins ($3.2 billion).
Avg. Team Values per @Forbes
NFL: $2.6 billion
NBA: $1.9 billion
MLB: $1.7 billion
NHL: $630 million https://t.co/Maa1daeB0R— Kurt Badenhausen (@kbadenhausen) April 11, 2019
NHL teams, unfortunately for puck heads, have slipped to a distant fourth in value.
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