New York--The New York Yankees have matched the NFL's Dallas Cowboys as America's most valuable sports team at $3.2 billion and the average Major League Baseball club is worth $1.2 billion, Forbes magazine reported Wednesday.
The annual listing of financial details for the 30-team league by the magazine comes as clubs are making their final pre-season training camp pushes ahead of the April 5 season opener.
The Yankees topped the list for the 18th time in as many years Forbes has done the ranking, matching the Cowboys for the best US mark although both rank short of Real Madrid's $3.44 billion (3.13 billion euros) valuation as the world's richest sports team.
Average team valuation leaped 48 percent over 2014 figures, a record one-year jump, and a record 15 teams, half the league, has a $1 billion value, 10 more clubs than last year.
The average NFL team was valued last August at $1.43 billion and the average NBA club at $1.1 billion by the magazine.
The Yankees, with a record $508 million in revenue in Derek Jeter's final season as captain, were followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers being valued at $2.4 billion. Just three years after being sold for $2 billion, the Dodgers led major league clubs with $120 million in television revenue and 3.78 million spectators.
Boston's Red Sox were third on $2.1 billion followed in order by the World Series champion San Francisco Giants at $2.0 billion, the Chicago Cubs at $1.8 billion and St. Louis Cardinals at $1.4 billion.
The Giants had the biggest one-year jump, doubling in value after their third World Series crown in five seasons off nearly double the revenue at $387 million from a multitude of sponsors.
Television revenue spurred the value boom, with broadcast income of $2.88 billion accounting for 37 percent of the overall revenue of $7.86 billion. Last year saw the start of new national TV deals worth $12.4 billion over eight years.
At the bottom of the still pricey list, the World Series loser Kansas City Royals ranked 28th at $700 million, $50 million more than the Miami Marlins were valued with the Tampa Bay Rays the least valuable major league club at a still whopping $625 million.
AFP
