Take all of this with the usual grain of salt we advise when it comes to franchise values because, for the most part, Major League Baseball’s books are closed to the public. But each year at this time Forbes puts out its franchise value report and, as has become custom, the numbers are even more astronomical than one might assume.
Forbes’ lead-in:
If Major League Baseball traded on a stock exchange it would be worth $36 billion. The average baseball team is now worth $1.2 billion, 48% more than a year ago, the biggest year-over-year increase since we began tracking team values in 1998. A record 15 MLB teams are now worth at least $1 billion, up from five in 2014.
Links in there take you to their annual package and various reports. Which, again, are always interesting, even if this is a less-exact science than Forbes would have you believe given the small market of folks who might buy a franchise and the uncertainty regarding the future of baseball broadcasting and cable rights.
But still, interesting stuff.
