The owner who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity likened buying a team to buying a piece of fine art. MLS Team Valuations | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors So, what are you going to do with your money? The Los Angeles rivalry between the Galaxy and LAFC may already be the most heated rivalry in MLS. And while such gains have come at a tremendous cost relative to those competitors17 MLS clubs lost money last season, to just 10 such teams across the four other leagues combinedits clearly done nothing to slow demand. Forbes compiles the finances of all 28 MLS teams to produce an annual ranking of the best franchises in terms of valuation. Those sales came a couple of years after fellow MLS academy alums Alphonso Davies and Tyler Adams were sold to German clubs Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig, respectively. Forbes released their annual MLB Valuations for 2022. Will Ferrell, Magic Johnson, Tony Robbins, Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra are all investors. The owner who spoke to, on condition of anonymity likened buying a team to buying a piece of fine art. Forbes list of the most valuable MLS clubs - Wikipedia The New York Red Bulls and FC Dallas also won the Shield in recent years while ranking near the bottom of MLS in player spending. Its a huge numberfour NHL teams are worth lessbut thats the value Mansueto put on the club when he paid $204 million to buy the 51% of the team he didnt already own; he bought the first 49% a year prior at a far lower $240 million valuation. Thats triple what NYCFC and Orlando paid less than five years ago, and its a staggering 650% increase over the $40 million that the Montreal Impacts owners paid to join the league in 2012. Although our valuation suggests Mansueto has already come out aheadbetween the two investment rounds, he secured full ownership at a total cost of $322 millionthe purchase is the latest example of MLS owners looking far to the future to justify todays exorbitant investments in the league. Mansueto has pledged to explore constructing a soccer-specific stadium and to build a training facility in Chicago, . Since 2019, the average team valuation has climbed 85%, from $313 million to $579 million. It should be noted that the Forbes numbers are merely an estimation ultimately, a clubs value is simply what someone is willing to pay for it. In the last few years, the two leagues have begun two new cross-border competitions in the Campeones Cup and the Leagues Cup. With a massive TV contract, MLS teams could in theory become billion-dollar assets. The pandemic largel, y kept fans away from matches in 2020, but MLS has established itself as a well-attended league over the last five-to-10, ears. As befits a team in Los Angeles, several celebritiesincluding Will Ferrell, Magic Johnson and Mia Hammhave minority stakes in the club. Hes also worked with 11 MLS teams, primarily on stadium deals. So it makes some sense that MLS owners would invest big in a money-losing enterprise, given that theyre also securing a long-term interest in the continued success of soccer in the North America. The outlets assessments are usually in the ballpark, however, and maintain a certain level of cachet in the sports world. In total, Mansueto paid just over $320 million for sole ownership of the Fire, a club with no stadium, no training facility, a small, dissatisfied fanbase and a brutal balance sheet. With fans in the U.S. and Canada able to watch all of the major European leagues and Liga MX on cable or via streaming platforms every week, whats to stop them from continuing to tune into those leagues over MLS after 2026? Below are the elements that compose the value of the league's 27 franchises, which are collectively worth $14.8 billion. MLS valuations are growing faster, too. For the first time since various publications started attempting to place valuations on MLS teams, the Seattle Sounders saw a decline. MLS has pushed the idea of a $400 million deal in recent years, but that is out the window without the national team. It already has been for some owners. The league could leverage the 2026 World Cup and a bigger relationship with Liga MX into a big-time media deal, which would allow clubs to spend more money, sign better players, become more popular and continue to increase their valuations. Foreigners: 468 Players 56.2%. [4] Los Angeles FC became the new team for highest valuation . Thats a payment of more than $70 million for just 10 percent of the club. "Most Valuable Major League Soccer (Mls) Teams in 2023 (in Million U.S. Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Teams 2019: Atlanta - Forbes Like a masterpiece painting, a team is a unique, scarce good. It wouldnt be enough to buy a team in the NFL, NBA or MLB and would only scrape the lower end of the NHL, but, as a multiple of annual revenue, MLS teams are trading at much higher values than teams even in the other North American leagues. "Most valuable Major League Soccer (MLS) teams in 2023 (in million U.S. Forbes' $660 million valuation of the Sounders is about 9% . The collective bargaining saga with the leagues players that unfolded over the last year is evidence of that. Swoboda, managing director of the Americas for 21st Club, a sports intelligence firm that advises teams in Europe and North America and has experience helping individuals buy clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. But MLS has the potential to explode talking about double-digit growth rate., And there is a massive event on the horizon that could serve as a once-in-a-generation vehicle to supercharge that growth: The 2026 World Cup that will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The club president who spoke laid it out like this: Once the world emerges from the pandemic, MLS valuations should continue to grow rapidly until the 2026 World Cup. Today, all four call America's Major League Soccer home . [Online]. Even the worst stragglers in the league rarely have an operating loss of more than $10 million in a normal, non-pandemic season, according to Forbes. The average MLS franchise is worth $550 million led by Los Angeles FC at $860 million, while the Colorado Rapids rank last at $370 million. Most valuable Major League Soccer (MLS) teams in 2023 (in million U.S. dollars) [Graph]. MLS currently nets $90 million per year from its current media rights agreement with American broadcasters ESPN, FOX Sports and Univision. Three others play in or will play in multi-sport facilities that were designed or are being retrofitted with the idea of hosting soccer in mind. Garber spoke to that dynamic in a recent panel discussion held by the Financial Times, calling MLS the league for the new North America and pointing to the exploding Hispanic community in the U.S. and broad interest in soccer from young people as offering a long-term opportunity for MLS. Those ratings mostly held steady when fans were mostly unable to attend matches in 2020, though other North American mens leagues saw significant ratings decreases last year. Barely a year later, Mansueto took full control, buying Hauptmans remaining 51 percent stake at a valuation of $400 million, a dramatic increase from the $240 million valuation at which he bought in just 14 months earlier. Theres little doubt that the tournament itself will generate huge interest, crowds and television audiences in the U.S. and Canada, but there are no guarantees that any of that will actually carry over to MLS. While the owner and a club president who agreed to speak anonymously for this piece anticipate that the above line of thinking will play a role in some current owners looking to sell their clubs prior to the World Cup, those who spoke for this piece think talk of a wider bubble is alarmist. there is ample incentive for MLS not to sell any club for less than the most recent expansion fee. The . Mississippi State cornerback Emmanuel Forbes, their first-round pick, can be a starter in . That convergence serves as the backbone for a general belief among. With the World Cup in the rearview, the league will have less of a leg to stand on in terms of selling its overall potential for growth, but that narrative wont go away entirely. MLS Team Valuations 2021: Franchise Worth For Every Soccer Club Expecting the World Cup to transform the league to that degree is a massive assumption. Fans that are drawn to soccer by it will presumably want to continue watching a premium product. SUM was valued at $2 billion when the league bought out Providence Equity Partners stake in 2017. Total Market Value. The complete list includes clubs from the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia . Profit from the additional features of your individual account. Garber spoke to that d. ynamic in a recent panel discussion held by the Financial Times, calling MLS the league for the new North America and pointing to the exploding Hispanic communit. That convergence serves as the backbone for a general belief among Carey, Zimbalist and others spoken to for this story that theres a larger market available for MLS to capture than there is for leagues like the NHL and MLB. Forbes estimated that the compan, distributed $125 million to league owners in 2018, or roughl, y $5 million per club. The league has a younger, more diverse fanbase with a particularl, large share of Latino fans than the other four North American mens professional leagues. the last time we assessed North American soccer teams. Its less of a financial hurdle to control an MLS team than [in] some other sports, so you do see more people who can do it, says Rosenthal, who is worth an estimated $1.3 billion. Its one of the last things that keeps the cord-cutters tethered to their cable subscriptions, its ESPN and live sports. Shortly before he took full ownership, Mansueto and Hauptmancompleted a deal to buy the Fire out of its stadium lease in Bridgeview. The revenue from real estate and SUM help work together increase individual team value. Those two clubs paid $70 million and $100 million, respectively, for their expansion slots. For teams at the bottom of the spectrum, that SUM money can account for around 25 percent of annual operating revenue. Sounders valued at $660M, 9% less than 2022 - Sounder At Heart The updates helped push annual local revenue north of $50 million. Currently, you are using a shared account. Thats $325 million just to join the league not a cent of that total will go toward signing players, building facilities or hiring employees. MLS might not shoot the moon in its next broadcast agreement, but, considering sports media rights are ballooning all over the world, the league is betting that it will eventuall, I think live sports content is going to be a great investment going forward, said Mansueto. Its a very simple thing where Don (Garber) says, Look, the league itself was founded out of the remnants of 1994, said the owner. That would obviously be less than ideal, but it wouldnt necessarily be a backbreaker for the league. Similar to the, NWSLs attempts to build itself on the success of the U.S. womens national team. But now what you're seeing is the hit ratio on that is maybe not as good as people always think it would be.. Forbes' list of the most valuable sports teams, List of professional sports leagues by revenue, "Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Teams 2019: Atlanta Stays On Top As Expansion Fees, Sale Prices Surge", "Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Clubs 2023: LAFC Is The First Billion-Dollar Franchise", "Save The Crew: How A Seemingly Impossible Mission Now Seems Very Possible For The Columbus Crew", "LAFC value hits 1 billion dollars, but who's buying? He said it was important that the club waited for the right location to build Audi Field, which opened in 2018, and said it was paramount that United control the real estate around the stadium to make it a destination, somewhere youd want to spend the day.. The average MLS team is worth $582 million, according to data compiled by Sportico. Current and potential MLS owners tend to view these sorts of things on a long-term scale. Lyles edged Michael Johnson's American record set in 1996 by one one-hundredth . League investors in Cincinnati and Nashville agreed to pay $150 million to join up while planned teams in St. Louis and Sacramento will come on at an expansion fee of $200 million. Who Should Be Manchester Uniteds First-Choice Goalkeeper Next Season? But MLS investors are still spending big to secure a share of the U.S. soccer market because their eyes are set on potential goldmines down the road: a new national TV deal in 2023, a stateside World Cup in 2026 and, if everything goes just right, a future American sports landscape wherein domestic soccer can hold its own against the likes of the NFL and the NBA. Another avenue is its growing relationship with Mexicos Liga MX. Like a high-profile startup that hasnt yet begun to bring in much revenue, MLS teams arent growing in value based on their past performance, but on their market position and potential.