Athletics' Franchise Valued at $1.1 Billion by Forbes
The Oakland A’s have been given a value of $1.1 billion in the newest rankings of Major League Baseball teams.
The A’s ranked 26 out of the 30 teams ranked. The Yankees, with a value of $5 billion, is far and away the most highly valued team in the Major Leagues, with the Los Angeles Dodgers, at $3.4 billion ranked second.
While all that is good on paper, the data used to make the calculations was compiled when the economy was still doing relatively well. In the last month-plus the arrival of the COVID-19 coronavirus has hit the stock market hard and hit employment even harder.
The Yankees are the No. 2 ranked sports franchise, trailing only the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL.
The report said that only two teams lost value last year and that the A's were one of about a half dozen teams that stayed at about last year's value.
The San Francisco Giants were one of just five teams with a value in excess of $3 billion, is ranked fifth among big league teams, according to Forbes, which ranks the 30 teams annually.
Overall, the average MLB franchise roe in value about 4# to about $1.85 billion. While that may seem like a big jump, it’s the smallest rise for MLB teams as a whole since 2010, when team values rose just 2%.
Forbes reports that the average team value has risen nearly four times in the last decade.
MLB, which had been scheduled to start its 2020 season on March 26, has had to put the season on hold, so the money that would have been coming in hasn’t been.
According to reports, MLB still hopes to be able to play 100 games by starting up in June, but it’s not at all clear that will happen. Forbes says that would allow the league to collect the bulk of the revenue it would have taken in from a complete season.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3