Bud Selig has said that this is the golden age of baseball. What he might mean is it’s the golden age of the television deal for MLB.

According to their annual report (see www.forbes.com/mlb), Forbes reports that the average value of the 30 clubs in Major League Baseball has increased 16 percent from last year and is now a record $605 million due mostly to local television deals inked by the Rangers, Angels, Astros, and soon to be, Dodgers.All told, Forbes reports that MLB teams earned $984 million from local television rights

And, it’s the impending deal for the Dodgers that will drive a record sale for a North American sports franchise, surpassing the $1.1 billion that the Miami Dolphins were purchased for by Stephen Ross. Forbes is targeting the Dodgers at a worth of $1.4 billon, a staggering 75 percent increase from last year when they were valued at $800 million. And, that price may not be where the Dodger sale lands. According to reports, a group led by LA Laker legend Magic Johnson has a bid in at $1.6 billion. The Dodgers, who were ranked third last year behind the Red Sox and Yankees, vault past Boston this year and are only behind the Yankees who see a 9 percent increase to $1.85 billion. According to co-author Mike Ozanian in his overview, “In 2011, revenue (net of payments to cover stadium debt) for the league’s 30 teams climbed to an average of $212 million, a 3.4% gain over the previous season. But operating income (in the sense of earnings before non-cash charges and interest expenses) fell 13%, to an average of $14 million in part due to a 5.1% increase in player costs (including benefits and signing bonuses for amateurs), to $3.5 billion in 2011.”

With their new stadium and renaming to “Miami” the Marlins see an increase of 25 percent and nearly crack the Top 20 in terms of value (they land at #21). Something that is bound to make those that are funneling money to takers of the revenue-sharing system, smile. Miami is shown with just $8.9 million in operating income compared to $20.2 million last year and $46.1 million the year prior to that. All told, 12 clubs are shown with operating income above $20 million with four of them (Indians, Rays, Blue Jays, and Royals) ranking in the bottom 5 of total value.

So, if the Marlins aren’t the biggest winners in terms of operating income, who is? Surprisingly this year, it’s the Cleveland Indians. While the club ranks 26 in terms club value (they saw overall value increase 16 percent to $410 million), operating income came in at $30.1 million followed by the Royals ($28.5 million), Cubs ($28.1 million), D-backs ($27.2 million) and Rays ($26.2 million)

On the downside, the cratering of attendance and the cloud that hung over the Mets until only Monday with the Madoff Ponzi scandal has taken a big divet out of club. The Mets see a 4 percent decline from last year to $719 million and according to Forbes, posted $40.8 million in operating losses, the largest decline in losses of any of the clubs.The losses have the Mets dropping from being valued #5 in 2011 to #6 this year. The only other clubs to post operating losses were the Angels ($1.2 million) and Phillies ($11.6 million)

All told, only two clubs (Mets and Rays) saw club values decline. Both of which are tied to faring poorly in the paid attendance department.

SELECT READ MORE TO SEE THE FORBES VALUATIONS FOR THE 30 CLUBS IN MLB

Here are the 30 clubs as ranked by Fobes (data for 2011 season)

Source: Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/mlb)

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He writes for Baseball Prospectus and is a contributor to Forbes SportsMoney blog.. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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Comments (3)

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DukesRocks
written by a guest, March 22, 2012

Any evaluation conducted by Forbes should be taken with a grain of salt. The fact is Forbes has no access to the MLB teams financial records and never takes into account the complexities of ownership of some teams. Case in point is the Blue Jays. Forbes has them ranked 25th which is a joke. What Forbes never takes into account is the revenue generated by the Jays on TV and Radio. You see Rogers Communication owns the Jays as well as the Jays broadcasters for television and radio and therefore the revenue generated by the Jays is either not stated or severely discounted.

Here are some facts that Forbes should take into account:
The Jays have the biggest market in all of baseball.
The Jays have the best TV ratings in all of baseball.

One must wonder, is Rogers Communication that stupid to not take advantage of the two points mentioned above and I haven’t even mentioned the millions of dollars Rogers makes of its cable customers to view Jays games on specialty channels. Think about that, Rogers is creating revenue with the help of the Jays and that revenue has nothing to do with Jays or baseball.

As stated above, ranking the Jays 25th in value is a joke. If the Jays got credit for all the revenue they generated for Rogers Communication; they would rank top 5 in the league and that is being cautious since I feel they are the richest team in baseball.

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Rogers is not stupid
written by a guest, March 22, 2012

The problem for the Blue Jays is that Rogers pays a ridiculously low rights fee ($36 million) to the Jays for broadcasts, when it should be worth at least double that. Even though it's a completely artificial restriction on Rogers' part, it gives them a rationale to keep payroll low. Now the Jays are a debt-free, low-cost cash cow. That's not a Forbes problem. That's a Rogers problem.

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Missing the point
written by a guest, March 22, 2012

Dukesrocks point was there is no way the Jays can be ranked 25th in value based on revenue they generate for their owner. Thus stating the rating scale of Forbes is not accurate. I have to agree.

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