Poking around Forbes Magazine this morning, they have their annual list of baseball franchise values and more; therefore, I decided to spend some time and poke around the site as well as look at their list. Although it’s yet to be determined how the economy will affect the balance books and profitability of many teams, this much is certain at face value — teams made money last year, and it will be hard to convince me that teams will really suffer *that much* this upcoming year.
From what I can predict, if a team loses money or sees their revenue/operating income go down, it will be made up somewhere else — trust me.
The Yankees are the sport’s most valuable franchise at 1.5 billion; however, interestingly enough they seem to $3.7 million in the red as well — perhaps because of the new stadium and the investment in that. Still, I am sure they are making money elsewhere, including TV and what not, so let’s not feel sorry for them. The value of their franchise keeps going up, and there’s so much prestige behind the Yankee name that whatever happens, they’ll come out just fine.
The New York Mets are the second most valuable franchise, followed by the Red Sox, Dodgers, and the Cubs. They are followed up by the Angels, Phillies, Cardinals, Giants and White Sox to round up the top ten.
If you’re interested, the Baltimore Orioles rank 15th and had an operating income of $27.2 million which is not bad at all considering their record, and the fact that they cut payroll considerably in 2008.
The two teams which the largest operating income are the Florida Marlins and Washington Nationals with $43.7 and $42.6 million respectively. The only two franchises to end up in the red are New York Yankees with $3.7 million lost and the Detroit Tigers with a staggering $26.3 million.
